Could the simple act of writing down your thoughts and feelings – popularly known as journaling – literally save your life? Well, it saved Kerstin Pilz’s. In a TEDx Talk, the German author and PhD shared how keeping a journal helped her hold her life together after finding out that her husband, whom she had just married, was going to die from a malignant disease.
Journaling is often associated with keeping a diary, commonly seen as a teenage practice. And while you don’t have to document every day of your life as you would in a diary, journaling is quite similar. You just need a notebook of any size where you can freely write down your thoughts and feelings.
Nowadays, paying attention to our emotions, to our mental health, has become more important than ever. In a world dominated by social media, we are constantly looking at the lives of others, at what they are doing and achieving. But how often do we stop to look at our own lives? Journaling can be a great way to slow down, take care of your mental health, and manage your emotions.
There is a common misconception that journaling, as a healing practice, can only be beneficial if you’ve undergone strong emotional trauma. This is absolutely untrue. Anyone can enjoy the benefits of journaling, such as enjoying increased self-awareness and improved communication skills. You definitely don’t have to be feeling depressed, miserable, or having undergone a traumatic life event to benefit from the healing power of writing!
And there are many ways in which you can do it. While some people prefer free writing, jotting down whatever comes to mind, others may feel more comfortable using bullet lists, such as listing things they are grateful for. Still, some people prefer structured prompts—premade questions that encourage reflection and focus on specific topics like personal growth or managing depression. Two journaling prompts that represent these topics respectively are “What are five good habits you want to build?” and “When things are tough, I want to remember…”.
And the simple act of keeping a journal can strongly benefit your mental health. Besides increasing confidence, helping manage anxiety and stress, and fostering mindfulness, there are a whole lot of ways your mind and body can benefit from it. After doing some research, I brought a few of these benefits to this post. Enjoy it!
1. Increased Writing and Communication Skills
One popular myth about journaling is that you have to be a good writer in order to benefit from it. This is a big, big misconception. The whole point of journaling is to put whatever is on your mind onto the paper, meaning that the writing does not have to be perfect. For example, I use slang and abbreviations sometimes when I journal, and it’s okay to make a few grammatical mistakes as you rush to keep up with your thoughts.
In fact, journaling can actually improve your writing and communication skills, as you are constantly looking for the right words to express your feelings and experiencing different terms and phrases.
2. Helping with Organization
Journaling can, indeed, help you become a more organized person. Putting your thoughts on paper can not only help you understand them more clearly but also, through some reflection, help you identify what are your current priorities and goals in life. Besides that, in your journal, you can do the famous to-do lists, writing your weekly and monthly goals, planning your projects, brainstorming ideas, and more. Personally, I used to make lists online, but after trying them in my journal, I realized how much more effective they are on paper!
3. Problem-Solving Made Easier
When you journal, you’re putting a lot of things that are on your mind onto the paper. As you do it, you are essentially organizing your thoughts. This act can make problem solving easier, especially if you write down specific challenges you’re facing. Besides giving you a better perspective on the situation, it can also help you identify key details and potential outcomes. It helps calm down your emotions and enables you to choose solutions that best align with your values.
4. Increased Self-Awareness
Besides helping with problem-solving, journaling can also increase self-awareness. As you write down your thoughts and feelings, you’re recognizing your emotions and processing everything going on in your mind. This practice can give you a better perspective on events and situations of your life, help you identify certain patterns, and improve your understanding of who you are.
5. Managing Certain Conditions
Journaling can be especially helpful for people who suffer from conditions such as anxiety, depression, and ADHD. Writing your thoughts can help you recognize problems, fears, and concerns allowing you to address them later. It can also help you track any symptoms day-to-day so you can recognize potential triggers and ways to control them.
Besides that, people who go to therapy have stated that their journal is a great tool to help them remember certain things they want to talk about with their therapist. So, if you go to therapy, this is another benefit you can take advantage of!
6. Developing Mindfulness
Mindfulness is commonly defined as a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.
The act of writing daily can help you release self-negative narratives and create an open space for positive self-talk. It can also help you slow down, feeling more focused, calm, and connected.
So, as we can see, journaling is a great way to achieve this state of mind since it drives your focus to your thoughts and feelings only, creating a special time for inner-reflection and self-expression.
7. Improved Memory
Looking to sharpen your memory? Journaling can help with that too! According to the Journal of American Psychology, writing down negative, intrusive, and anxious thoughts can lead to an improved memory overall since you’re freeing up your brain, which can lead to better focus and recall.
8. Increased Confidence
Increased self-confidence is another great benefit that comes from the act of journaling! When you journal about your daily life and about your feelings, you’re engaging in both self-discovereness and self-awareness, which can help you understand your values, emotions, and reactions more clearly. This can help you know your inner-self better, and thus, become more secure in your identity.
9. Enhanced Creativity
As a natural creative, who is constantly looking for new ideas to write about and new art projects to create, I can personally, strongly relate to this one benefit. Journaling can be a great tool to increase your creativity. Your journal is meant to be a materialization of a private place of yours, without external rules and pressures. The freedom that results from these circumstances can make your mind more open to generating new ideas and exploring fresh ways to communicate!
10. Processing Grief
As in Kerstin Pilz case, mentioned earlier, journaling can be a powerful way to help you process grief. Whether you use a grief journal or your regular one, writing about how you feel can help you cope with loss. Grief journaling prompts, like “If you could tell your loved one about your day, what would you say?” or “Write a funny memory of the person you lost,” can also guide you through the process.
Today, October 17th, I dealt with a situation like this myself. While I was writing this blog post, I decided to take a quick break and opened my phone. When I did it, the first thing I saw was the terrible news that Liam Payne, a member of the former pop band One Direction, had died. It left me completely heartbroken and I instantly felt sick to my stomach. One Direction has been one of my favorite bands since I was younger and l have a special place in my heart dedicated to it and to all of the boys.
After discovering Liam’s passing, I took some time to process the situation, cry, and understand what happened. After that, I took my journal and wrote an entire page expressing how I felt about this unfortunate, heartbreaking situation. Although I still feel far from well right now, doing this helped me release some of my emotions and start to process this terrible loss.
11. Practicing Gratitude
Lastly, but not least importantly, journaling can be a great way to practice your gratitude. through simple lists, you can express appreciation for things in your life. Personally, I think that expressing gratitude is a great way to be more happy and allow new things to come into our lives. Many people who practice gratitude through journaling write at least five things they’re grateful for each day, either in the morning or before going to bed.
These listed topics are just a part of a very long list of awesome benefits journaling can bring into your life. This simple practice of getting a notebook and a pen and starting to write has proven to be extremely worth it, improving both yourself and your life. And don’t wait for it—do it now, with what you have, and start to feel the clarity coming into your mind to be reflected in your day-to-day living!