Top Science-backed Benefits of Journaling for Mental Health

While journaling may seem to be a harmless habit, it has been proven to be highly beneficial for mental health. Besides making goals seem achievable and clearing the mind, journaling improves the overall quality of life. This is quite evident from the fact that US consumers spend over $200 million on journaling supplies each year. Backed by thorough research, this article will look at some of the benefits of journaling. 

Makes You Mindful  

While writing a journal, you tend to put aside your past hardships and stop worrying about the future. This helps you to focus on your present and become mindful. According to several research studies, being mindful helps improve your sleep, reduce stress, and engage in a better lifestyle. Hence your everyday life becomes easier when you start practicing mindfulness.  

Writing journals can be highly beneficial if you suffer from distractions and cannot focus on the present. While writing a journal, you engage with the present moment and focus actively on your current thoughts. This kind of awareness not only helps you to concentrate but also makes you alert.  

Reduces Stress 

Journaling can help improve your stress management abilities, thereby reducing stress's impact on your body. Journaling or other forms of expressive writing helps in enhancing your mental health. Many studies have found that journaling, especially during stressful situations, can help us in processing our difficult experiences in a better way by creating a much more coherent narrative of our ordeals.

We may infer from this that writing can help manage the various stress-causing factors of your life in a healthier way than ruminating about them. Writing can also help reduce the intensity of feelings like grief, anger, or other stressful emotions. This makes you calmer and enables you to be better equipped to handle any such situation in the future.  

Makes Your Goals Seem Achievable 

Many studies have proven that writing your goals down on paper helps you gain clarity on what you want to accomplish and enables you to figure out a plan for reaching there. Once you write down your goal in the journal, your mind notes it and becomes responsive to any opportunities or tools that might help you achieve that goal. The more detailed you are while writing your goal, the more likely you will realize them. Journaling about your goals can also help in organizing and prioritizing them to keep better track of your progress.   

Improves Emotional Intelligence 

Emotional intelligence generally refers to your ability to understand and deal with emotions while also comprehending the emotional needs of others. And since journaling is like an outlet to process your feelings, it also helps develop emotional intelligence. Being emotionally intelligent also makes you aware of your surroundings and gives you the power to impact others positively.

Since people tend to self-reflect and explore their emotions while journaling, it makes it easier to identify and handle feelings better in the future. Furthermore, if you are familiar with your emotions, you will likely develop empathy for others. Hence, journaling makes you self-aware and allows you to create deep connections with people.   

Read Also: Leading with Empathy: The Most Important Leadership Skill 

Lowers the Chance of Depression 

One of the essential health benefits of journaling is that it helps in alleviating symptoms if you are suffering from depression. According to a study conducted on the depressive disorder, researchers found that people who wrote a journal for 20 minutes every day for a month significantly decreased depression scores.  

A similar study was conducted on women recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Over 12 weeks, it was found that those who maintained a journal had lower levels of depression than those who did not.  

Enhances Your Memory 

Since journaling can help you become mindful by avoiding unwanted distractions of thoughts, it also improves your memory. According to research, journaling for seven weeks helps reduce your mind's wandering tendencies and blocks out intrusive thoughts that damage your memory.

Once you start writing about your thoughts and feelings, you enhance your brain's capacity to remember things learned on the spot. Moreover, maintaining a journal helps you organize the events better in your mind. Hence when the brain is released from the responsibility of processing an experience, your working memory tends to enhance.   

Better Sleep Patterns  

Another essential health benefit of journaling is that it helps in improving your sleep. A study tried to analyze the impact of journaling on college students suffering from sleep problems due to excessive thoughts and worries. It found that journaling even for 15 minutes before bed improved their overall sleep quality and reduced their worrying thoughts throughout the day. This was probably because once you jot down your thoughts on paper, you release them from the mind, thus helping it focus on sleeping rather than other activities of your daily life.  

Makes You Productive 

Distractions are the root cause of procrastination. Therefore, writing a journal can also help in increasing your overall productivity. Research shows that journaling allows you to reflect on your work ethic and inspires you to form new ideas.  

Productivity is no longer about producing more within a short span of time. In the modern era, productivity refers to the ability to pick up a new concept and think critically and creatively. And the key to acquiring such skills is not just about consuming information but also engaging in it actively, like maintaining a journal.  

Apart from the various benefits of journaling for mental health, it also helps strengthen immunity, reduce blood pressure, improve liver function, and decrease symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and asthma. Based on research from the University of Texas, it has also been proven that maintaining a journal can help in healing wounds faster. Therefore, as we can see, there are several science-backed benefits of journaling to the human body.