Benefits of Journaling and why you should start it now!

What is effective journaling for mental health?

Effective journaling can look different for everyone. It can also help people reach their goals. Journaling can help clear your mind and calm it as well as connect you to your thoughts and feelings. This is why journaling is highly effective when it comes to mental health and reducing stress, anxiety, and depression.

Here are Ten Different ways Journaling Can Improve Your Mental Health

Mood-boosting 

Journaling can be as simple as writing down your future goals and as complex as writing down your feelings through the week. It is an outlet for expression which can enhance your sense of well-being. Writing down goals allows us to look forward with optimism, and in the future when they are achieved it brings us a sense of accomplishment. With writing down your feelings, sometimes we just want to get it out and journaling can help with that. And don’t worry, no one is going to judge your grammar. 

Enhance Your Self-Awareness 

Get to know yourself a little more by journaling. Being self-aware and in tune with ourselves can make sure we make the decisions we want to make. Acknowledge your feelings and understand your triggers. Allow yourself to feel and understand why you’re feeling that way. It could be leading you to an unknown trigger.

Track Your Progress

It can be hard to see progress when you have nothing to compare it to. Sometimes it’s hard to remember what was compared to now. Just think of when you’re looking in the mirror and you don’t always realize how much your hair has grown until you look back at pictures. It’s the same concept. As someone who loves journaling I have had personal experiences with looking back at previous journal entries and thinking, “Wow, I was a mess but look at me now.” Tracking your progress is a key step to improving your mental health and can give you a great sense of joy when you realize how far you’ve come. And it does not have to be a lot of progress because baby steps are just as important as huge jumps when it comes to mental health.

Reduces Stress

It has been proven time and time again that stress is damaging to our overall health physically and mental. Journaling is a great habit to practice for stress. A study from 2005 shows that expressive writing for 15 to 20 minutes a day three to five times over the course of a four-month period was enough to lower blood pressure according to the scholarly journal titled “Emotional and physical health benefits of expressive writing” by Karen A. Baikie and Kay Wilhelm. By reducing stress, journaling can also improve your immune functions and enhance the speed of recovery from diseases and viruses.

Keeps Memories Sharp

When you write things by hand, it makes it easier for your brain to remember. Journaling can improve cognitive function by keeping your mind active. Also, It boosts your memory and comprehension on top of increasing work memory capacity.