Journaling has been around for decades. Many legendary people from our history, such as Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Leonardo de Vinci, and Frederick Douglas kept a journal to record their experiences, thoughts, and feelings. This has been a beneficial self-care practice for scientific geniuses, brilliant artists, and anyone in between that is much less expensive than talking to a therapist. I am going to share several amazing benefits of journaling with you and hope this helps you to start of continue to journal.

Enhances Mental Health:

The simple art of taking pen or pencil can help you to relax, control anxiety, deal with depression, and best of all enjoy one of life’s greatest pleasures, of writing😊! When we can get our thoughts, positive or negative down on paper, we can often gain some clarity and a deeper understanding of what is creating our internal and emotional conflicts. We can also discover what external difficulties we may be experiencing. All of our problems, fears, concerns, and dilemmas will come to light as we write them down and allow for us to address them and determine a solution.

Promote Self-Confidence:

When we add positive experiences into our journal and reread them later on, it allows us to relive these good experiences, which can make us feel better and happier. Journaling our thoughts and maintaining an organized schedule may be helpful to reduce anxiety. It can be a good feeling when we check boxes off of our to-do list!

Heal past and current emotional pain:

Studies have shown that journaling can help the healing in short and long-term. When we put our thoughts and emotions down on paper, it can help to reduce stress and improve our moods. If we can find the words to describe our experiences, it may help us to organize our thoughts and emptions and gain a clearer understanding, instead of ignoring them and expecting them to improve on their own.

Of course, journaling can help relieve stress, but it can help us to confront other issues we may be dealing with. The other issues journaling may help us dealing are grief over the loss of a loved one, feelings of inadequacy or self-doubt, feelings of fear or anxiety we may feeling during our day, concerns for others and or their intentions, feelings of anger and or stress and SO much more.

Build and strengthen emotional intelligence:

Journaling may help you understand your feelings towards a certain person or situation. This may provide you with a clear understanding about what upsets you and inspires you. Journaling may offer you an understanding of what your triggers are, how to avoid them and or how to cope with them. When we write down our feelings, it is in a judgment free and private zone, which allows for self-discovery. While we get to know ourselves better, we can establish a deeper comprehension of our reactions, strengths, and weaknesses and ways that help us thrive.

Help achieve and remember the importance of our goals:

Studies have shown that when we write our goals down and the reasons, they are important, it increases our chances of success. Setting SMART goals, write down how your goals meet the following criteria:

Specific– be sure your goal is as clear as possible, so that there is no confusion.

Measurable- set milestones.

Achievable- make sure your goal is something that you can achieve.

Relevant- ask yourself how and why the goal will be beneficial to your life.

Time- set a reasonable timeframe.

Improves and increases your memory:

Studies have suggested that it is easier to remember something after you write it down. When I know I must be able to recall something later, I must write it down and sometimes multiple times. Letters, ink colors used helps our brains to remember important information. When we record our thoughts on paper, we can easily refer to it, be reminded of insights we had, and our goals that we may forget days, weeks, or months later.

Increases communication and writing skills:

When we write our ideas down on paper, it forces us to organize our thoughts. This also helps to communicate more effectively on paper and verbally, as there is a strong connection between writing and speaking.

Expands creativity levels:

Journaling allows for something called “Stream-of-Consciousness”. If we practice this type of writing, thoughts, and ideas may come more freely. This may help us become more expressive with language and communication. If you draw blanks on what to journal about, various prompts are available by doing a Google search. I can provide a few possible topics that may be helpful.

What are four things you are grateful for today?

What is your favorite thing about yourself today?

What was one thing you wish you did differently today?

What was something that happened today that made you happy😊?

Of course, I already blog as much as I can, but I am going to start adding journaling into my weekly routine. There are somethings I might experience that I want to keep personal and not have many people if any know about. Journaling is a private and personal way to get feelings out and I think this is something that we all need at times. It would be a bonus to be able to increase my writing and communication skills as well.

Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope the information I have shared was useful and interesting for you. I would love to read your comments and will respond as quickly as possible. I am sure you are looking forward to the weekend, but I do hope you had a good week. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!

Always, Alyssa