Why should I journal? What is the purpose? How can it help me? These are some of the questions I have asked myself and/or heard from others. And I would like to share with you some of the answers.
Journaling opens your mind up to new possibilities. When you’re writing, you stimulate areas of the brain-centered on creativity. What you might not realize is the act of writing things out by hand increases the effect.
5 Key Benefits of Keeping A Daily Journal
Those who do not journal regularly may not understand precisely how this habit could improve your life. But, the benefits of daily journaling have been proven time and again by researchers. And there is a mountain of anecdotal evidence from journalers that will support these claims. It is hard to imagine how writing every day can improve your health and well-being, but it can! Here are five key benefits of daily journaling for your life and growth.
#1. Journaling Reduces Stress
When you have too much stress in your life, your mental, emotional, and physical health will suffer. Stress hormones lead to all sorts of ailments, diseases, and imbalances, and learning to deal with your stress can help lower these hormones and reduce the effects of stress on your life. Journaling allows you to record your thoughts and perspectives on life, which gives you an outlet to share these worries, freeing up mental space for other ideas and questions. Those who journal enjoy lower blood pressure, improved heart health, and other benefits associated with less stress in their lives. Writing allows you to find better solutions to your stressful experiences, too.
#2. Journaling Helps You Achieve Your Goals
If you write in a journal every day, you can use this as a way to monitor your progress toward your goals. Journaling gives you a place to explore your dreams and ambitions, which can help you clarify what you want to achieve, and it is an excellent process for identifying solutions to problems and obstacles that are interfering with your goal attainment. Those who write out their goals every day are much more likely to reach them, as they have their goals at the forefront of their mind and are more likely to take actions to make them happen.
#3. Journaling Improves Your Emotional Health
Journals are an excellent way to explore your emotions, to identify what you are feeling and why, and to work through past emotional trauma or upset. The more you write in your journal, the more likely you are to enjoy strong emotional awareness and health. Journaling can help you identify patterns of behavior in your life related to your emotional well-being, and expressive writing is the perfect way to explore the many emotional blocks that could be affecting your relationships or self-esteem.
#4. Journaling Promotes Emotional Healing
In addition to helping you identify how you are feeling, journaling is an excellent activity for healing past emotional trauma. Expressive writing can be used to uncover emotional blockages, discover the hidden sources of pain or mistrust, and untangle your emotional responses that may seem unrelated but actually lie in deep-seated issues. Those who journal regularly report a better understanding of their emotions and their sources and are better able to identify solutions for working past old hurts or trauma.
#5. Journaling Teaches You Self-Discipline
The act of sitting down every day for a specific time is a habit that teaches you discipline. The more things you do regularly, the more likely you are to develop more habits. Journaling is just like any other habit. The more you do it, the easier it is. And when you start to experience the positive benefits of journaling, you may want to adopt other habits that promote your emotional or physical well-being, as well.
Creativity
Whether you work as an artist, a pastry chef, a systems admin, or a truck driver, chances are you’re going to be called upon to engage in creative thinking at some point in your career. Creativity abounds wherever problems arise, and without it, businesses get mired in the same old processes which caused the problems in the first place.
Unfortunately, most people aren’t in the habit of thinking they’re creative. They believe the use of imagination is best left restricted to the world of writers, musicians, artists, and dancers.
Ask any manager or HR person though, and they’ll tell you they’re looking for creative people all the time – in any position, for just about any job. That’s because creative people are the innovators, the ones who make new processes and get the work done in ways no one else thought of before.
Which brings us to the next question: Can creativity be learned, or it is something you’re born with?
The answer is yes; it can be learned. With the right tools, anyone can become more creative, and journaling is the way to get there.
Journaling has all sorts of other benefits, including helping improve your physical health, enhancing your memory, improving your immune system, and boosting your mood. Not convinced yet? Start a journal today and see for yourself the power of this simple habit.
Fran Watson
P.S. Click here for a free mini-journal