When journaling is mentioned, most people have this vision in their heads of teens writing about how they spent their day hanging out in school and how boring History class was. That’s partly true, and there is nothing wrong if you’ve ever written a journal entry revolving around your high school crush and the ennui of school life with some colorful glitter and mini glue dots decorating the borders of each page. But journaling is so much more than these images that pop culture has instilled in your minds.
Journaling isn’t just made for young people to write down their feelings—it’s for anyone who can write; it’s also for anyone who should write. Basically, journaling is for everybody as it is a way for you to express yourself and put into writing what’s in your mind. It can empower you and let you deal with some repressed memories and complicated emotions, which can be about different things like trauma, humor, isolation, happiness, and so much more.
Journaling for the New Normal
To make journaling beneficial to your mental health, you shouldn’t just be casually doing it; you have to do effective journaling. Many experts also believe that now is the perfect time to write a journal as the Covid-19 pandemic gives you so much time to write and contemplate about the things you would only be passively interested in.
With the considerable political, cultural, and economic shifts taking place almost every week, your journal would be a perfect way to express your feelings in writing and record an important part of history based on your personal experiences. This kind of writing is a form of documentation to make sense of it and keep yourself sane, which is a kind of therapy tantamount to effective journaling.
Writing down your thoughts, especially in a time of too many uncertainties in almost all aspects of life, will help you set your goals and work to meet them. This activity allows you to reexamine the events of the day, even if it was an uneventful one spent social distancing at home.
The Mental Health Benefits of Journaling
When you keep writing in your journal, it will help clear your mind of any stress and anxiety that causes you to overthink. Additionally, it can help you connect some ideas and feelings to specific behavioral patterns you have in the hopes of making adjustments based on your desired outcomes.
Journaling also helps you focus on some events that you may have involuntarily repressed as they trigger fear, trauma, and other negative feelings. Keeping a record of these daily events helps you recognize what triggers them and what you can do when you want to avoid or address them, depending on your mental capacity. It can be a way for you to talk to yourself when there is no one available to have a conversation with you. These benefits of journaling would allow you also to boost your mood and improve your decision-making skills.
When you write entries in your journal, you’re accessing the left side of your brain that allows you to think analytically and critically, which allows the right part to be creative. Overall, journaling can give you a more rounded view of your mental well-being and potentially reduce some symptoms related to depression. Many studies have also shown that your immune system improves when you write down and release any negativity you inhibit, which can be beneficial in your processing, especially if you have any post-traumatic stress disorder.
Tips on How You Can Journal Effectively
Now that you know the health benefits of journaling, it’s time for you to give it a try. Of course, you would need to have a notebook that appeals to your taste so that you would look forward to writing in it as much as you can. You can start by writing random entries about your day or week until you find the direction you want to take when journaling.
You should also set aside a time in a day when you would be in your safe personal space to write down privately in your journal as you would want the entries in it to be only available only for your consumption. Reflect on your thoughts and other emotions, and that should take you where you want your journal’s contents to go.
Write for Yourself
Ultimately, journaling is a cathartic experience that would allow anyone to express whatever they want to. You don’t have to be a skilled and experienced writer to do it. As long as you have emotions you wish to release, you should write them down.
