Benefits of Journaling For Your Mental Health

This Spring season brings fun outdoor activities, family vacations, longer days, and warmer weather. Though getting outdoors is great for your mental health, it is especially important to consider the benefits of journaling. Read on to learn about the benefits of journaling for your mental health this Spring season. Often during tough times, I always turn to journaling. Journaling has always been an exciting, expressive opportunity for me to share my inner, deepest thoughts and my prayers. During the pandemic season, I decided I would keep a record of my quarantine life through the month of April, to remember this crazy historical moment and process my feelings. Now it is April 2023, post-pandemic feels, and my daily journal continues. I would leave out my door, find a comfortable space out front in my yard, a dozen times since I started journaling, and just write whatever comes to mind. So, its contents are not that exciting, I share tidbits of everyday life, news about social distancing rules, reopening stages, moments of worry, loneliness, and gratitude. Journaling has helped me through the hills of life and valleys, and I have grown to know that when you journal and not focus on trying to keep everything perfect you can have such a warm feeling of relief that comes over you, and contentment it can feel very, relaxing, calming, and therapeutic.

What are the health benefits of  journaling? You may be wondering "What are the health benefits of journaling?".  Whether you are suffering from stress, anxiety, depression, or anything else, journaling has been designed to help relieve those symptoms. Studies have shown that journaling may help ease our distress when we are struggling. In a 2006 study, 100 young adults were asked to spend 15 minutes journaling or drawing about a stressful event, or writing about their plans for the day, twice for one week. The people who journaled saw the biggest reduction in symptoms like depression, anxiety, and hostility, particularly if they were very distressed to begin with. This was true even though 80% had seldom journaled about their feelings and only 61 percent were comfortable doing so. Journaling can bring this relaxation to your mind and body. You just need to take the time to find a comfortable place to do it. 

TOP 5 BENEFITS OF DAILY JOURNALING

Stress Relief: Journaling can help you release pent-up emotions and frustrations that can lead to stress. The act of writing out your thoughts helps to release those emotions in a healthy way, so you are not bottling them up or doing something detrimental to your mental health. 

Improved Focus: Journaling helps you become more focused over time. It is a powerful tool for focusing your thoughts.

Increased Productivity: Time spent journaling can help increase your productivity because writing helps to organize thoughts and ideas; it allows us to see past mistakes, failures, or successes; and it increases our self-awareness.

Improved Memory: Journaling can help memory as it helps to create a “memory palace” that is an internal map of how we store memories. This concept was popularized in the book The Art of Memory by Frances Yates. In her book, she discusses how ancient speakers would use the “memory palace” technique to memorize long speeches and texts. This technique relies on the remembering of physical locations to aid the recall. 

Better Self-Esteem: In writing, we are free to express ourselves openly. This will help us be more comfortable and increase our self-esteem, which will reduce symptoms associated with depression and anxiety.

Overall, Journaling has a range of health benefits and 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 is bothering you, write about the present moment, or play with a prompt. The wonderful thing is that it is totally, completely up to you. References: TOP 5 BENEFITS OF DAILY JOURNALING