6 Benefits of Journaling Every Day That I Experienced After A Month
We’ve all heard about how awesome journaling is. How the activity helps with anxiety, stress, processing emotions, and more. When I’m struggling with my mental health, journaling always seems like a great idea, but I can’t ever bring myself to set aside time every day to get some journaling done. It always seemed like a chore that I had to carve time out of my day to just write something for myself. What helped me actually start making journaling a habit was the fact that I realized that there aren’t really rules to journaling. You can really do whatever you want with it!
Want to scribble out a huge rant about an ex or a difficult customer? Go for it! Want to write a little poem about your day? Sure! Want to jot down some of your favorite song lyrics? Awesome! There really are tons of options for you to do to help you get into journaling daily. However, I get how this can be pretty intimidating for some people, so no worries! Journaling isn’t supposed to be daunting! If the world of possibilities for journaling seems way too overwhelming, consider using journaling prompts to guide your daily writing and reflection! These prompts can also help you evaluate certain emotions or struggles you’re facing. It’s all about realizing how Journaling can work for you!
So, if you’re considering starting a journaling journey, I’d highly recommend it! It doesn’t have to be as hard as it may seem! Also, there are tons of benefits that you reap in the long run from journaling every day. Even after just a month, you’ll start noticing some pretty awesome changes! Here’s what happened when I started journaling daily, and what benefits of journaling you might notice if you do too!
You End Up Feeling Less Lonely
Feeling lonely can come up in lots of ways, and loneliness isn’t an easy emotion to console yourself. Being lonely can feel hard to escape unless you’re running to other people to help get rid of your loneliness. The problem with that is, a lot of people eventually have a hard time spending time with themselves, which can be pretty painful. Alone time is part of life, and learning to enjoy your time alone is one of the greatest benefits of routinely journaling. Journaling is really like a conversation with yourself, getting your thoughts out there, but also processing those thoughts and feelings can be so comforting. Once you get into the swing of spending this quality time with yourself, you eventually might end up feeling less lonely.
You Let Your Creativity Run Free
While it may seem like a homework assignment to many, writing is one of those ways you can really let your mind go all over the place and let that creative side of you play. If you don’t take your journaling so seriously, it seriously becomes more enjoyable! Create little worlds. Use far-fetched analogies, explore using new words, be as dramatic as you want, this really is your space to let it all go and get creative! Remember, there are no rules! This kind of fun and creativity with journaling can also seep into other aspects of your life! Once you get your creative juices flowing, they keep going!
You Communicate More Effectively
If you have trouble communicating effectively, whether it be avoiding confrontation, telling someone how you really feel, navigating an argument, etc. journaling can really help make communicating easier and better! You can use journaling as a space to practice difficult conversations, you can use it as a space to realize your true feelings and how big emotions are distorting how you communicate, you can even use it as a space to write a “letter” that doesn’t get sent if you just feel like you need to blow up and blow it off. Journaling seriously is the biggest aid in good communication!
You Sleep Better
If you have trouble sleeping at night, it may be due to thoughts racing in your head. Things that you haven’t yet fully processed yet can make their way to the forefront of your mind sometimes, especially when attempting to relax instead of distract yourself. This is how journaling can help you sleep better! If you make a ritual of journaling (whenever you do it in your day) it can help you process feelings that you’re otherwise confused and obsessing over. With doing the legwork in journaling, your mind has already set aside the time to feel those big feelings, so when you lay your head down at night, you can actually start to relax.
You Learn To Better Regulate Your Emotions
This one may seem pretty obvious, but you’d be surprised how much journaling helps you train yourself to regulate and express your emotions in a much better way! Having good regulation of your feelings can help avoid arguments, miscommunications, bottling things up, pushing things down, etc. Journaling honestly does so much for your emotional wellbeing, and consistent practice will definitely produce some noticeable results.
You Start Appreciating “The Little Things”
If you’re using journaling as a way to decompress after your day, you start paying more attention in your daily life and the little things that add up to make your days beautiful. With journaling, you train your mind to be more present, and with that, you really start to appreciate what you might have previously overlooked. Gratitude journaling is popular just for this reason! Happiness grows out of a place of gratitude, and once you practice being in the moment and being grateful, you will really start noticing how much happier you are and how much more beauty you see around you.
So, are you sold on journaling every day? Trying it out really sold me! Give it a shot and let us know how it goes and if you see any benefits of journaling in the comments below!