We all have our ways of expressing our emotions. For some of us, like me, it’s more difficult to do this out loud. That’s why I journal.
Since I was young, I’ve always loved writing. I gained a liking for crafting stories at a young age, but as I got older, I wanted to write in ways that weren’t always fictional. I felt the need to express myself, and as a quiet and shy child, it wasn’t always easy to express myself to others.
As young as eight or nine years old, I started to journal. I often wrote about all the events that had happened in my day and then wrote my feelings about it. For a while, I did this every single day. It was quite calming for me, and I enjoyed looking back at what had happened on previous days and how I felt.
As I entered my early teens, I discarded the method of writing everything that had happened in a day and only journaled when the day had been particularly hard or particularly good. I also started journaling on my phone, which turned out great. I could journal and look at my past journals anywhere or anytime I wanted.
MY JOURNALING SLUMP
For a couple years, I fell into a “journaling slump.” Life got busier, and I forgot about my journaling habit. The most “journaling” I did was the occasional rant in my Notes app. At the same time, my emotions became more complex, and I still had trouble expressing them to the people around me. And because of that, my feelings were all-consuming.
Eventually, the surge of journaling content on social media reminded me of my old habit. I remembered how much journaling helped and how much fun I had doing it, so I restarted my habit and bought a new notebook. Then, I carved out an hour each day to write about what was going on in my life and the reactions I had to these events.
When I got back into it, I also tweaked how I journaled in small ways. Before, I always felt the need to use perfect grammar and spelling. I wanted my journaling to be perfect, even though no one else was going to read it. I realized this time around as long as my writing was still an outlet for my emotions, it didn’t have to look a certain way.
I noticed a huge improvement in my mental health. Nowadays, I’m better at expressing my emotions out loud. But I still love journaling. It’s an amazing emotional outlet for me, a method that lets me convey my feelings without judgment, and an extremely relaxing hobby.
What journaling can do for you
If you also have trouble communicating your emotions, or you tend to bottle them up, journaling would be great for you. Even if you’re someone who’s good at making their feelings known, journaling can be beneficial for those moments when you want to shut yourself out from the world.
Journaling can also help you document your life. Writing daily or multiple times a week gives you an extensive record of your life to look back on. If you journal often enough, you’ll actually be able to see what you were doing on that random Tuesday two years ago. It’s a nice tool for seeing how your life has evolved.
If you’re an avid writer like me, you’ll love journaling, too. It’s great to put your day into your own words. Journaling can be beneficial for anyone, especially if you’re consistent with it!