Journaling has become incredibly popular in recent years. But it is not a new phenomenon. In fact, the practice of keeping a journal has been around for centuries. That means millions of people have benefitted from this practice.
Journaling is one of the tools I always recommend to my coaching clients, as it is hugely beneficial for the coaching process. I have decided to list what I think are the top 8 benefits of journaling. They are…
8 Amazing Benefits Of Journaling
1: Encourages Mindfulness
Mindfulness is another popular phenomenon, and for good reason. The art of being mindful keeps you in the present moment and allows you to truly experience it without distraction. Journaling helps to bring you into that state of mindfulness by calling your wandering mind to attention and allowing you to actively engage with your thoughts.
2: Reflect On Your Personal Values
How well do you know what’s really important to you? Your True North, your personal values? Journaling is a very effective practice to clarify your thoughts and to connect to even deeper stuff. If you ask yourself profound questions, you can discover your values. However, if you’ve done the work and know your values already, journaling can help you to explore what those values mean in your life and how you can make your life more aligned to your values.
3: Helps You Achieve Your Goals
While goals require more dedication than simply writing about them in your journal, the simple practice of documenting them signals to your brain that you consider them important. As you are going about your daily life, your brain will then flag certain opportunities that are relevant to advancing your goal progress, things you may not have noticed before.
That might sound a little funny, but here is an example for you. Say you have decided that you want to start trying for a baby. Suddenly you start seeing prams, kids and pregnant ladies everywhere. Those people were always there before, but you may not have noticed them as your brain didn’t consider them ‘important’. Now that those things are relevant to your goal, your brain is showing them to you.
4: Become Emotionally Aware
Sometimes your emotions can seem unmanageable and bigger than Ben Hur. But being able to verbalise them, or write them in your journal can help you to process them. Being able to dissect how you feel and sort through your emotions can make them easier to manage.
Managing your own emotions is an important step in becoming more empathetic. That allows you to be more caring and mindful of the people around you. You can be on the same emotional level as others and form a deeper connection with them.
5: Allows You To Heal
Expressing yourself in your writing is a great way to heal emotionally, physically and psychologically. Stress can have many negative effects on your body, both physically and mentally. Often stress can be caused by an emotional blockage or by overthinking endless possibilities.
But, by translating those concerns into words, they are easier to grasp and therefore process. In doing this, you free yourself from the blockage and remove the stress. Releasing your emotions onto the page can lower the risk of stress, anxiety, and depression. It can also allow you to sleep better.
6: Forms Good Habits
When you first start journaling, you will probably find you need great self discipline to find time to do it every day. But after you have been making that commitment for a while, it just becomes habit and you will automatically pick up your pen and journal at the same time each day. Forming one healthy habit can begin a snowball effect, making it easier to form others.
7: Builds Self Confidence
When you journal about positive things your brain is able to relive it. This helps to affirm your strength and ability to do great things, make great connections, and conquer difficult challenges. When the familiar feeling of self doubt arises, you can fuel yourself with these positive experiences and fight those doubting feelings back down again.
When you relieve great achievements, your brain releases endorphins and dopamine, the happy brain chemical. That release of endorphins will help to boost your mood and your overall positivity. Again, making it harder for self doubt to come into play.
8: A Capture Of Important Memories
When you journal, you write the things that are at the top of your mind. The things that are most significant in your life at the time – your thoughts, worries, achievements, celebrations and your mistakes. While they might just be thoughts dumped on the page, a journal is a record of those braindumps.
You don’t necessarily have to look back on your entries if you don’t want to. But if you choose to, then you will have a snapshot of your achievements and thoughts on a particular day.
As you can see there are many benefits to journaling. And these 8 benefits are by no means an exhaustive list!
Are you ready to start seeing the benefits of journaling? Has your time come to start transforming your life and achieving your goals? Click here to to book a free 30 min catch up with me to discuss how I can support you.
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