15 Benefits of Journaling and How to Get Started

What are the benefits of journaling, and how can you start journaling now?

Journaling is a simple practice that has immense benefits for everyone who engages in it.

For instance, it has reduced people’s stress levels, increased their self-awareness and helped them manage their emotions. 

You’ve probably tried journaling during your childhood or high school years.

Documenting how you felt when you were hurt was journaling. Writing a composition about yourself was journaling.

In fact, that note you wrote to your teacher or colleague about how you felt was journaling.

Journaling is the practice of regularly writing down your thoughts, ideas, feelings, experiences, etc.

It isn’t a 21st-century reality. It dates back to 55 AD (nearly 2,000 years ago) in China (Han Dynasty). And it was passed down from generation to generation to what we have now.

This article examines 15 benefits of journaling and how you can get started now.

1. Journaling reduces stress:

Why do you think people who worry greatly have high-stress levels? When thoughts are in your heart without any solution, they raise your stress levels.

Have you ever laid on your bed and been lost deeply in thoughts? Sometimes, you are not doing anything but seem so stressed.

For some, stress stems from the thought that they will go to work the next day again. They dread their workplace but they have no choice but to go because they have to survive.

Writing down those thoughts can change everything for you. It relieves you of the burden of carrying it all on your own. It’s like a transfer of emotions and feelings.

You’ll feel much better after documenting it.

As the saying goes, “A problem shared is half solved.” When you talk with a friend who gives you listening ears, even if that friend doesn’t offer any solutions to your problems, you most likely feel better after sharing it.

The truth is that every human has this innate desire to be heard and listened to.

So, just by giving you their listening ears, you feel so much better. That is the same case for journaling. It’s that friend that will always be there.

You’ll feel heard and listened to when you write it down, even though you are writing to yourself.

2. Journaling gives mental clarity:

Sometimes, you can be bogged down with many thoughts. But when you write them down, you begin to see the patterns and get clarity from what you were thinking about.

But there is a likelihood that you’ll never get clarity if you don’t write it down. In simple words, journaling helps you process your thoughts into understandable words.

3. Journaling builds self-awareness:

Socrates once said, “Man, know thyself.” You must have heard the word “self-awareness” a million times. And you probably know that one of the secrets of successful people is their ability to know themselves.

Because of their understanding of themselves, they most likely don’t follow the crowd’s path. Instead, they stand out from other people and become successful.

But looking closely, you’ll realize it results from knowing themselves. That was the edge and advantages they had. How does journaling come in?

As I mentioned earlier, Journaling is simply the practice of regularly writing down your thoughts, ideas, feelings, experiences, etc.

Journaling will help you to discover how you feel, think, and process things. It will help you discover your triggers and why you act as you do. You’ll find who you are and what matters to you.

You’ll have a better understanding of yourself. You would think you know yourself until you ask questions and write down your thoughts.

4. Journaling improves time management:

It has been proven repeatedly that writing down your tasks for the next day at night helps you to be productive.

If you ever found yourself worried about the tasks you left unattended to at the office or the entries you couldn’t make at your workplace, you can quickly scribble them down.

How? Add them to your to-do list for the next day so you won’t forget. Aside from that, scribbling down what you want to achieve the next day on paper helps you to manage your time better and prioritize tasks.

5. Journaling is a way to process emotions and grief:

Sometimes, why you thought you got angry wasn’t actually why you got angry. There is a deeper reason why you got angry.

As a human, you have a logical and an emotional brain. But the one with the most control is your emotional brain, the oldest brain.

So, when we make emotional decisions, we justify them with logic. In the marketing world, there is a quote by Zig Ziglar that says, “People buy on emotions and justify on logic.”

When you write it down and ask questions, you’ll discover the real (emotional) reason why you acted that way.

Also, journaling helps people who are grieving. Being grieved is not a good place to be; however, we will all go through it at one time or another. One thing that helps people who are grieving is writing down their thoughts. It transfers the grief to the paper. They sometimes cry and laugh (when writing good memories). But they won’t remain the same after writing. While it’s not a total solution to grieving, it sure is a helpful tool to make the grieving maintain sanity and the snares of depression.

