The Benefits Of Journaling
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Why is journaling beneficial? Many reasons! I sing praises of journaling almost daily, because it really can help you through.. well anything. Here I dive into the MANY benefits of journaling.
I firmly believe that journaling can directly impact your quality of life. Why is that? Because your quality of life is your perspective on the events unfolding around you. If you take time to reflect and shift your perspective, you can find the good in any situation. And when you can’t; journaling allows you a safe space to process grief, trauma, depression, etc. so you can find a way to move forward.
Benefits Of Journaling
Reduce Stress Levels
One of the greatest and most recognized benefits of journaling.. reducing stress. You have probably heard it before, ‘journaling provides stress relief.’ But how is that? To put it simply, stress is often a build up of emotions, fears, and concerns that we are sweeping under the rug and trying to ignore. Journaling allows you a safe space to reflect in your emotions or the events of the day, allowing your mind to process this, and ultimately move on.
A study published in 2011 by Psychological Science journal stated that writing down your thoughts and then physically throwing away the paper can be an effective way of clearing your mind.
Even if you don’t throw away what you have written, taking time to write your thoughts on paper is therapeutic in itself. It can help you find balance in your life; which ultimately reduces stress.
Boost Your Mood
Using journaling to help shift your mood is highly effective. There are many journaling methods designed for this specifically, i.e. gratitude journaling; which allows you to reflect in the feeling of gratitude. This typically falls hand in hand with happiness, joy, and love.
You can use journaling to boost your mood by reflecting on a happy memory, drawing attention to the good in your day, or simply writing about something that brings you joy!
Process Grief
Life comes with ups and downs, it is through this ebb and flow that we find grief, pain and suffering. These emotions are out bodies way of notifying us that something has impacted our mental state. This meaning; there is nothing wrong with feeling blue, in fact there is something that should be celebrated about it! Without the darkest moments in our life, we would never know how to appreciate the light.
When faced with grief it is important to process it. I know, I know, what does that even mean? Processing or overcoming hardships can manifest in many ways. The bottom line is you need to take some time and face the grief. Talk about it, write about it. Find a way to accept what has happened and look to the future.
How do you face your grief? Write about how it consumes you, how it manifests physically and mentally. How it makes you feel, what it is that makes you grieve, anything you can think of. You can even characterize your grief, drawing it as a creature or monster. Give it a name, make it something you can face, and do just that. Look your grief head on and tell it ‘you do not control me.’
Then imagine what your life would look like if your grief was no longer there. What would a day would look like, how would you feel? Write about what you want your future to be outside of grief.
Keep Your Memory Sharp
This is another one you have probably heard ‘I need to write this down so I don’t forget!’ People often say this for two reasons, the first being that they can go back and read what they have written.
Secondly, writing things down is actually proven to increase your recall on the subject matter later.
Using journal as a method of documenting life’s greatest moments is one of the best parts of journaling. Looking back on your writings from years prior seeing the memories, the moments of gratitude, the growth you have experienced; there is nothing quite like it.
Advance Your Writing Skills
“Practice makes perfect,” there is no doubt, writing daily will increase your writing skills. Anything you do on the regular will be improved over time.
I encourage you to use your journal as a way to challenge yourself and keep yourself accountable.
One of my personal goals when I first picked up a journal years ago was to increase my penmanship. Now I look back on old journals and can barely recognize my writing itself. In fact, I often cringe at work I was once proud of!
If you don’t look back on your past self and cringe, then you didn’t grow as a person.
Unknown
Accomplish Goals
Write down your goals. I mean it. Even the smallest of goals, write it down!
Writing down your goals, in my opinion, is one of the most beneficial things that you can do with a pen and paper. It allows your mind an outlet to craft plans around your goals, plus a safe place where you can dream big!
Writing down your goals also gives you a sense of obligation and commitment to seeing it done. I think of this a a pseudo mental contract I am making with my subconscious.
I could go on and on about goal setting, but I’ll keep it simple. Don’t think of writing down your goals as a to do list. Think of it as a list of accomplishments written by your future self. From there create a plan of action by asking your future self ‘how did you accomplish these goals?’ Taking this approach and really visualizing how you accomplished these goals gives both your conscious self and subconscious mind a road map to help you get there.
Don’t forget to use your journal to keep you accountable for goal setting, give yourself a realistic deadline. Then you must visualize yourself having already done it.
Ease Anxieties
When you feel anxious, this is your body on high alert. Looking for possible danger and activating your fight or flight responses.
Whether you are normally an anxious person, or not, journaling can help you ease your anxieties. The same way that we discussed grief a few points ago, anxiety is your bodies way of notifying you something is wrong, or something is making you uneasy. Those who struggle with anxiety disorders have likely been dealing with anxiety for an extended period of time, often getting worse as time goes on. It is thought that this is due to not identifying the root cause of the anxiety. As it is through this you can rewire your beliefs and/or your subconscious to not be triggered by your surroundings.
