Keeping a journal can boost your health
One of the ways to deal with any overwhelming emotion is to find a healthy outlet in which to express yourself. Keeping a journal can be a helpful tool for managing your mental health while also reducing anxiety, stress and cope with depression. It can assist in controlling symptoms and improve your mood by helping you to prioritise problems, fears, and concerns.
Through personal writing you can track any symptoms day-to-day so that you can recognise triggers and learn ways to better control them. It can also provide an opportunity for positive self-talk and identifying negative thoughts and behaviors
When you have a problem and you’re stressed, keeping a journal can help you identify what’s causing that stress or anxiety. Then, once you’ve identified your stressors, you can work on a plan to resolve the problems and, in turn, reduce stress.
Begin journal keeping and begin experiencing these benefits:
Clarify your thoughts and feelings – Do you ever seem all jumbled up inside, unsure of what you want or feel? Taking a few minutes to jot down your thoughts and emotions will quickly get you in touch with your internal world.
Know yourself better – By writing routinely you will get to know what makes you feel happy and confident. You will also become clear about situations and people who are unhealthy for you — important information for your emotional wellbeing.
Related link: Can happiness be learned?
Reduce stress – Writing about anger, sadness and other painful emotions helps to release the intensity of these feelings. By doing so you can feel calmer and better able to stay in the present.
Solve problems more effectively – Typically we problem solve from a left-brained, analytical perspective. But sometimes the answer can only be found by engaging right-brained creativity and intuition. Writing unlocks these other capabilities, and affords the opportunity for unexpected solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems.
Resolve disagreements with others – Writing about misunderstandings rather than stewing over them will help you to understand another person’s point of view. And you just may come up with a sensible resolution to the conflict.
In addition to all of these wonderful benefits, keeping a journal allows you to track patterns, trends, improvement and growth over time. When current circumstances appear insurmountable, you will be able to look back on previous dilemmas that you have since resolved.
How to begin?
Your journaling will be most effective if you do it daily for about 20 minutes. Begin anywhere but try to choose your moments when you’ve got a clear head and are in a relaxed and quiet setting.
Don’t worry too much about spelling and punctuation; just let your thoughts flow. Privacy is key if you are to write without censor. Write quickly, as this frees your brain from any perceived rules and other blocks to successful journaling.
If it helps, pick a theme for the day, week or month (for example, peace of mind, confusion, change or anger). The most important rule of all is that there are no rules.
Through your writing you’ll discover that your journal is an all-accepting, non-judgmental friend. And it may provide the cheapest therapy you will ever get.
Related links:
How to create a personal mantra
Why laughter really is the best medicine