The Inkspire Club, who specializes in journaling for better mental health, partnered with the Wellness Center to host a pop-up journaling workshop in the library after school on Nov. 15. Students entered the library, where there was a station to sign up and acquire a free journal for the event. The club created a Mid-Autumn Festival themed pop-up spread that let a moon, bunny, and mooncake rotate around each other when the folded paper opened and closed.
Inkspire held the event to create a safe space for students to journal because there was never enough time during school hours to finish one project, junior and President of Inkspire Mikayla Garg said. This event was a pop-up journaling spread where students cut up pieces of paper and glued it to a page, so when it is opened, a picture pops up at you, Garg said. This event idea had just came to mind, Garg added.
“I feel like journaling has a lot of health benefits,” Garg said. “It really reduces people’s stress, and it takes away the stress from everything else, like school. All you do is homework, homework, homework. And so I feel like journaling is a great way to take a break from all that.”
Garg started journaling two years ago and believes it is beneficial to mental health, especially when she felt like she can’t talk to anyone about what she is going through, Garg said.
“Journaling is a great way to reflect” she added.
Sophomore Sradha Pradeep, who found the Inkspire and Wellness Center collaboration through her email, has always liked journaling, Pradeep said. The Mid-Autumn Festival themed pop-up spread was fun with its moving bits, though she didn’t do very well with the craft, she said. This is also the first time she had done an event with the Wellness Center, Pradeep added.
“It’s inspired me to journal more so that I do more self care, and I know how to write down my thoughts and get more tapped with my emotions,” she said.
The Inkspire Club wanted to make journaling more than just writing, but a way to empower students to journal as an artistic expression and outlet, Wellness Center liaison Storm McNerney said.
“What I think makes journaling stand out is it can really help with processing thoughts,” McNerney said.
Unlike other forms of self-care that encourage individuals to take breaks from thoughts, journaling helps individuals better understand and release the thoughts that cloud their mind, McNeery said.
“I know for me, when my mind is spiraling, and I’m just thinking about, ‘Oh, what about this? What about that?’,sometimes I just pull out my phone and just release all my thoughts that are in my head because it can help clearing my head, because I’m finally releasing it.”
McNerney likes to use the analogy of a car’s maintenance to explain why it is so important to take care of your mental health in the long-term, she said.
“At the end of the day, you don’t have to change your oil, but your car is going to probably break down way sooner on you than if you were keeping up with the maintenance,” McNerney said.
