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- Stress and Anxiety. Writing about your feelings and experiences can be therapeutic, helping to relieve stress and anxiety, according to research on mental distress and journaling.
- Enhanced creativity. Writing in a diary can help stimulate your imagination and creativity. It can also be a good way to capture ideas for future projects.
- Improved Memory. Keeping a diary can help improve your memory, as you can reflect on past experiences and remember details that may have been forgotten.
- Boost Self-Awareness. Writing in a diary allows you to reflect on your thoughts and emotions, helping you to understand yourself better. This increased self-awareness can lead to personal growth and development.
- Overview
- 1. Journaling helps to reduce stress
- 2. Journaling may boost health and well-being
- 3. Journaling encourages space from negative thoughts
- 4. Journaling provides a way to process emotions
- 5. Journaling can help you figure out your next step
- 6. Journaling deepens self-discovery
- 9 super simple tips to start
- The bottom line
You may be surprised to learn that one of your best wellness tools is actually a journal. Journaling offers an array of benefits — from easing stress to sparking self-discovery.
“Journaling is mindfulness in motion,” says Lisann Valentin, a Shamanic life coach. It shines a spotlight on the invaluable things in your life that you might not always recognize.
“Journaling can be a great pressure releasing valve when we feel overwhelmed or simply have a lot going on internally,” says Amy Hoyt, PhD, founder of Mending Trauma.
Some research bears this out. For example, in one study, patients, families, and healthcare practitioners from a children’s hospital reported a reduction in stress levels after completing this journaling exercise:
•write three things you’re grateful for
•write the story of your life in six words
•write three wishes you have
In a follow-up study 12 to 18 months later, 85 percent of the participants reported that the writing exercise was helpful. Fifty-nine percent continued using writing to cope with stress.
A 2018 research review suggests that writing about your deepest thoughts and feelings may contribute to:
•fewer stress-related doctor visits
•lower blood pressure
•improved mood
•greater well-being
In addition, a study of 70 adults with medical conditions and anxiety found that writing about positive experiences, like gratitude, for 12 weeks was linked to:
When negative or worried thoughts arise, it’s easy to get caught up in their catastrophic stories. Jotting down your thoughts, however, “creates space and distance to consider them in a more objective way,” says Sabrina Romanoff, PsyD, a clinical psychologist in New York City.
This distance is formally called cognitive defusion, a helpful concept from acceptance and commitment therapy. “The idea is that you are not your thoughts, emotions, or physical symptoms; instead, you are the context in which they occur,” says Romanoff.
In other words, if your thoughts aren’t serving you, you don’t have to believe them. Instead, you can use journaling to see your thoughts as separate from you.
To further underscore this separation as you’re journaling, try adding this phrase: “I’m having the thought that…”
Plenty of people move about their days either not noticing their emotions or actively pushing them down. The problem? Your emotions have a way of still popping up to the surface and affecting your actions — with or without our awareness.
Journaling gives you the opportunity to process your emotions in a safe, contained space. Naming the specific emotions you’re experiencing and accepting them reduces their strength. That way, difficult emotions become less overwhelming and easier to manage.
Writing down your thoughts and feelings about a situation is the first step in understanding how best to proceed. Once you’ve calmed down a bit, you might find that your emotions are trying to tell you something:
Maybe your anger is a sign that you need to set a stronger boundary with someone. Or your sadness is nudging you to reach out and strengthen your connections.
Think of yourself as a puzzle: You get to discover a different piece or pattern every single day. Journaling provides a much-needed pause to help us reconnect to ourselves and rediscover who we are. When we write, we learn our preferences, pain points, fears, favorites, and dreams.
We are constantly evolving. Journaling helps us to listen, bear witness to these changes, and simply get to know ourselves a whole lot better.
Take a micro-step
At the start, try not to bite off more than you can chew. As Hoyt explains, “micro-steps are less likely to be rejected by the brain, whereas large sweeping changes can feel unsafe, and we may give up.” She suggests setting a timer for just one or two minutes a day for your journaling session.
Pick the simplest tools
Since everyone is different, start with whatever method is easiest to incorporate into your routine, says Romanoff, like: •writing in a blank doc on your laptop •using a note-taking app on your phone •putting pen to paper
Try free writing
Start by taking several deep breaths, noticing your immediate surroundings, and writing whatever comes to mind, says Lori L. Cangilla, PhD, a Pittsburg-based psychologist, avid journal writer, and member of the International Association for Journal Writing. If you’ve drawn a blank, Cangilla notes, “describe that experience until something else comes forward in your journaling.”
Journaling has a range of benefits. Just writing a few minutes a day may help you reduce stress, boost your well-being, and better understand your needs.
Journaling provides a concrete method for learning who we are and identifying what we need.
To create a lasting journaling habit, start with several minutes — or more, depending on your preference. In your journal, you can explore something that’s bothering you, write about the present moment, or play with a prompt.
Ultimately, the wonderful thing is that it’s totally, completely up to you.
- Margarita Tartakovsky, MS
- Achieve goals. When you use your journal to write down your goals, you can keep better track of your intentions. This will help you stay accountable and serve as a reminder of what you need to do to reach your goals.
- Track progress and growth. If you make journaling a regular habit, you can see how much progress or growth you’ve made by revisiting previous entries.
- Gain self-confidence. Seeing your progress can also give you a serious confidence boost. You can feel proud looking back at the challenges you faced and seeing how far you’ve come.
- Improve writing and communication skills. Writing, like anything, improves with practice. When you journal every day, you’re practicing the art of writing.
Oct 25, 2024 · Therapeutic journaling is the consistent practice of writing to process your emotions and feelings about yourself, relationships, and life events. Journaling benefits include decreased stress, anxiety, and depression, reduced PTSD symptoms, and improved ability to self-distance and process emotions.
Mar 31, 2022 · Expressive writing through journaling can be a powerful way to process stress, trauma, and different emotions. Carolin Voelker/EyeEm/Getty Images. Whether you’re living with a...
Oct 7, 2024 · Journaling has proven popular and effective for treating clients experiencing anxiety, possibly because of an improved acceptance of negative emotions and a more helpful emotional response to stress (Baikie & Wilhelm, 2005; Ford et al., 2018).
Starting and writing in a journal or diary offers numerous benefits for personal well-being, mental health, and personal growth. From enhancing self-awareness and reducing stress to fostering creativity and supporting goal achievement, journaling is a powerful practice for anyone interested in self-improvement.
