I will be the first to admit that I was 100% that kid who had a diary stashed under my mattress all throughout middle school. In the dead of night, flashlight under the covers Harry Potter style, I would pour out all my tragic preteen drama into my purple composition notebook before I fell asleep. Messy handwriting and 13-year-old mean girls aside, though, journaling has been one of the most grounding things in my life, particularly when I came to college. To this day, it remains one of my favorite ways to self-care in the midst of stressful papers and exams, and it’s something that keeps me sane. Here are a few of the ways that journaling can have a positive impact on your life!
- A place to keep mems!
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One of my favorite kinds of journal entries to write is recording something I know I’ll want to remember. I usually try to journal every night before I go to sleep, and if something particularly amazing happened that day, that will be the focus of what I write about. Keeping in mind all five senses, I try to write down specific details that I’ll never want to forget.
- Fun to look back on.
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The best part of writing down the things that happen is looking back on them later! Reading through my middle school journals as a woman in college has been a hilarious, cringey blast from the past and I’m sure that years from now I’ll have just have much fun looking at what I wrote when I was in college. It’s also a great way to see how you have grown up!
- A way to express creativity.
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Between research papers and studying pages of notes for exams, it can be difficult to find time to let our inner creativity shine through. Keeping a journal means there will always be a space for you to be expressive when you need to. A journal can be a home for jotted down poetry or random thoughts, and also artsy doodles and sketches!
- It belongs only to you.
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And by that I mean you’re not getting graded on it! It’s a place where you don’t have to worry about a test score or someone’s eyes looking it over, making sure it’s perfect. Your journal is yours and yours alone. It can be whatever you want it to be!
- It’s good for your mental health.
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It’s been medically proven that putting your thoughts physically somewhere else can reduce stress and anxiety, as well as overwhelmed-ness. This makes it a great form of self-care, since you’re doing something good for your mental health!
- It’s a way to incorporate mindfulness into your life.
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Believe it or not, journaling goes hand in hand with mindfulness. Mindfulness is the idea of appreciating each moment for what it is and relishing each breath. A large part of it is expressing gratitude. You may have heard of gratitude journals before, which are a specific kind of journal where your writing is directed toward reflecting on the things you are grateful for in order to better appreciate life and the world around you.
- There’s no better way to self-discover than to reflect.
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Similar to mindfulness is the idea of self-reflection. Nothing paves the way for introspection like spending some time with yourself, just writing. You may learn a lot about yourself!
- You’ll be a better writer in general.
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One of the best ways to get better at writing is just by doing it a lot! With anything, practicing makes you better at it, and the same is certainly true for writing. Journaling is an excellent way to improve voice and communication skills in general.
Convinced? Treat yourself to a beautiful new notebook or start in one that’s half filled with your biology notes! It doesn’t matter. If you’re having blank page anxiety, a quick click through Pinterest will reveal millions of different journal prompts that can help you find a place to start. Good luck with your journaling journey!