10 Reasons Why Journaling Heals

Rebecca Lewis November 05, 2013

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Do you keep a daily journal? Journaling is a way of giving your emotions an outlet like no other. Vast studies have shown that it has plenty of benefits to our mental and physical health. Here are the reasons why you should consider journaling as a daily habit.

It slows down your thoughts. Is your mind full of thoughts and emotions you cannot comprehend? When you journal, you are giving your mind an opportunity to slow down and process the circumstances you are facing in life. If none of your friends is available to listen to you, your pen and paper can bring you comfort. Journaling is one effective way to clarify your emotions, and identify what’s logical from not.

It helps you know yourself better. When journaling becomes a hobby, it allows you to identify emotion and thought patterns that hinder you from being happy and living your life to the fullest. It also helps you recognise your strengths and weaknesses, the quality of friendships you have, your interests (things you are passionate about), and all other things you needed to know about yourself. Also, when you write about things that bother you, you allow yourself to think deeper and come up with a good solution.

It reduces your stress levels. When you write about sadness, anger, fear and other negative emotions, you are slowly reducing the intensity of these feelings. As a result, you feel calmer and more at ease.

It helps resolve your disagreements with others. Writing about misunderstandings gives you an opportunity to understand other people’s point of view, which may have influenced how they deal with you. What’s more, it allows you to come up with a more sensible resolution to the conflict.

It makes you more grateful. Having a sense of gratitude is important for a happy, satisfying and meaningful life. Psychological researchers from the University of California at Davis, found that participants who wrote a daily journal about five things they were grateful for felt better about their lives overall, were more optimistic about the future, and reported fewer health problems than those who wrote about the daily hassles they experience and those who didn’t write a journal at all.

It helps you identify patterns over time. You may have been going through the same issue over again for the past years but you are not aware of it. If you have a journal, you can do a ‘time travel’ and uncover patterns in your personal and social life that may be contributing to the issues you are experiencing at the present.

It allows you to express your true self. When you write a journal, you won’t be worried that someone out there will judge you. No one else can read your innermost thoughts so you are free to express them. Just make sure you keep it in a secure place.

It has therapeutic benefits. In the study published in the Clinical Journal of Sport Psychology, the psychological stress levels of athletes who were asked to write about their negative experiences related to their injuries and treatments were significantly lower than that of the control group.

It encourages you to live healthy. Research by Karen Baikie of the Black Dog Institute and School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, suggests that journaling provides long-term decreases in health problems. Through journaling, you can identify habits and behaviours that could be damaging your health or worsening your condition. When you know what these are, you can do something to reduce them if not eliminate them. It also helps you identify your stress triggers and formulate strategies to overcome them.

It is a great place to plan. Your journal gives you a great opportunity to think deeper about your goals and identify specific ways to achieve them. Perhaps on your Sunday entry, you can write about your plans for the coming week. You can also list down ideas and insights you have learned after having a conversation with a friend, reading a blog, watching TV, etc.

Hope all these reasons encourage you to start your personal journal today. If you have been journaling for some time now, you probably have experienced some of these benefits. If you’re new to writing as a form of self-healing, now is the perfect time to start.