Discover the transformative power of journaling with today’s story, where we delve into the art and science of it.
“Dear Diary, I feel like writing, and I have an even greater need to get all kinds of things off my chest.” These timeless words penned by Anne Frank echo the universal sentiment that many of us experience when we turn to journaling. In the intimate pages of a diary or journal, we find solace, a haven where our thoughts can flow freely without judgment or inhibition. Many prominent figures, like Leonardo da Vinci, Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and Marie Curie, resorted to journaling to declutter their mind. I am sure some of the personalities you admire have also journaled. Was that motivating enough for you to pick up a pen and write a sentence? If not, let me back up my claims with scientific evidence. Here you go!
An experimental study at Michigan State University revealed that expressive writing can help calm our brains in times of stress. In this experiment, anxious college students were the subjects. After being divided into two groups, they were given a “flanker test” to gauge their accuracy and speed of response. While the other groups journaled about their everyday activities, one group engaged in an 8-minute expressive writing session about their innermost emotions before beginning the work. Regarding speed and accuracy assessments, both groups did just as well. However, when it came to brain usage, as determined by EEG (which measures electrical activity in the brain), the expressive writing group was more productive and required less mental energy.
Writing helps us form a coherent story by establishing the cause and effect of our experience. This helps us understand ourselves better and overcome various traumatic experiences. Also, a 2005 study found that journaling for 15-20 minutes a day, over a while, can reduce the likelihood of illness by helping us process and process traumatic situations, distress, and general sentiments. It takes more than four months of journaling to reduce blood pressure and improve liver function. Not only does expressive writing reduce our risk of illness, but it also makes us more resilient to a host of dangerous illnesses, rheumatoid arthritis and asthma are a few of them. Seniors who journal even show improved health outcomes, such as quicker wound healing and surgical recovery!
You might be confused by the claims the research has made stating that the simple act of journaling has a profound impact on the functioning of our body and health, but it just reinforces the fact that our Mental Health impacts our physical health.
You have just read about the surprising benefits of journaling. Have you been persuaded yet to start journaling? Let me give one final argument to put you into the journaling habit.
If you are given a maths problem to work on, would you solve it in your mind or rather prefer to write it down? Journaling comes into the picture for the same reason. Journaling is peeping into yourself and cutting the chaos of this world. It can be compared to cleaning a room, but it is the mind in this case. The important thing to remember is that journaling doesn’t come with rules. You can start by writing just one sentence a day. It can be about what you are grateful for that day, expressive writing, jotting down your tasks for the day, or just simply doodling away your thoughts at that moment. Journaling daily will help with emotional confrontation, where you grow to understand your emotional responses at various stages of life. It also leads to multiperspectivism, where you understand your daily experiences as what they are and not how you perceive them.
I hope you are convinced to journal to experience their surprising benefits. Building a habit can be annoying when you are finding it difficult to stick to it. What matters is to show up every day. So, you could start by writing down one sentence a day. Here are some beginners tips
- Make it a habit to write every day and keep it simple: always have a pen and paper nearby.
- Express yourself freely: remember, your journal is your private space to explore.
- There are no right or wrong topics.
- View your journaling time as personal relaxation, a chance to unwind and de-stress.
- Use your journal as an opportunity for positive self-talk and to identify negative thoughts and behaviors.
- Listen to your inner voice and seek a calm, soothing environment.
- Monitor symptoms daily, identify triggers, and learn how to manage them.
- Understand that journaling is a beneficial practice for both your mind and body.
Happy Journaling! Just write a little bit every day.
Some Quick Trivia:
Susan Sontag once asserted that she “created herself” in her notebook. She started keeping a journal at the age of 12; her first entry concerned the rotting corpse of a dog.
In the words of Cheryl Strayed – “My journal provided the who, what, how, when, and why with a specificity that memory might have blurred, but it also did something more: it offered me a frank and unvarnished portrait of myself at 26 that I couldn’t have found anywhere else.”
P.S – Remember, you don’t have to be a Shakespeare.