Ways Journaling Can Add Value to Your Life 

By: Julia Morrissey

 

From helping to improve your mental health to boosting self-confidence, there are so many excellent reasons to start keeping a journal. This self-care practice can help you to not only be more successful in relationships or your professional pursuits, but also feel more prepared to take on life’s challenges. This post outlines the benefits of journaling and offers suggestions for different types of journals that you can begin keeping now.

8 Benefits of Journaling

Consider some of the many advantages to journaling below.

1. Enhances critical thinking skills: Reflective journaling has been shown to help individuals develop their ability to problem solve.

2. Boosts memory: Writing helps you commit your ideas and concepts committed to memory. Plus, you when you write something down you can always go back and review what you recorded.

3. Helps with goal achievement: By writing down a goal, it may feel more real and thus you may be more likely to continue to work towards it. 

4. Drives self-confidence: Journaling can help you manage your schedule as well as your thoughts. This can help you feel more in control and confident.

5. Improves mental health: Recording your thoughts can help you reduce stress and manage anxiety. It can also help you find solutions to problems in your life.

6. Improves physical health: In addition to helping to improve your mental health, research shows there are physical health benefits to journaling as well. Individuals have reported improvements to various medical problems after engaging in expressive writing. 

7. Boosts creativity: A journal can be a great place to capture and store your creative ideas. By taking time to express yourself, you can formulate creative ideas and solutions.

8. Enhances communication and writing skills: You can improve the way you communicate both on paper and verbally by journaling. Frequently writing will also improve your ability to write well.

Types of Journals You Can Start

There are quite a few different ways to journal and unique journal types to keep. There are of course also no rules, and you should keep a journal in the way that works best for you. The right journaling style and type for you likely depends on what your personal goals are. For example, if you’ve been having a difficult time sticking to a schedule, you may want to try keeping a bullet journal. However, if you’re interested in learning how your opinions on different topics change over time or reflecting on personal growth, you may want to keep a change journal.

The visual below from the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences showcases various types of journal and offers completing journal prompts to give you a jumping off point.

Bio: Julia is a content creator who writes on topics ranging from self-care to business. When she’s not writing you can find her eating vegan burgers or running in Central Park in NYC with her dog Maya.