Health
A Healthy Mind: 5 Reasons You Should Be Keeping a Journal
Guest Blogger: Harold Peterson
A journal or diary isn’t just a place to keep your thoughts. Writing can provide you with an outlet for stress and other emotions, leading to better mental and emotional health. From better health to developing solutions to problems, keeping a journal can enhance your life in many ways. Here are five healthy reasons you should be keeping a journal.
1. Reduce Stress
Nearly everyone deals with stressors of some type. A journal allows you to talk about things that you may not be able to in your daily life, whether about your own family relationships, work related issues, or personal feelings. When you write about the things that cause you to feel stressed, you can stop thinking about them. Experts in treating sleep disorders often suggest patients make a list of the things that keep them awake long after bedtime to promote restful sleep. When you write your thoughts down in a journal, you release some of the tension that you feel over the topics that cause you the most stress.
2. Boost Your Immune System
Studies have shown that those who write about their thoughts and feelings on a regular basis benefit from greater immunity to common illnesses. While researchers aren’t sure why people who keep a journal visit the doctor less, the statistics show that those who write their thoughts down visit their physician less than half the number of times as others.
3. Solutions to Problems
Writing in a journal is a simple way to solve problems. Writing down your problems and potential solutions allows you to creatively assess the situation and puts things into perspective. Writing allows you to really focus on the problem and opens up your mind to new solutions.
4. Creating Memories
Journals are something that will be treasured by friends and family members for many generations to come. Re-reading your old journals allows you to gain new knowledge about the patterns in your life and can help you look at the places, people, and events that have happened from a new angle. Keeping a journal is something that you will be able to use throughout your life as you work through the situations and events that occur each day.
5. Learning about Yourself
If the hardest person to know is yourself, a journal can be your greatest tool in learning more about your own life. Reflecting on past choices is just part of the puzzle of knowing yourself. You can also learn more simply by reflecting on the day as you write in your journal.
About the Author
This article was written by Dixie Somers. If you’re looking for the finest leather journal to record your thoughts and feelings, http://www.rusticoleather.com/leather-notebooks.html can meet all your premium leather journal needs.