Because journals have been around for a long time, people have learned a lot about how they can help. Writing in a journal has worked for everyone from Anne Frank to Leonardo da Vinci.
The Pros of Keeping a Journal
When thinking about how writing in a journal can help you, it's important to set some limits. First, you can start a journal at any age. Journal writing helps kids of all ages in different ways, but it also helps adults in the same ways. This is because writing in a journal is a way to think about yourself. It doesn't matter if a teenager is writing about the social nightmare of high school or if a parent who is too busy to do anything else is taking twenty minutes a night to write. The point is that people of all ages can learn from taking a few minutes to think about their lives.
Whether you know it or not, writing in a journal gives you a place to start each day. In the journal, you can write whatever you want and don't have to worry about being judged. This lets you really talk about the problems in your life without worrying about being judged. Another way to say this is that writing in a journal is like going to a therapist for yourself, but it's a lot cheaper!
As you keep a journal for a while, you'll start to notice a second reason why it's good to do so. This benefit is about being honest with yourself. You'll look back at your life when you read your old entries. Doing so will make you think about yourself and how you might act differently if you were in the same situation again.
Just as important, writing in a journal is good for your health. Before you click away from this article, think about a time when you were very angry. If you wanted to "get things off your chest," you probably talked to a friend. Didn't you feel a lot better afterwards? Getting things off your chest is a good way to deal with stress, which is one of the main causes of death in our modern world. Writing in a journal is similar because you can write down your thoughts without worrying about being judged.
Writing in a journal has other benefits, but they all come down to one simple fact. When you write in a journal, you can say what you want without being judged. In our modern, digital world, where we don't have much privacy, that's not a small benefit.
