Writing a journal each and every day or occasionally is one of the most effective ways to decrease stress. When you write a journal basically you are writing about your feelings and thoughts related to your daily events, very similar as you would discuss same topics with your psychotherapist.
As an additional bonus writing about your problems and stressful events may motivate you to start thinking about possible solutions, which can also put your mind at peace as it seems that you are slowly but surely taking the control over your problems.
Journaling generally involves the practice of keeping a diary or journal, and it works best when it is done consistently, but even infrequent, sporadic journaling can still be stress relieving when the focus is on gratitude or emotional processing.
Journaling can also include writing about some traumatic events and in such case, it may help you to process them by fully exploring and releasing the emotions involved.
Health benefits of journaling, have been scientifically proven:
- It can improve cognitive function of the brain
- It can lessen the symptoms of asthma, arthritis, and other health conditions
- It can strengthen the immune system
- It can combat stress and prevent negative effects which are caused by it
Some experts are saying that journaling doesn’t release tension from your body like other physical and meditative techniques. But still it is a great tool for overall stress reduction as well as self-knowledge and emotional healing.
So, with that being said if you already have a journaling habit, by all means, keep it up! But if you’re new to journaling, there are several practices that you can try and choose from.
For example, you can try writing a gratitude journal: Some people regularly keep a daily journal where they list three or more aspects of each day for which they are grateful for.
A bonus benefit is that you will have a written record of the enjoyable things that have happened throughout your life, so if you’re feeling down in the future, you can open your journal and cheer up just by reminding yourself for the things you have to appreciate in life.
Or you can try emotional release, where you need to write about your emotional responses to events that have happened throughout the day, and this has also been proven as an excellent way of coping with stress.