Journaling has been around for centuries and there are countless reasons as to why so many people continue to journal today. These benefits of journaling will make you want to buy a journal and start today.
Journaling is an amazing way to improve your life. From being able to organize your mind, document memories, relieve stress and much more, journaling has endless benefits. I have been writing in a journal for 8 years and I can’t imagine what my life would be like without it.
This post is all about the 11 reasons why you need to start journaling today.
11 Reasons to Start Journaling
1. Mental health benefits
Journaling is an amazing way to improve your mental health. There have been several studies that show how much of a positive impact journaling can have on your life.
According to a 2018 study on journaling, participants were asked to write about “stressful or emotional events” for around 15 minutes a few times a week. The results of this study were incredible; “Participants who wrote about their deepest thoughts and feelings reported significant benefits in both objectively assessed and self-reported physical health 4 months later, with less frequent visits to the health centre and a trend towards fewer days out of role owing to illness”.
All of the reasons listed below are additional benefits that also improve mental health.
2. Memories/personal archive of your life
A lot of people take pictures and look back at them to remember certain memories. However, the majority of people don’t take pictures of their day-to-day life. This is where journaling comes in. In a couple years from now if you are wondering what you were up to in 2022, you would be able to pull out your journal and flip through to see your thoughts, emotions and everything you had going on in your life. That’s something pictures can’t give you. Pictures will show you what you were doing, but journaling allows you to remember how you were feeling.
This is one of my favorite aspects of journaling. You can keep your journals forever and they can serve as a personal archive of your life. You can flip back to any page in your journal and see what you were doing 15 years ago! You’d be surprised at all of the memories you would’ve forgotten if it wasn’t for journaling.
3. Organize your life and mind
If you are the type of person to start a ton of projects at once, or put a lot of tasks on your to-do list, then journaling is exactly what you need.
This is one of the benefits that surprise a lot of people when they start journaling. Oftentimes people don’t know what to write when they start journaling and just start writing random things. Soon enough, they discover how relaxing journaling feels because they’re essentially writing down everything that’s on their mind.
This is one of the main reasons why I journal. With modeling jobs, photoshoots, casting videos, studying for the LSAT and more, I often find myself thinking about too many things at once and I become overwhelmed. By having everything written down, I’m able to keep track of what I should be doing in that moment.
By seeing what you have to do vs. trying to remember it all will leave you feeling much more organized. When everything is laid out on paper you can then clearly see your priorities and organize them by what’s most important and what should get done first.
Usually, I start by jotting down everything I have to do and then prioritize those tasks by what is coming up first and what will take the longest to do. By organizing it this way I’m able to have great time management and always get things done ahead of schedule.
Keeping an agenda is also a form of journaling that helps keep you organized!
4. Reduce stress and anxiety
When you have a lot of things happening in your life, it can cause a lot of stress and anxiety.
According to Rochester Medical Center, by writing out any problems you have in your life, it can make it easier to identify what’s causing these problems/anxieties and you can create a plan of action to resolve these problems which will in turn reduce your stress.
Additionally, “Writing about anger, sadness and other painful emotions helps to release the intensity of these feelings. By doing so you will feel calmer and better able to stay in the present” (Purcell, 2006)
By writing down and addressing the reasons why you are feeling restless can considerably reduce the stress you are feeling.
5. Keeps you driven towards your goals
This one is HUGE. Everyone has goals they want to work towards. But not everyone is able to complete them because they end up losing motivation and more importantly, drive. Writing in a journal will help you stay driven towards your goals. By routinely journaling your thoughts, goals, progress, etc. you will feel more inclined to continue working towards finishing these tasks.
Whenever I’m starting a new project, I immediately write it down in one of my journals and then make a small plan on how I will begin working on this goal. It’s important to start small so that you don’t overwhelm yourself and ultimately give up.
6. Keep track of your progress
This goes hand in hand with writing your goals down. When you write in a journal you are able to go back in time and see the progress you’ve made. Additionally, keeping track of your progress/failures allows you to see what has worked for you in the past vs. what didn’t work.
Keeping track/progress of your goals will also further motivate you to not give up, because you’ve already put time and effort into it!
7. Helps creativity
By writing down what’s on your mind, it allows room for more ideas to start flowing in. This might be why some of the most famous artists kept a journal on them at all times. For example, Frida Kahlo, Leonardo da Vinci, Keith Haring and many more.
This was honestly a surprising benefit I found out when I started journaling. I used to think that I wasn’t creative at all. Turns out, all I needed to do was start writing out my thoughts and ideas just kept coming to me! I didn’t even have to try.
8. Improves mindfulness
This one is great for self-improvement. Writing out your thoughts allows you to really think through them and also see things from a slightly different perspective. This aspect might be my favorite thing about journaling. This has made me a significantly better person in several aspects of my life. Usually, I write down any dilemmas I have and this lets me see any internal biases I have on a subject. It also helps me see things from different perspectives more easily.
I have also discovered that journaling has made me significantly more opened minded. I constantly write down internal conflicts I have and by analyzing why I think a certain way, I can easily see any negative opinions I have on a topic that I may not want to admit.
9. Get to know yourself
You will quickly get to know yourself better once you start journaling. By deciding what you want to write about, you will ultimately discover the thoughts and feelings that are always on your mind. You can go a step further and try to discover why these things are on your mind. In turn, you can reflect on the type of person you are.
I remember in high school I completed about 4 journals and when I was in college I went back and read some of the pages and I realized how negative I was. Almost everything I wrote down in high school was complaining about someone or something. That’s when I made the conscious decision to change my mindset and try to see the good in everything and try to understand people better. Ever since then, my outlook on life has been much brighter and I am way more optimistic.
10. Improve communication skills
By writing out your thoughts, problems, feelings, ideas, etc. you are able to thoroughly think through them and understand them better. By understanding what you want to say, you will be able to communicate these thoughts with other people. Effective communication is one of the most important aspects to human interaction. A lack of good communication is often the cause of many stressors and arguments in life.
Since I began journaling, I have noticed significantly less mis-communication between myself and others. This has led to less arguments.
11. No more brooding
Maud Purcell states that through journaling you can, “Resolve disagreements with others”. Additionally, “Writing about misunderstandings rather than stewing over them will help you to understand another’s point of view. And you just may come up with a sensible resolution to the conflict.”
If you’re like me, you will sometimes find yourself obsessively thinking about something that happened. By writing it down and expressing why you feel these emotions, it lets you let go of those feelings and look at them from an objective standpoint. This is another element that will significantly improve your life!
If you find yourself in a constant cycle of thinking about something over and over again and getting your emotions wound up without having an outlet, it can leave you feeling drained and frustrated. Journaling can put an end to this cycle by allowing yourself to see the situation as a third party.
I have found that by practicing journaling throughout the week, you will be able to apply these lessons in your everyday life without having to write it down. I am able to see things outside of my perspective more easily and talk myself out of a bad mood.
How to start journaling
Now that you know some of the benefits of journaling, let’s discuss how to start.
A lot of people overthink journaling, especially when they are just starting out. I promise, it is very easy. You can journal about whatever you want. There are no rules to journaling. You don’t need to have an intro, body and conclusion (you can if you want) and you don’t need to make a rough draft of what you write.
The point of journaling is to write about whatever you feel like writing about. You can write to yourself, your future self, someone you like, the possibilities are endless.
If you really can’t think of anything to write about, I would start by writing what I did today or what I plan on doing. From there, you can branch off into other topics.
Also, this is a personal preference, but one I strongly recommend doing. Date and time all of your journal entries!
This post was about 11 reasons why you should start journaling today!