Do you journal?
If you’ve been around the Making Time Blog for any length of time, then you know that I’m a proponent of journaling. I believe that journaling is one way of taking the insights and lessons that you learn just by living life and turning them into a roadmap to help you become the person that you want to be and get to where you want to go in life.
How?
That’s what we’re gonna talk about in this post. As I’ve talked about in previous posts there are many methods to choose from when keeping a journal. You can keep a physical journal or electronic one; you can use your journal to record your daily life events, express your gratitude or analyze your dreams. You can even use a bullet journal to organize your life.
In addition to helping you declutter your mind, keeping a journal can have some other potentially surprising benefits.
1. Journaling Helps Reduce Stress
Here at the Making Time Blog, I feel that it’s important to learn how to manage your stress before your stress manages you. One way to do that is to put your feelings down on paper.
When you journal, all those anxieties and worries stop going around in circles inside your mind. And you’re able to go back review your entries which can help you get a deeper or different perspective on the things that are bothering you; which can lower your stress. It can even help with problem-solving!
2. Journaling Can Improve Your Mental Health
Journaling is often recommended by psychologists, coaches, counselors and therapists because it helps you to work through the issues that come up in your sessions. This complements and supports the healing process. Journaling can be a powerful tool in removing psychological blockages so that you can have a fuller picture of yourself and your situation.
3. Journaling Improves Your Cognitive Skills
Developing a journaling habit helps your brain to function more efficiently. Studies have shown that the act of writing strengthens the learning process and stores facts and concepts more firmly in your memory. Writing helps to develop new neural pathways in your brain, connecting new information with data already stored in your memory.
4. Journaling Helps You Meet Your Goals
A study by Dr. Gail Matthews found that you are 42% more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down! In journaling you have the freedom and space to work through ideas and possibilities, making them concrete by setting out the details.
Writing about your goal setting process helps you to track progress, so you can see how close you're getting to achieving your goal or where you may have gone off track. You can also use a habit tracker within your journal to measure your progress in achieving your goals.
Getting into the habit of keeping a journal gives you a physical and mental discipline and focus that will influence other areas of your life. Writing down your goals and aspirations gives you a strong motivation to achieve them!
5. Journaling inspires creativity
I’ve spoken in the past about creativity being a form of self-care. Well keeping a journal allows you to tap into the creative part of you. You can use a variety of expressive journaling techniques to write down whatever ideas come into your head. Your flashes of brilliance.
One of the great things about journaling is that the more you do it, the easier it becomes to do and the more you’re able to tap into all of the various parts of yourself.
Journaling provides a private, safe place for you to explore ideas that you might not be able to express in your professional or everyday life.
So there you have it, 5 ways in which journaling can benefit you if you give it a try.
Let’s talk, if you’re a journaler, what changes has it brought into your life?
Cassandra Martin-Himmons is a trainer, wellness coach and consultant who believes in empowering her clients and providing the tools that they need to make positive changes in their lives to manage their stress and increase their self-care. In her spare time, she enjoys papercrafting, volunteering and travel. Connect with her on Instagram or Linked/In