6 Unbelievably Powerful Benefits of Journal Writing

I completely understand that the idea of a journal can conjure up many stereotypes in our minds. But the benefits of journal writing can be incredibly powerful.

Disclosure: If you purchase anything from links in this post or any other, I may receive some kind of affiliate commission. However, I only ever mention products I love and would recommend whether I was being compensated or not. You can read my full disclaimer here.

I realise that when I crank out my journal, people picture me scribbling the words ‘dear diary’. I imagine they expect this to be followed by pages of romantic mush!

But, I can tell you now; you will rarely find romantic mush within the pages of my journal! Not that I’m saying there is anything wrong with romantic mush.

Now, of course, keeping journals is not a prerequisite for reading this blog or working with me. You may never put pen to paper (in a journaling sense) in your life.

However, given that it has helped me so much and I have studied the benefits of journal writing so much.

I would feel sad if I wasn’t able to share all this glorious information with you. Let’s look at a few of the benefits of journaling right now…

6 amazing benefits of journal writing

Emotional awareness:

Journaling is a simple way of processing our emotions and increasing our self-awareness. Through journaling, we are able to familiarise ourselves with how we feel about life. Which increases our understanding of daily experiences and how they affect our lives.

Most importantly, a journal can be a sacred place, free from external influences. They can act as a vehicle for you to learn what it means to be YOU.

Studies have also shown that journaling about stressful events effects our cognitive processing and emotional expression. As a result, emotional releases that can come from journaling include: the lowering of anxiety, stress, and increased chance of better sleep.

Mindfulness:

This is one of the coolest benefits of journal writing.

Journaling can help to focus the mind and bring you into a state of mindfulness. Mindfulness is not anything complicated or anything to be freaked out about. I only say this because the idea used to freak me out. In straightforward terms, mindfulness about focusing your awareness on the present moment.

By doing this, you can calmly acknowledge your thoughts and feelings. There are also many benefits of mindfulness, which I won’t go into here. But I do want to note that there’s a powerful connection between happiness and mindfulness.

With journaling, it is the case that past frustrations and future anxieties lose their edge in the present moment. And, yes, you are more likely to be in the present moment when you’re journaling. Because you can only write one thing at a time and the chances are you are focused on what you are writing.

Therefore, journaling will call your wandering mind to attention and allow your stream of consciousness to flow. So, you can actively engage with your thoughts. Cool, huh!

Improves self-discipline and encourages positive habits:

It is worth thinking about discipline as you would a muscle. The more you exercise self-discipline, the stronger it becomes.

The same can be said for habits, in a way, when you start trying to form (or break) a habit it is tough to stick to and keep on track. But the more you do it, the easier it becomes.

It is said that if you do something every day for 21-30 days, it will become a habit that you will easily keep. The great thing about forming a positive habit is that once you develop one, you are likely to create even more!

So, if you make journal writing a daily practice and set aside time to write every day, you are likely to become self-disciplined. You’ll be combining this with a whole range of other positive habits during your journaling session, too.

Creativity sparked:

So many people tell me that they are not in any way creative. They say me creative people are born creative and they were not one of those people. As you can probably guess, I do not agree with this in the slightest!

People are not merely creative or not creative; the struggle is just a matter of how we let that creativity flow. One of the most amazing benefits of journal writing is that it is an effective tool for kick starting your creativity.

Since I started journaling in 2008, my creativity has reached new heights. Genius ideas come to me as soon as I wake up in the mornings, I can brainstorm entire book concepts in ten minutes, and I write poetry and get crafty when the mood takes me. None of which I did before.

You see, when we write, we’re taping into parts of our brains that we don’t usually use. This means that wacky vague ideas become more tangible and less wacky. In other words, wacky ideas start to make a whole lot more sense and before you know it you’re writing a full-blown book!

Achieving goals:

I’m sure I’ll talk about this more in other posts. But for now, if you write down your goals, you’re more likely to achieve them. With the act of writing down your goals often, you’ll keep focused much easier. This is definitely one of the more major benefits of journal writing.

BUT if you write down your goals as if you’ve already achieved them (e.g. “I have” or “I am”) your brain thinks you’ve already reached them. So, it starts to search for the evidence to suggest that this is intact the case. Your Reticular Activating System (RAS) gets busy trying to flag up opportunities and tools to achieve that goal.

You might like these journaling tips books

Self-confidence:

Journaling is not just about writing about what is going well. It also helps to write about areas of your life you might need to work on.

Writing down your thoughts and feelings can do wonders for your long term mental health (and physical health).

As soon as we start writing about positive things, our brains begin to relive the experiences. When our minds begin to do this, our body thinks the experiences are happening again. So, we get releases of endorphins and dopamine. Which will serve to boost your self-confidence continuously.

This is where keeping a gratitude journal comes into play. The more you journal, the more positive things you’ll have written down. You can then refer to them if you need to shake off the self-doubt that starts to creep in for everyone every so often.

In fact, if you like the idea of journaling as a way of boosting your confidence, check out the guided journals in my store. I have definitely made the most of the benefits of journal writing in these beauties.

So, there you have it, six powerful benefits of journal writing. I could have highlighted well over twenty benefits. But there’s nothing more annoying than being overwhelmed with information you don’t need, right!?

Obviously, if you want more than six reasons, you a free to fly off and do your research. I promise it will not offend me!