How keeping a spoken journal of thoughts and feelings can do you a power of good

Have you ever found yourself talking out loud or verbalising your thoughts and feelings? If you went a step further and recorded your speech on a device, you would be audio journalling, the practice of keeping an aural record of what’s on your mind. Research has shown that talking to yourself is both normal and beneficial for mental health, while several studies have demonstrated that journalling is a powerful tool for happiness and goal-setting. So that gives audio journalling, which combines the two, the potential to be a double win.

The origins of documenting our innermost thoughts and feelings through an audio journal is sometimes traced back to US-born Iolene Catalano, who in the months and days before her death in 1994 of an AIDS-related illness, reflected on her life through a microphone. The recordings were collated by David Isay and released a year later as an audio journal called All the Way Broken. Through the entries, Iolene describes her childhood experiences in ophanages, mental institutions and reform schools, as well as her time as a poet and singer.