Imagine this: You just lost a science competition. You came up with a creative experiment from scratch and spent hundreds of hours researching and conducting the experiment. The team who won had a college professor guiding them through the entire process. You feel that the results of the competition are unfair. You don’t want to tell your parents or friends because you’re afraid that they won’t be able to sympathize with you. But you know you need to let it out.

This is when you can turn to your journal.

Journaling is writing down your thoughts and feelings to understand them more clearly. Though you may not realize at first, journaling brings tons of benefits that help us navigate through life.

Your journal is a safe space to let out your feelings

Opening up to others can be difficult, but you can start to get your feelings out by taking out a journal and writing down anything that comes to your mind.

A paper or a screen does not look you in the eyes and judge you. It doesn’t laugh at you or question why you feel the way you do. You are free to jot down anything you want in your journal. You don’t have to worry about what others think.

I often write massive walls of text in my journal, complaining about frustrating things in my life. Sometimes, I can’t find the right person to talk to about my negative emotions, so journaling has become a great way to let all my feelings out, and I feel much better after writing them down.

In fact, one of the main benefits of journaling is improved mental well-being. This is a healthy way to deal with overwhelming emotions, manage anxiety and depression, and reduce stress.

Journaling is self-reflection and helps you articulate your thoughts

One of the most important benefits of journaling is self-reflection. When journaling, you’re giving yourself time and space to calm down and chew on your thoughts. Even though you’re writing your experience from a first-person point-of-view, you are able to view your experiences and feelings as if you’re an outsider.

Writing down and viewing your personal experience more objectively helps you gain a deeper sense of self-awareness. As you reflect on why you feel certain emotions, you become better at identifying triggers of your negative emotions and learn to control them. As a result, you learn and you grow.

Also, when you write down your frustrations or troubles, the issues that once stressed you out often appear trivial. It’s not that the problems magically disappear, but rather, you realize that you were overthinking it, making yourself feel overwhelmed. As a result, these overwhelming feelings sometimes dissipate.

During the process of self-reflection, you also improve your articulation skills. Human emotions are complex. Sometimes, it’s difficult to say what you think. Journaling allows you to sit down and organize your thoughts, imposing some logic on an otherwise confusing train of feelings. Instead of bouncing around idea to idea in my brain, I have to fully think and connect my thoughts, which makes them more clear.

The ability to express yourself clearly is an essential skill. By journaling, you learn how to articulate your thoughts and feelings. Over time, journaling helps you become better at communicating effectively, which reduces misunderstandings and helps you build stronger relationships.

Writing a journal preserves memories and records of your growth

For people who, like me, have the memory of a goldfish, journaling is a great way to keep track of things that happen in life. Rather than relying on fragments of your memory, you get a written record of your daily life, thoughts, and feelings.

Most of the time, we only remember major events that happen to us. We often forget the trivial things that happen in life, yet they are the moments that bring us the most happiness. In a journal, you write down all kinds of experiences. When you look back, you can reconnect with the minor details, and re-experience the joy, excitement, and challenges you faced in the past.

–

Everyone should journal. Whether you want to share how lucky you are to have caring friends around you, or vent about how miserable you are about troubles at home, your journal is a sacred place that can hold all your thoughts.

Committing to keeping a journal can be hard, but it surely is worthwhile.