6. Journaling improves your well-being:

Writing down your deepest thoughts contributes to your overall wellbeing.

According to a 2018 research review by Cambridge University, journaling may lower your blood pressure, improve your mood and reduce your distress.

In another study, people with depression and anxiety reported fewer symptoms of their mental illnesses.

If you want to improve your overall wellbeing, you should consider journaling.

7. Journaling separates you from negative thoughts:

The Bible says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he,” which means you become what you think about most of the time.

If you think about positive thoughts, you’ll attract positive things into your life.

Likewise, you’ll attract negative things into your life when you dwell on negative thoughts.

But with journaling, you can unload the negative thoughts you have in your heart  on paper and change them into positive ones.

Writing down your thoughts help you identify negative thinking patterns and the emotional and physical reactions that result from them.

By so doing, you can replace them with helpful and positive thoughts.

Let’s say you get a rejection letter from a scholarship you applied for. When you get such a letter, you’ll naturally feel sad (no one gets such letter and shout for joy).

But when you write down what you are feeling exactly, you’ll find out that your sadness is affecting how productive you are.

Recognizing that pattern and the result you are getting, you can change your perspective about the rejection letter and replace the negative thoughts with positive ones.

That is, instead of thinking that you are not good enough and that’s why you were rejected, you can see it as an opportunity to grow more and get access to bigger opportunities.

That reframing will change how you feel and change your results. As Brian Tracy once said, “Change your thinking; change your life.”

8. Journaling helps you build Emotional Intelligence:

As mentioned earlier, journaling helps you build self-awareness. In knowing yourself, you can easily identify your emotions at every point.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to control and take charge of your feelings. Many emotional outbursts could have been avoided if they could manage their emotions.

The good news is that journaling helps you manage your feelings. Let me give you an example.

You could be angry at your friend for not bothering to ask what is wrong with you, even when it is obvious that something is wrong.

Your anger is justified because a good friend should do that. But documenting your feelings could help you consider the possibility that your friend is probably going through something.

Because of the insight you got while journaling, you could ask your friend if he or she is facing any issue the next time you meet. Now, you now know where the issue came from.

Of course, you shouldn’t hesitate to bring your friend’s attention to how he or she behaved and how you felt about it.

9. Journaling helps you to sleep better:

One of the benefits of journaling is that it helps you to sleep better. This is a habit you should consistently practice before sleeping.

I mentioned writing your to-do lists earlier. It might be something other than your to-do lists.

It could be writing your goals and meditating on them. Journaling transfers whatever thought you have in your heart into your journal.

10. Journaling enhances writing and communication skills:

If you are familiar with people who journal, you’ll realize they write well and can organize and communicate their thoughts well.

One of the benefits of journaling is that you can express yourself freely. It’s only you and the paper, so you don’t apply self-control. That indirectly builds your writing and communication skills.

Of course, you might need to attend writing training to hone your writing skills, but your expression of words improves over time as you journal.

11. Journaling reduces symptoms of depression:

One of the major reasons why people get depressed is bottling up everything in their hearts. Hence, it escalates into depression.

However, if people who are depressed can learn to express themselves through journaling, it can reduce the symptoms of depression.

12. Journaling helps you achieve goals:

Brian Tracy once said that if he were given five minutes to speak to an audience and could only convey one thought that would help them to be more successful, he would tell them, “Write down your goals, make plans to achieve them, and work on your plans every single day.”

When journaling your goals, you write the goals you want to achieve and include the plans to help you achieve them.

If you follow through with those plans, you can reach those goals. Also, your goals can serve as reminders and feedback loops on what to do better.

13. Journaling helps you overcome a traumatic event:

Sometimes, when people have accidents, they experience PTSD (Post-traumatic disorder). I remember when a friend had a car accident.

