I know what you think when someone talks about how they journal. The first thing that comes to mind is the cliche “Dear Diary…” or the stereotypical movie scene of a girl writing out her feelings about a boy. If this is what you think of when it comes to journaling, you’ve got it all wrong.
Journaling can change your life in many ways and make you slow down your crazy life for just 15 to 20 minutes to think about yourself – which most of us don’t take the time to do.
Health Benefits
Journaling has a lot of different health benefits that you don’t even know about. One of those health benefits is reducing stress. Writing about stressful experiences from your day-to-day life can feel liberating. Putting the pen to paper to write out all of your emotions from your day can help you gain perspective on a situation. It also gives you the feeling of letting those emotions go from your head and closing them up in your journal. Your journal can hold your secrets and relieve you of your day-to-day stress.
A Documentation of Personal Growth
If you keep a yearly journal like I do, it’s extremely gratifying to look back on the progress that you have made in the past year. Whether it be achieving personal goals, how you got through a difficult time or just how you grew as a person in general. Sometimes it’s hard to see all of the things that you overcome and all of the triumphs that you made throughout the year. But at the end of the year when you look back in your journal, it’s a clear documentation of your personal growth.
A Book of Memories
It’s easy to forget what you did a year ago on this day. Maybe it’s not hard to remember big events, but sometimes the little moments that add up to big moments are the most important to remember. These small moments can be easy to forget and journaling can help you remember them. Whether it be who you saw that day or what you picked out to wear. Every small moment can lead to a bigger one. A journal will help you to not lose sight of these small moments that you encounter and document.
Time to Focus on Yourself
Above all else, journaling takes time out of your day for you to focus on YOU! It’s important to take this time to focus on your feelings, reflect on your day and to think about yourself. It’s not selfish, it’s healthy! Taking these moments alone to yourself can help you see things for how they truly are and also can help you think about how you are truly feeling. The solitude of the time that comes from journaling and expressing your feelings can be highly beneficial to your personal growth.
So before you say, “I’m too busy,” or, “I’m not going to keep a diary,” think of these reasons about how journaling can improve your life and why you should start. Take the time to do something for yourself, your feelings and for personal growth- you won’t regret it.