The Incredible Health Benefits of Journaling

Back in our adolescent and teen years, keeping a journal used to be commonplace. Most of us used to have a well-hidden notebook where we wrote the deepest, darkest secrets our minds contained at that time. Journals are not just for angsty teens and are increasing in popularity amongst adults of all ages. Not only can journals be used to record your thoughtful musings, but you can also use your journal to keep track of your goals and ambitions. Others use journals to log their workouts, calorie consumption, recipes, or track daily accomplishments. Medical experts have determined that journaling provides a myriad of health benefits. Here are some of phenomenal journaling benefits:

Helps You Recognize Patterns

On the off chance that you at any point feel like you are spiraling into a wormhole of anxiety or stress, it might assist you to identify your own patterns. When you write down the happenings of your daily life, you can recognize certain habits that you have, for instance spending endless hours scrolling on social media and quickly ending up in an anxious headspace. Journaling can help you avoid these potentially mentally damaging tendencies and detox from social media. Additionally, if you keep journaling for months or years, you can look back and figure out long-term patterns that you follow. Identifying these patterns will help you break bad habits or spot an aspect of your personality.

Reduces Stress

Stress typically builds up in our minds when we are troubled by many worries and struggle to organize them. When we are stressed, our minds are certainly occupied, however our bodies also take a hit. Neck and shoulder aches are often associated with high-stress levels as is the release of cortisol, a stress hormone that largely has a negative impact on our body. By journaling your thoughts or daily occurrences of your life, you can help relieve the stress from your mind. You will be able to better organize your thoughts which can provide clarity to help you prioritize your concerns. You can then start to deal with your stressors one by one instead of having them all weigh on you.

Promotes Overall Wellness

Our general well-being is dependent on both our physical and mental health. Journaling allows us to keep track of how healthy. For example, you can keep a record of how much water you are drinking or how many calories you are consuming. You can also log your daily exercise or other physical activity and track your progress over time. Keeping track of your health in this way will help you maintain your wellness and prevent medical conditions from arising. Noting down your progress will remove the additional stress of remembering these things which will keep you mentally sound.

Boosts Immunity

This may initially seem far-fetched benefit, but studies have shown that journaling and expressive writing can help in boosting your immunity by making the liver and kidneys function more efficiently. In addition, expressive writing is also shown to help heal wounds faster. Moreover, you can boost your immunity by reminding yourself to make changes to your diet and behaviors through your journal. Taking note in your journal whether you had fruits and green vegetables or exercised that day will help keep you on track toward achieving your goals.

Relieves Insomnia

Studies have shown that regularly journaling can improve your ability to sleep peacefully. We have all tossed and turned in bed at some point in in our lives overthinking something we should have achieved or wondering whether we missed out on anything. Studies have shown that writing to-do lists before bed listing out tasks for the following day or crossing out completed tasks from the current day will help in easing your mind and help you sleep better.

Improves Your Memory

Writing down the things we need to remember is an age-old tactic repeated over and over by our teachers and parents. Similar to how we used to take notes in school to recall lectures, we benefit from taking notes in real life as well. Journaling about major events in your life or what you are anticipating helps you to remember additional details. More mundane things like random trivia or upcoming appointments will stick with you longer if you have written them done in your journal. It is an excellent way to remember important dates such as birthdays and anniversaries and maybe assist in planning them out.

Helps You Accomplish Goals

Journaling can also help you accomplish short-term and long-term goals. You can list out long-term goals that you wish to achieve by the end of the year or even later. The key is to keep working towards your goals and track your progress. For short-term goals, you could make a list every month with objectives that will snowball into what you to achieve in the long run. For example, if you are on a weight-loss journey, a short-term goal of shedding 5 pounds in a month can snowball into a considerable loss by the end of the year!

Conclusion

Journaling is a superb activity with many benefits, and we are glad it is increasing in popularity. With digitized platforms easily available now, we can keep our journal in a nice hardcover notebook or simply on our phones! All in all, it can improve our health in many surprising ways. Need some help to get started? See our essential guide of what to write in your journal.