You're Gonna Want to Write This Down…
Journaling has been around for such a long time; it’s not just a trend or a new years resolution. It is a great method for self-care by contextualizing your thoughts, exploring yourself and even manifesting! From bullet journals to gratitude journals, there's no shortage of cool and new ways to document your thoughts and feelings. But beyond it being a trendy hobby, journaling can also be a powerful tool for self-discovery and personal growth. Here's how to get started and stick with it.
Journaling not only helps with mental health, but it also sparks our creativity, self-awareness and memory. Donate the time to your future self! Time to hop on the bandwagon — the art and beauty behind journaling awaits you!
Why journaling improves mental health
Journaling has been shown to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression, and it can be a helpful tool for managing stress. We don’t know about y’all, but in times of distress, writing was the only gateway that helped guide all the confusion, chaos and pain that was unraveling. Sayonara, negative vibes! Not only does it allow and give you the time to reflect, but you can also begin to understand patterns and your thinking over time and reduce the frequency of depressive and intrusive thoughts. Since journaling is the process of writing all of those emotions out and having it be on a piece of paper right in front of us, it provides us with the opportunity to process those emotions for ourselves.
Increased creativity and better self-awareness
Get those juices flowing! Journaling can inspire you to think outside the box and come up with fresh ideas. Journaling helps you get to know yourself better, so you can make positive changes and live your best life. Sometimes, when we are experiencing all kinds of emotions and feelings, we might not know where they're coming from or why we're having them. We can instigate and investigate our writing all we want when we journal to better understand ourselves..
Enhanced memory
Writing things down can help you remember them better, but we already knew that! Journaling is basically like a superpower for your brain. Growing up, we were always told a great study habit was when we would write out our notes since it helped us remember and actually retain what we were learning. The Notes app is a great alternative, too; it gets the job done! Journaling is the stress-free alternative of retaining information on ourselves and our thoughts.
Carve out a specific time each day to journal. It could be first thing in the morning (shoutout to anyone who writes their dreams out the morning after), or before bed (the best way to get all the stress and chaos of the day out). Consistency is key! Your journal is an escape from the world around you and a place for you to be completely honest with yourself. Don't worry about what anyone else will think — it's your safe space!
Journaling doesn't have to be the same thing every day. It's recommended to try different types of prompts, themes and styles to keep things fresh. There are so many prompts accessible to us whether it be anywhere online (aka your Instagram feed or from TikTok), there is endless inspiration for getting started!
Journaling is the ultimate form of self-expression
It is an incredibly personal and expressive art form that allows individuals to reflect on their thoughts, experiences and emotions. Journaling is, at its core, a practice of self-discovery and self-expression that can guide individuals in achieving clarity, relieving stress and creating a greater awareness of themselves and the world around them. Time to say hello to inner you, and get to know them a little bit better!
We hope that this may have sparked your interest in journaling, and that it may have jump started your journaling journey. We’re on this self-discovery ride with you.