Did you know journaling for 15-20 minutes daily can improve your health? 😮
For centuries people have kept journals.
The modern journal originates in fifteenth-century Italy, where people used diaries for accounting.
Slowly, the focus of journaling shifted to more private usage, be it autobiographical, creative, or in recent times, digital.
I’ve used journaling to document and explore parts of my life. Whether it was my angst-filled high school years (cringeworthy!), past relationships (also cringe-worthy), or depression, my life has been captured within numerous notebooks.
And during my various trips overseas, I wrote a travel journal for every journey. I love re-reading these as it was when I wrote best, detailing everything I saw, tasted and explored. Reading the journals is like I am there again, reliving every moment.
The Health Benefits of Journaling
Some of the more well-known benefits of journaling are;
- to improve your writing,
- as a mechanism to explore thoughts, concepts and ideas,
- a record of your memories and life, and
- to help tap into creativity.
However, there are many other not-so-obvious benefits of journaling on your health.
In a 2018 study on the emotional and physical health benefits of expressive writing, participants were asked to write about traumatic, stressful or emotional events for 15–20 minutes on 3–5 occasions. Those who did so generally had significantly better physical and psychological outcomes compared with those who wrote about neutral topics.
Furthermore,
- Journaling can be a powerful way to help you process stress, trauma, and different emotions.
- Writing in a journal can help you prioritise problems, fears, and concerns.
- Journal writing can decrease stress, blood pressure and symptoms of anxiety and depression.
It’s like a secret superpower hidden in our pens! 🦸♀️
Journal Writing for Mental Clarity
Exploring what is happening in your life, what’s stressing you out, or anything else through journal writing can help bring about a sense of clarity or even a different perspective.
In a 2005 study on the emotional and physical health benefits of expressive writing, researchers found that just 15 to 20 minutes of writing three to five times throughout the four-month study was enough to make a difference, with students who wrote about personal issues experiencing fewer illnesses and visits to the student health centre.
Journaling has helped me to self-reflect and make crucial decisions in my life, such as quitting my job, changing careers, leaving a bad relationship, buying a house, and more. Writing has also helped me to process various traumas, as well as my anxiety and depression.
And on many occasions, writing in my journal has helped me get something that is stressing me out, out of my head. Instead of constantly overthinking, by pouring my thoughts onto paper, I can somehow process things, develop a new perspective and see things more clearly.
Tips on How to Start Journaling
Keeping a Diary all my life helped me to discover some basic elements essential to the vitality of writing.
Anaïs Nin
You don’t have to be a perfect writer to reap these benefits. Forget about spelling and grammar; just let your thoughts flow like a river. 🌊
But, how do you start a journal writing habit? 🤔
- Invest in a nice journal. There are so many different types of journals. Choose a style that sings to you. Aside from traditional journals, there are reading journals, dream journals, gratitude journals, photo journals, art journals, and bullet journals. I’m in love with these journals by Soothi. Leather-bound, handmade. Just beautiful.
- Remove distractions (yes, even your phone!).
- Ditch perfection. Write what you want without worrying about spelling or grammar.
- Embrace the connection between hand, pen and paper. Invest in good pens in different colours that sit well in your hand and write nicely. Nice pens make writing so much more enjoyable.
- Keep your journal within reach, always. Keep your journal by your bedside so you can write in it first thing in the morning or before sleep. If you wake in the middle of the night and need to write something down, such as a dream or idea, it will be easily within reach. You can even take your journal wherever you go. Just be sure to keep it away from prying eyes.
- Don’t overthink, just write. Give streams of consciousness writing a go: no thinking, editing, or punctuation. Just let your thoughts flow, and your hand move over the paper, writing whatever comes to mind.
- Use writing prompts. Writing prompts are topics that help you focus on what to write about. I find them very useful, especially when I’m stuck! Here are 105 Writing Prompts to Guide you in Self-Reflection and Self-Discovery.
It’s that simple! Give it a try, and let the magic of journaling transform your life. 🔮
Ready to unlock the power of your pen? ✍️
Happy writing!
