When you were younger, you might’ve kept a diary where you wrote about your day, your feelings and difficulties. If you didn’t, you might’ve known someone who did. Journaling is often thought of as a childish activity but you might be surprised to hear that keeping a journal is a good habit to maintain even as an adult. Journaling holds a long tradition and for good reason, simple pen and paper can have great benefits on your health.
Health Benefits of Journaling
It might be hard to believe that journaling can have a significant impact on your health but it’s true. There is increasing evidence to support the notion that keeping a consistent journal can help strengthen both the body and mind.
Reduce Stress
Everyone experiences stress at one point or another but an overabundance of stress can be detrimental to your health—physically, mentally and emotionally. Journaling can be a powerful stress management tool that can help lessen exterior stressors. By putting it down on paper, it works similar to meditation and even leads to lower blood pressure.
Cope With Depression
If you’re struggling with depression or anxiety, journaling can be a great habit to help cope with it. Journaling can help organize your thoughts and view things from a different perspective. The more comfortable you become with expressing your emotions on paper, the better you will be at controlling and understanding them and, in turn, it will lead to better mental health.
Exercise Your Memory
Journaling has been shown to improve cognitive processing in the long run. By writing down your day-to-day, you can exercise your mind to improve memory and comprehension.
Improve Mood
Journaling can be a very therapeutic activity. So if you’re trying to introduce a little more joy into your life, give writing a try. Much in the same way that it works with depression and anxiety, when you write about your emotions you will become more intune with them and gain a better understanding of why you might be feeling the way that you are. This can lead to an improvement in mood and provide a greater sense of emotional well-being.
Strengthen Immune Function
The effects of journaling aren’t strictly psychological. Journaling has the ability to boost the immune system and in turn decrease risk of illness. Expressive writing has been shown to strengthen immune cells called T-lymphocytes, improve liver and lung function, and even help fight off certain diseases.
Dedicated To Your Well-Being
By giving journaling a try, you have everything to win and nothing to lose. The most effective way to do it is to set apart a couple of minutes a day to write about your experiences and the way that you feel. Don’t worry about spelling or punctuation, and don’t feel embarrassed as it’s meant to be private. Write quickly and don’t focus too much on what to write so that you can more easily express yourself, you might be surprised by what you find. While journaling is a great tool for your health, it can only go so far. If you need an extra hand to help you feel your best, at BioCure we’re dedicated to your well-being by providing non-invasive rehabilitation treatments so every aspect of your body and mind is always feeling its best.
