6 Mental Benefits to Journaling

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Journaling is one of the best media to improve your mental health. Journaling could reduce stress, to highlight the priceless things in life that are often left unappreciated. Quoting Healthline, below are the six benefits of journaling for your mental health:

1. Reduces stress

Several studies found that journaling could help release immense stress while we are feeling overwhelmed. For example, patients, families, and medical practitioners in a children's hospital reported that their stress is reduced after journaling exercises. In a further study after 12 to 18 months, it was found that 85% of the participants said that journaling helps reduce their stress while 59% continued with their journaling exercises after the studies were concluded.

2. Increases health and prosperity

A study in 2018 found that writing about our deepest thoughts and emotions contributes to healthier mental health and prosperity, which reduces stress-induced doctor visits.

3. Throws away negative thoughts

Negative thoughts and anxiety could easily ensnare us, causing us to be trapped in jumbled, tangled thoughts. Writing down these thoughts could create a space and room to look at the problem at hand objectively. A clinical psychologist from New York, Sabrina Romanoff, said that the space is formally called cognitive defusion, which helps with acceptance and commitment.

4. Regulates emotions

There are many people who go through the motion of life every day without paying attention to their emotions or even actively suppressing them. Emotions will always find a way to the surface and affect how we act subconsciously. Journaling will give us a chance to process and understand a specific emotion that we feel at a specific time and to accept it. Thus, we will be able to regulate our emotions easier.

5. Anticipates the next steps to take

Jotting down our thoughts and feelings about a certain situation is the first step to realizing what measure and step we should take next. Writing a journal could give a crystal clear picture of what we actually need or want out of a situation.

6. Self-actualization

Similar to a puzzle, people could find different patterns and parts in themselves every day. Writing a journal helps us to connect deeper with ourselves, and find who we are within. While writing, we learn more about our preferences, our pain, fear, and dreams.

ANTARA

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