Keeping a journal can help you create order from the chaos of this world. Journaling helps you get to know yourself as you jot down your thoughts, worries, frustrations, and feelings. Journaling offers an opportunity to relax, let go of your stress, and connect more deeply with your faith.
Like a glass of water or a walk in the sunshine, journaling is a wellness tool that can benefit your health, and your relationship with yourself and those around you.
5 BENEFITS OF JOURNALING
Journaling reduces stress. A study through the National Institutes of Health showed that expressing feelings through journaling offered long-term benefits to patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers in a children’s hospital setting; participants reported a reduction in stress levels, and 85% of participants reported that the writing exercise was helpful in a follow-up study 12 months later.
Prompts to try:
● write three things that bring you joy
● write the story of your life in six words
● write down three goals for this week/month/year
Journaling can help you let go of negative thoughts. Sometimes we dwell on negative events or situations to an unhealthy degree, and it can be tough to stop these thought patterns. Writing down negative thoughts and feelings allows us to separate these thoughts from ourselves; achieving distance from these thoughts can give us new perspective.
Journaling can help you plan your next move. Research suggests that writing things down improves memory retention and recall. When we write something down, we engage in a process called encoding, which involves transforming information from our short-term memory into a more durable form that can be stored in long-term memory.
Anxiety, sadness, anger—our emotions are trying to tell us something, and putting thoughts and feelings in black and white can help us process them, and then take action.
Prompts to try:
● write a pros and cons list in your journal
● write out a Bible verse that inspires or soothes your soul
● write down a prayer about the situation; God hears our prayers, and He can read them, too!
Journaling is a path to self-discovery. Are you a good listener? No matter how you answered that question, many of us could use a boost in how well we listen to ourselves. Journaling is an opportunity to pause, reconnect with yourself, reflect on who you used to be, and envision who you want to become. Getting to know ourselves better can be a true pleasure.
Journaling may contribute to improved health and well-being. Resilience is the psychological quality that allows some people to be knocked down by the adversities of life and come back at least as strong as before. Expressive writing (a fancy way to describe journaling) has shown positive impacts on anxiety and depression in some studies, with a review of studies in this area showing: fewer stress-related doctor visits, lower blood pressure, improved mood, and greater well-being among participants across multiple studies on journaling. Think of it as an extra dose of Vitamin B(etter health).
Whether you keep a gratitude journal, take Bible study notes, or want to track your progress toward a health or other goal, an attractive journal is a beautiful gift to give yourself, or for someone else.
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