What Are The Benefits of Journaling?

If you're looking for a list of the benefits of journaling for mental health, the list is endless... there have been so many studies that document the incredible impact that journaling has. 

Journaling can be therapeutic because it provides a way for people to express their thoughts and feelings in a safe and private space. Writing down one's thoughts and feelings can help to clarify them, and can also provide a sense of release and catharsis. By journaling regularly, people can gain a better understanding of themselves and their emotions, and can also track their progress and growth over time.

In addition, journaling can also provide an opportunity for self-reflection and self-discovery. By writing about their experiences and emotions, people can gain insights into their own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and can learn more about what makes them who they are. This can help people to develop a greater sense of self-awareness and self-acceptance, which can be beneficial for their emotional well-being.

Some of the benefits that have studies and evidence show journaling is helpful with:

1. Emotional Processing

2. Burnout and Compassion Fatigue

3. Improved immune responses

4. Lower blood pressure

5. Decreases in employees calling out sick! Who knew?!

How Does Journaling Help Mental Health?

As a psychotherapist, the most valuable or important benefit of journaling is its ability to explore and investigate complicated feelings. When we journal, we can separate out our hot mess of thoughts, feelings, opinions and judgments about any given situation. When we can separate all these things out, then we get a better perspective on things, and we tend to procrastinate less because decisions become more clear. Watch the video above to find out more. 

Three Great Benefits Of Journaling:

1. Decision Making - I’m a psychotherapist, and so I might be biased about this first one - because it’s all about your feelings. Writing on a regular basis helps you separate out all the different thoughts and feelings you might be having about any particular issue. When you can separate these things out, you get to see things more clearly. When things are clearer we tend to avoid things less and have less anxiety and stress, so decisions are easier to make 
2. Burnout and Fatigue.  After three years of covid, we are all feeling a little burned out - I read a study in which a group of nurses were all recruited to join a journaling course. At the beginning and end of the course, they measured levels of burnout and compassion fatigue and found that both improved with regular journaling. 
3. Physical Health Perhaps the most fascinating benefit is how it can improve your physical health - a study by the guru of all things journaling, James Pennebaker concluded that journaling reduces blood pressure, improved moods, and decreases the number of times people call out of work. Who knew that writing can impact so much?

Journaling is one of those things that we all know we should do and know it’s helpful but we never find the time and then we start shaming ourselves that we didn’t do and that eventually puts us off from doing it even more.

What Is Micro Journaling?

Micro-Journaling is the way out of this. You do not need to spent 30 minutes everymorning at 6am journaling to get the benefits, you don’t have to write three pages non-stop - micro journaling is finding any moment of the day to simply write down what your feeling or experiencing. This can be in your journal, sure, but you can also email yourself, use an app on your phone or just scribble some thoughts down on a post-it note and stick that in your journal.