The Benefits of Journaling to Better Your Life
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Journaling has been around since the invention of paper and pens. The benefits of journaling are numerous. When most of us think of journaling they think of a diary, however, journaling is more than that. Journaling is more than just keeping documentation of your secret thoughts.
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5 of the benefits of journaling
This is a list of 5 benefits of journaling cited by pyschcentral The important thing to remember about journaling is that this is for you. No one else is going to read it. You do not have to worry about proper spelling and punctuation. The goal is just to get your feelings out onto paper to help you heal and grow.
- Clarify your thoughts and feelings.
Do you ever experience a time when your thoughts and feelings are all jumbled up and you can’t get them straight? Journaling is a great way to help to get them clear. You can brain dump what is going through your mind and it helps you to have a clearer, calmer mind going forward with your day.
- Know yourself better
Writing about yourself and your day gives you a better understanding of what makes you happy. It will also help you see who is toxic in your life. Journaling prompts are also a good way to know yourself better. My friend Michelle has a great list of 50 self-discovery journal prompts to help you get started.
- Reduce Stress
For me, journaling helps with my anxiety and stress. I recognize sometimes my anxiety is over irrational things and writing it out helps. Writing out what is causing you stress and anger helps to calm you down. You may not solve the issues right away but it’s a great way to vent.
- Solve problems more effectively
As I mentioned when you are stressed it’s harder to solve problems so one of the benefits of journaling is to write out what is stressing you out. This helps in making it easier to solve problems. When you have a clear head, you can think more positively, and clearly, this helps to solve any problems you are having.
- Resolve disagreements with others.
We all have disagreements with loved ones from time to time. There is a right way and a wrong way to handle them though. When we are full of emotions and at the moment we all tend to behave inappropriately. When we take the time to calm down and get our thoughts in order, we can solve conflicts in a mature manner. This is another benefit of journaling. You can write down exactly how you feel, and what you would love to say to that person even if it’s inappropriate and immature to say. It will make you feel better since no one else reads your journal.
Another benefit of journaling is to see how you’ve grown personally. You can see how things that used to bother you no longer do. Perhaps you will notice that you handle things differently. We all grow and change constantly, we just don’t always notice the changes.
There are different ways to keep your journal. You can keep your journal digitally on your computer in a password-protected file. Most people use a notebook and pen. I have a love of stationery products so I love the idea of keeping a journal the old school way with paper and pen.
There are tons of great products on the market to personalize your journaling. Here are some of my favorite journaling products:
This journal comes in 3 different colors and the pages are lined. I can not write on unlined pages. My writing is not straight and it goes up and downhill and drives me crazy.
Here is another option for a lined journal. This one has an old fashioned feel to it. I love the classic look and feel to it.
Of course, you need a set of good quality pens for your journaling. I love colorful pens and markers. This set is a fine tip so it makes writing easier.
These are colored ink pens that don’t bleed. I hate pens and markers that bleed into the next page.