If your subconscious is wired to think that social situations are uncomfortable, then your body will react with the ‘alarms’ to notify you of discomfort. (i.e. restlessness, panic, nervousness, sweating, hyperventilating, etc).
If you take time to identify what is the cause of your anxiety, and then dissect this and rewire this belief; you can overcome the root of your anxiety.
Journaling is a great space to get to know your anxiety. To understand how it manifests, and how you can control it.
Anxiety manifests different in everyone. How you deal with it is one in the same. In order to manage anxiety, you need to face it head on and tell it ‘you do not control me.’ Because, it is you that is in complete control!
Find journal prompts for anxiety here
Process Emotion
One of the top benefits of journaling is processing and understanding why we feel the things we do. From there we can learn to live with them or move past them.
Taking time to write what you are feeling and dive deeper into why you are feeling it, gives you a sense of control and understanding.
Track Ideas
Journals are well known for always being on the person of a creative individual, most commonly artists, musicians, etc. Although no matter your profession, you’re likely to have ideas come to you on the daily.
Journaling is a great way to document and track ideas. It also gives you the space to evolve an idea into a plan of action that will warrant a result.
These don’t have to be ‘million dollar ideas’ this can be as simple as a recipe, a goal, a home renovation, you name it!
Shift Perspective
Journaling to gain further perspective is my absolute favorite thing to do, especially when it comes to dealing with a difficult person or situation.
That is the strangest thing about the world: how it looks so different from every point of view.
Lauren Oliver
There are many benefits in using a pen and paper to shift perspective, whether that be first person (your own view point), second person (the view point of another), or third person (the view point from someone outside the situation). Taking a moment to view a situation from the eyes of another, leaving behind the emotional connection, grants you a deeper level of understanding.
Taking a shift in perspective also allows you to broaden your view of the world, opening your eyes to greater possibilities.
Promote Creativity
Creativity the use of the imagination. Most commonly recognized in the creation of artistic work. Journaling is art in itself: ‘the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination.’ Using a creative outlet like a pen and paper, you can expand upon ideas, thoughts, and emotions.
Whether you are using a specific journaling method designed to capture creativity, or if you are simply free writing; journaling is a great way to encourage creativity on and off the pages.
Find more journaling methods here
Process A Traumatic Event
It is incredibly likely that at some point in your life you will face a traumatic event. No matter how big or small this trauma is, journaling can help you get through it.
Journals are often encouraged for those who are struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); whether this be a veteran, a first responder, or a victim of assault. Journaling allows an outlet and a safe space to process and move on from trauma that haunts you.
Live Gratefully
Gratitude journals are incredibly popular, you can find them in your local book stores, online, anywhere really. Why are they so well received?
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.”
― Melody Beattie
Well, if you think about it simply, if you focus your attention on what you are grateful for regularly, first off you will become more inclined to do this naturally outside of your journaling practice. Secondly, when living a life full of gratitude.. you really can’t lose.
Living a life of gratitude is a sure fire way to achieve happiness.
“Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
– Melody Beattie
Sleep Better
Who would have assumed that a benefit of journaling would be a better nights sleep? Not me.. at first. It has become an every day activity to journal before bed, as it truly can allow you a better nights rest.
Why is this? There have been studies conducted on this very practice of journaling before bed. In these studies they have found journaling reduced bedtime worry and stress, increased sleep time, and improved sleep quality.
Again, taking time to digest your day and process your worries allows you to move on from them. Doing this before bed allows you to have a clear mind before trying to fall asleep, allowing you to fall into a deeper sleep much quicker.
There is also a study that addressed writing tomorrows to-do list before bed, vs. reflecting on the days accomplishments can help you to fall asleep an average of nine minutes faster.
Whatever you write about, there is proven benefits of journaling for just 5 to 15 minutes before bed. Try it today, what do you got to lose?
Improve PHYSICAL Health
That’s right, journaling has proven in many of cases to actually improve the writers physical health.
There are studies that showcase regular journaling can strengthen immune cells, called T-lymphocytes. Additionally, journaling is shown to actually decrease the symptoms of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis (1)(2)(3).
The simplest way to think about this is: healthy mind = healthy body. There are many studies that link stress to a number of physical conditions. With journaling acting as a stress management tool, you are actually able to improve your physical health through regular journaling. How crazy is that?
Enhance Your Quality Of Life
As noted at the beginning of this post, I wholeheartedly believe that journaling can impact your quality of life.
With a combination of gratitude, reduced stress, a better nights sleep, and a healthier mind and body… You are setting yourself up for success in all ways imaginable.
Find journaling methods that work for you!
There are many, MANY more benefits of journaling! I am only just getting started on how it can impact your every day life.
Stay tuned for more! Subscribe to our newsletter, following us on social media, and check out our Pinterest for journaling prompts for inspiration!
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