She was sitting right beside the driver, but she left the scene with a small bruise, while other passengers sustained serious injuries.

Now, whenever she sits in the front seat of any car, it always seems like a replay of what happened to her before. She always felt like the accident wanted to repeat itself.

Thankfully, I introduced her to the art of journaling and she poured her thoughts on paper several times, which helped her overcome that traumatic event.

14. Journaling improves your sense of gratitude:

During birthdays, one of the activities people do is counting their blessings. That is, they write down things they are grateful for.

After writing and writing, they realize that they have so much to be grateful for—even things they previously had on their wishlist have been accomplished.

This fills them with a deep sense of gratitude because they had been complaining all these while.

But you don’t have to wait until your next birthday before you feel grateful. With journaling, you can always express your gratitude.

You can make it a habit to write 3-5 things you are grateful for at the end of every day. This everyday activity improves your sense of gratitude and helps you sleep better.

15. Journaling improves mindfulness:

Mindfulness is the practice of being fully present and aware of what is happening around you.

Many times, we work and walk absent-mindedly, which is why we often forget why we went to the kitchen or living room.

But when you journal, you will regain your mindful power. You will begin to pay attention to the things surrounding you and live a better life.

For example, you could write about your day in your journal—the new things you learned, things you noticed, and even the people you met.

How to Start Journaling

1. Set a goal:

First, understand why you are journaling. Myles Munroe once said, “When the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable.” You need to understand why you want to journal. It could be to document your daily thoughts or write what you are grateful for. Just ensure you have a purpose.

2. Pick the simplest tools for Journaling:

I recommend these three tools for journaling:

• Pen and paper
• Phone
• Laptop

3. Free writing:

As the name suggests, free writing is the art of writing freely. That is, you don’t care about your grammatical errors or not. You just keep writing everything that comes to your head.

You can set a time for it. It could be 10, 15, or 20 minutes. But there is one rule in free writing: you must not stop writing within that time frame.

That is, your pen must keep writing something until your timer goes off. This is to allow you clear your mind and express yourself without holding back. It also helps you uncover thoughts and ideas you never knew you had.

4. Journal at the same time every day:

As I mentioned earlier, we are creatures of habit. If you don’t want to give up everything after one week, you should strive to build a habit.

You are creating journaling habit by simply writing at the same time every day.

5. Be honest:

Honesty is key in journaling. You know when you are telling the truth or not. Be honest with yourself so you can get the results of journaling.

6. Approach with curiosity, not judgment:

When journaling, don’t judge: instead, write with curiosity. For example, instead of calling yourself “dumb” for messing up that presentation, you should seek to find out why you messed up.

Were you under duress? Was it stage fright? Or were you trying to impress them?

Can you see the direction it’s taking? But you’ll never find out if you have already judged your actions.

7. Use a writing prompt:

Instead of just writing abstractly, you can use a writing prompt. A writing prompt is a word or passage of text that direct the focus of your writing.

It could be a question, an instruction, or a statement. To get writing prompts for your journal, you can search Google.

Depending on what you want to focus on, you can search for a writing prompt on that.

For example, you can search for writing prompts on gratitude. After searching, this is the result I got:

• What is one good thing that I often take for granted?
• Who do I need to thank?
• What are the three things I’m grateful for, no matter how small?

8. Remove distractions:

When journaling, ensure you remove every distraction on the way, You should find a quiet spot where you can write without any distractions.

You should put your phone on DND (Do-Not-Disturb) so you won’t get calls at that point.

9. Get creative:

You can spice up your journaling experience by adding visuals like pictures, drawn images, etc. Don’t be limited to writing.

Conclusion on Benefits of Journaling

In this article, we have examined 15 benefits of journaling and how you can start journaling.

As you have read, journaling has immense benefits for those devoted to it. It’s like an all-round medicine that cures all types of sicknesses.

Ensure you start your journaling journey and start enjoying the benefits. I’m always rooting for you. Did you get value? Don’t forget to share.