Keeping a journal is a useful tool for keeping yourself mentally healthy. It’s an excellent way to keep a record of your progress as you heal, and it’s a healthy way of getting your feelings out of your system. As Bustle reports, “Journaling was long thought of a practice reserved for writers and middle schoolers who have a top-secret diary), but that’s no longer the case: People of all ages have found journaling for mental health to be an efficient, therapeutic, and relaxing activity.”
*There are indeed many significant benefits to keeping a journal. There are some journals that can help you maintain your mental health like bullet journals, where you set goals and stay organized, gratitude journals, and digital journals and journal apps where you don’t have to write down your records physically. Journaling can also make you more creative, help you set up and achieve your goals, and it can improve your leadership skills as well.
*Our brains can only take in so much information at a time, and putting your thoughts and feelings into a journal is an excellent way to download it out of your system. It can also improve your memories. As Bustle explains, “One study found writing about stressful or negative situations reduced intrusive thoughts – which, in turn, improved the memories of study participants. In short, the more cognitive energy your brain expands on stress, the less cognitive energy it has to form memories. Journaling can help your brain de-stress.”
*Bustle also cites current research that writing can indeed help ease anxiety. As one doctor explains, “Expressive writing makes the mind work less hard on upcoming stressful tasks, which is what worriers often get ‘burned out’ over, their worried minds working harder and hotter. This technique takes the edge off their brains so they can perform the task with a cooler head.”
* Also, a report in Time states that when people get traumatic events out of their systems through journaling, it helps them sleep better, and it even can make physical wounds heal. A study by the Journal of Affective Disorders also states that when people write out their feelings, it can lower the symptoms of MDD or major depressive disorder, and in one study, “people with MDD who were instructed to write had a huge decline in depression scores.”
*And one doesn’t have to dedicate hours and hours of your day to writing in a journal to improve their lives. Ten minutes a day should be fine. As Bustle concludes, “Finding a journaling practice or style that works for you may take some time, but once you find you’re nice, the benefits of this simple practice are invaluable.”
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