Just Write it down! 4 Reasons Why You Should Try Journaling
When people think of journaling, their mind usually goes straight to a little pink fur journal with a locket, and each page starts with “Dear Diary.” Journaling can be quite the opposite- it’s time for a mindset shift!
Journaling is simply writing down your thoughts, a technique that can help you to relax, process emotions and gain perspective on everything around you. The method of journaling allows you to slow things down and process what you’re going through at the moment. Journaling even allows for people to find out things about themselves they didn’t even recognize or realize. According to the University of Rochester medical Center, this simple method helps you improve your mental health, gain control of your emotions and understand your thoughts.
Journaling Helps Manage Stress
Writing your thoughts down allows you to feel as though you’re mentally and physically getting your emotions and thoughts out of your head. If you feel overwhelmed or are having trouble processing the thoughts whirring around in your brain, try jotting them down. It’s important to remember that journaling doesn’t have to look perfect or make complete sense. Solely starting off with whatever thoughts in your head is enough to get you going and help you out. Writing can help organize and prioritize your thoughts and emotions. This helps you to see things more clearly, and you might even find it to be a fun creative outlet for you.
Achieve Your Goals
When journaling, you can incorporate exercises such as writing down your future goals, or keeping track of what you’ve accomplished. This is a good strategy to help you stay motivated as well. Writing down your goals, whether they’re long-term or short-term, allows you to understand those goals in their entirety. This method can also help you truly visualize what you want to accomplish, which ultimately leads to success.
Clear Your Mind
There are many journal prompts out there that can encourage your mind to find its state of calmness. If you ever experience intense levels of stress, taking a few minutes to journal out your thoughts can help immensely. It’s very easy to feel loneliness, sadness or fear just by getting in your head too much. Have you ever had a random feeling of panic or worry, but then you say it out loud to a friend and immediately they reassure you that you’re overthinking? You usually realize how in your head you were, and your friend helps you come back down to reality. The same can happen with journaling methods. Once you allow your thoughts to spill onto paper, you may realize you were completely overthinking everything. This technique can help you focus on the present moment and center your mind on what matters the most.
Discover More!
When you set aside time to journal, this can help you unload a lot of emotions, and you may find yourself unleashing feelings that you buried deep down within you and didn’t even know you had. Journaling allows letting go of things you have no control over, and the effects of journaling out your thoughts can make you feel as though you're physically letting go of things you’ve grown out of. You may find that a past scenario that occurred or a way you were once treated had made you angrier than you realized. A positive factor in this is that journaling out these actions, thoughts and emotions can help you to process it, forgive and let go.
Next time you're feeling down or stressed out, try writing down your thoughts. You may find yourself feeling a lot better afterward, and in a calmer state of mind.
By Virginia Shea