BENEFITS OF JOURNALING FOR A HEALTHY MIND

Mama Nkechi, a middle-aged woman, who lived in Lagos felt overwhelmed with everything happening around her. After each day, she felt stressed out and tired from the day's activities. Gradually, her blood pressure began to rise. She could feel anxiety creeping up on her slowly. She confided in her best friend at work who encouraged her to start journaling to become less stressed. Mama Nkechi took to this advice, and she discovered that she felt better after each episode of journaling. Her blood pressure began to normalize and the wall of anxiety around her began to crumble. She could no longer go a day without putting her thoughts into writing. 

Journaling is the act of writing down your thoughts, feelings, and daily experiences. Journaling have been found to be beneficial to the physical and mental health. Taking just 15-20 minutes a day of journaling is enough to see the mental health benefits. It can be a healthy way to cope with the stress and anxieties of life. Studies have shown that regular journaling can help to ease stress, manage anxiety and depression, promote emotional regulation and lots more. 

1. Journaling helps to establish healthy coping skills: Coping skills are the habits that help individuals to navigate through life's challenges and painful experiences. Everyone has a coping skill, whether it is healthy or not. Journaling helps individuals to recognize the positive and negative habits that they have developed for dealing with stress and challenges. It can also serve as a way of dealing with life's challenges.

2. Journaling helps in stress reduction: It has been scientifically proven that journaling helps to reduce stress level and symptoms of anxiety promoting a sense of calmness and emotional balance. Research has also shown that journaling helps to lower blood pressure and improves one's mood. Writing down your experiences helps in the identification of patterns and triggers of stress and anxiety, thereby making it easier to address and manage these emotions.

3. Journaling is a healthy way to release and process emotions: Inability to release and process emotions in a healthy way affects relationships, physical and mental health. Journaling helps individuals to understand their emotions better. It offers an opportunity to express one's emotions in a safe, private space without fear of judgement instead of pushing down uncomfortable feelings.

4. Journaling helps to improve the cognitive function: Journaling helps to improve the cognitive function by enhancing critical thinking and problem-solving skills. It helps individuals to see situations from different perspectives, leading to better decision-making.

5. Journaling enhances self-awareness: Journaling helps individuals learn things about themselves that they have not realized before. It encourages individuals to delve deeper into their inner world. It helps them to discover and identifytheir values, beliefs, and aspirations. This self-awareness leads to greater self acceptance and confidence as well as enhancing improved relationships with others.

6. Journaling helps in goal setting and tracking personal growth: Journaling helps individuals to articulate their goals in writing, thereby clarifying their intentions and creating actionable plans. Tracking one's progress regularly in a journal also helps to support motivation and accountability. It fosters a sense of achievement and progress which leads to fulfillment, a necessary recipe for better mental health.

Are you feeling overwhelmed and stressed with life's day-to-day activities, try journaling, and watch the stress take a back seat.

NB We are bio individuals which is to say not all size fits all. Prioritizing yourself and your journey with the support and guidance of a health coach will further help in your progress and such a person would be able to get detailed information about themselves that could facilitate results.