Healthy Habits: Reasons Why Journaling is Good for You

Let’s discover what journaling really is and how to reap its maximum benefits. You may not have an innate writing streak but might be curious about reaping the benefits of writing in a journal regularly. To be precise, journaling is the act of writing one’s thoughts, feelings and experiences, or ideas in a book or a personal diary. It can be done in a structured or free manner to help you in discovering the depth of your emotions, exploring your own mind, or doing an inward reflection of your own thoughts. It has numerous advantages and I’ve been able to tap into some of them for a while now. However, I am a born writer so it comes to me naturally. If you’re always faced with writer’s block, don’t worry. Journaling has many benefits and is a skill that can be developed over time and through practice.

Image Source: Unsplash.com

Who can benefit from journaling?

Journaling is such a good habit that it’s difficult to find negative things to say about it. Basically, journaling can help you process your thoughts/emotions, become more self-aware, aid with health and wellness and alleviate stressful situations. The art and practice of journaling is  great for students, working professionals, creative entrepreneurs and wellness gurus but is not reserved for these groups of people alone. In fact, anyone can benefit from writing in a journal. It is so easy and simple to do. All you need is a book and pen or pencil and the willingness to express yourself. Here are some of the ways that the mentioned groups can reap the benefits of journaling below.

Students: If you’re a student, you may notice that writing things down can aid understanding of complex subjects, while committing them to memory. When you journal while studying or listening to a lecture, you are able to take the information being presented to you and then translate it into your own words on paper in the language you best understand and which you can read over again later. Overall, this helps to foster academic achievement.

Working professionals: Journalists, copywriters and other types of working professionals may benefit from journaling during their meetings and interviews. When interacting with others, it is not always easy to remember every important detail that is discussed. Therefore, journaling helps the information to stick in the brain for easy recollection and accuracy of thought. It can also help with sifting through various streams of information and then grouping the most important ones together.

Creative entrepreneurs: People who own their own business are often driven and very busy. They can save time and process information or dissect work processes faster by developing a journaling practive. In their work, journaling may be used to do personal reflections, document brainstorm sessions, and collect breakthrough ideas. It also helps them overcome any barriers to creativity. Not only that, but journaling can help ensure you do not miss your appointments.

Types of journaling practices

If you have ever heard of the saying, “there are many ways to skin a cat,” then you might agree that journaling can take various forms. There is no good or bad way to journal – only whatever makes sense for you. Even if all you know how to do is just a brain dump of all the scattered thoughts that are in your mind without any editing, it is a starting point. Some people call this type of writing flow a free form or stream of consciousness. However, there are three main types of ways to journal based on the direct benefits you want to get out of it and we will discuss some of them below.

Journaling for wellness

When you think about how journaling your thoughts and feelings can help you feel lighter and make sense of the emotions, you realize that it can be very therapeutic. Many people are turning to journaling as a form of self-care for health, wellness and emotional well-being. You can journal regularly to explore your thoughts, feelings, ideas and experiences in a way that enables to become self-aware of your own behaviours. Through this innate understanding of self, you might be better able to just sit with those positive feelings towards joy and contentment or work through the negative ones to achieve your most desired state of healing and recovery.

Journaling for productivity

Being productive is more than just being busy. It is about getting things done in a timely and efficient manner. Journaling can help with productivity. You can make bullet points of all the things you aim to achieve in a day and categorize them under headings in the order of priority, with deadlines and small notes for each one in your journal. Some people call this bullet journaling. You can also just stick with a regular to-do list and then check things off as they get done. Whichever one you choose, it is sure to help keep you on track so that you are the most productive.

Journaling for gratitude

We all have something that we could be grateful for, even if it is just being able to wake up today. Journaling for gratitude involves identifying the things you are genuinely thankful for and then writing them down. It is a way of counting your blessings, giving thanks and bringing into remembrance all the things that are going right in one’s life. Do this type of journaling when you are going into a downward spiral of worry or anxiety and it could help you to break the pattern of negative thinking by focusing on the positive aspects of life around you.

Here are the top four benefits of journaling

Helps to clear the mind

Journaling can help you to sort through racing thoughts and scattered ideas in more meaningful ways than just ruminating and constantly pondering on them. Think of your mind as a sort of recycling bin that’s full of paper. If the bin is clustered, and overflowing, its going to create a big mess. So, once in a while, the bin needs to be emptied or recycled in good ways to make room for more. The same applies to our minds and the act of “emptying the bin” is the journaling so we can make more room for clear thinking.

Promotes self-care and awareness

When you become consistent with journaling your feelings and experiences, and you take the time to look through your notes, you might start to notice patterns in your own behaviour or state of being. It helps you look inward into who you are as a person and can result in an “aha moment” where you are able to understand yourself more. All of these are breakthroughs in the experience of self-awareness that can also lead to being able to care for ourselves better.

Helps process our complex feelings

Journaling is a powerful tool to help us process our feelings and emotions, especially the negative ones. By writing them down in a journal, we can discover triggers and timelines of certain sensory stimuli in our bodies. By journaling how we feel, we can attempt to understand what gets us to a certain emotional state and are better able to esclate or de-escalate certain reactions and situations. This is mindfullness. For example, the act of writing what is going on internally within can help with anger-management and this eventually leads to better emotional well-being.

Facilitates achievement of goals

For those who enjoy task-oriented activities, you will agree that staying inspired and motivated towards consistent action can sometimes be overwhelming. Journaling can help with achieving short or long-term goals by breaking big goals down into bite-size bits with to-do lists, tracking methods and built-in progress check-ins that can enable you to overcome blockades. Personally, I approach my achievement using a less is more approach. I use journaling to help me stay on track of things I need to get done and it has helped me to be productive. Everyday, I write down just three things I want to get done that will move the needle on getting me closer to my goals and then, I get to work.

Have you tried journaling before? How has this mindful practice has benefitted you!