Trying to process your Q3? Journal about it.

NEW YORK – On a clear blue Friday in July, a group of 20 people from different professional backgrounds sat around a table stocked with nuts and fruit in Montauk, New York, to learn how to journal.

With a glass of white wine in hand and against the backdrop of a harbour, instructor Laura Rubin led a discussion about the group’s preconceptions of the practice.

“The last time I journalled was in 1988 on a trip to Tibet,” one man said. “My mum said you will never remember this stuff unless you write it down.”

“I haven’t touched a journal since I was a kid because my mum always read them,” another participant added.

The reasons continued: It was a practice for only teenage girls; it was something helpful only in a crisis; it was too scary to find out what would emerge on the page.

“I’m going to change all of your minds, and of course I have a method of teaching that I have tried and tested, but that is not why,” she said. “It’s because journalling works. It gets you where you need to go.”

Ms Rubin, 50, who lives in Sag Harbor, New York, founded a company named Allswell Creative in 2015 that facilitates workshops around the world to teach people how to journal.

Her main objective is to reach people who would not naturally gravitate towards journalling, especially those working in corporate America or other high-pressure environments.

For most of her life, Ms Rubin worked in corporate America or as an entrepreneur. She ran a marketing communications agency on both coasts that represented mega-fashion companies and large, bureaucratic foundations.

She has also journalled for most of her life. “It helped me pivot from big jobs, not marry that guy, move coasts,” she said. “It has been my North Star since I was eight.”

So she knew the benefits of journalling were too good to reserve for wellness-minded folks. In fact, they might be more important for busy people.

Some studies show journalling or writing therapy can help reduce anxiety, stress and depressive feelings and even help heal injuries faster.

Ms Rubin has put on workshops for companies like Netflix and, soon, Nasdaq. Some workplaces even hire her to help employees manage their mental health.

“Especially in our industry, in entertainment, people work 12-hour work days and have really stressful clients,” said Ms Nikki Seidlin, a human resources director for Endeavor that held voluntary workshops for employees in its Los Angeles and New York City offices.

Other companies have specific goals.

“There is a digital marketing agency I did a workshop for, and they were all so burnt out, because they work on their phones and look at a screen all day long,” Ms Rubin said. “The woman who hired me wanted her employees to have something to help counter the burnout.”

The workshop in Montauk was sponsored by Whalebone, a surfing brand that publishes a magazine and sells merchandise, for the community.

“I really want this to be a moment where we can all slow down together,” said Mr Eddie Berrang, Whalebone’s president and publisher.

During the two-hour event, Ms Rubin guided participants through different journalling exercises.

For four minutes, members of the group wrote about everything they saw, heard or noticed. Other portions of the workshop were spent brainstorming ideas for slowing down or jotting down lists of things participants like.

When time was up, Ms Rubin asked: “Did you feel any shift in terms of your presence?” Many nodded.

She added that they could do it for a few minutes every day at home. “It’s like the micro-dosing method of journalling.” NYTIMES