Journaling to Heal and Ease Your Stress | Tips for Your Wellness

At times, stress can feel inescapable. Many people have chosen journaling as way to ease the negative effects of life’s pressures. Learn tips from us below that may help you manage your stress.

Benefits Of Journaling For Self-Healing

Journaling is a healthy practice that can help a person's mind get rid of thoughts that may be troubling them. Journaling can help to clarify all the mind fog by writing down everything. Just like writing a math problem on paper, once you have a question written before you, it can be easier to find the answer. Similarly, when you hash out traumatic or bothersome thoughts on paper, you're stepping one step closer to healing. 
People have used journaling for stress healing, recovering from a traumatic incident, reducing anxiety, leaving negative thoughts behind, and for emotional healing.

A research project was focused on critical reflective journaling. After collecting data from 236 nursing students, researchers found that students could identify their mental health issues after writing journals. Moreover, in a recent 2020 study, researchers led 96 patient/family members in three-minute mental makeover activity. In which they wrote a journal concurrently. The survey results indicated that the majority of the patient/family members reduced stress after the activity. Another research demonstrates that journaling can help you get rid of mental distress and increase mental wellness and quality of life. 

Moreover, you'll get to know yourself more day by day. When your mind is stuck in chaos, journaling can help you bring it back to order. Soon, you'll be able to identify the trigger points that make you emotional, stressed, depressed. Also, you'll point out your fearful feelings and find a way to combat those feelings. In private, journaling is an opportunity for you to process your emotions in a safe and trustworthy space. It'll be easier for you to name your emotions in private, such as fear, love, trauma, etc.

How to Use Journaling for Stress Relief 

As adults, we often face difficult times when the world feels wrong and walls close in. At such times, we tend to keep ourselves busy at work or just lay on our beds and overthink for hours and hours. Despite all that, you should pick up your diary and start journaling!

Journaling is a healthy habit in which you record your feelings, emotions, ideas, and many more things by writing them down in a diary. 

You can write your journal anytime you like. However, the best time to write a journal is before sleeping. That's when you are loaded with all the thoughts of the day and are eager to express everything happening inside your mind and heart. Moreover, you can keep your journal in your handbag/backpack, so whenever you feel depressed or stressed, take it out and start writing your feelings. 

5 Tips for Using Journaling For Healing:

Following are some valuable tips about journaling for healing.

1. Keep It Simple

   In the beginning, don't overdo yourself; keep things simple and plain. Start by writing one page daily. Initiate with how your day went, what you did, what you eat, and then head towards what you felt all day long. Don't head straight towards the feelings part; there are chances you can end up overwhelmed and more emotional than ever. It's your space to create; you can write in any writing style, language, or form you like.

2. Develop A Habit For Journaling

   Once you start journaling, you'll build a habit of it slowly. Journaling habit doesn't mean that you need to do it daily, but it'll feel like a pleasant feeling even when you're writing after a day or two. You can use different types of journaling for stress relief, such as writing on a black document on your laptop, a diary, a notepad, etc. However, it's better to keep a journal/diary, writing down things with your hands as you can shape your own words based on your feelings. 

3. Try To Be More Expressive

   A 2018 research shows that expressive writing can be used as a therapeutic tool to battle traumatic events of psychiatric patients. You don't need to hold back your emotions when writing a journal, as the primary purpose of all is to reduce stress and provide emotional healing. Express everything that burdens your heart and mind, and let that weight get off your chest. There should be no fear of judgment as no one other than you will read that journal of yours. Express your feelings and stop worrying about how good or bad you'll sound writing it out loud. Let the words flow freely because no one's watching!Gratitude Journal 

4. Name a portion of your journal as a gratitude journal.

   After writing down all the emotions, hurt feelings and stressful thoughts, turn to the gratitude part of the journal and enlist at least three blessings in your life. This way, you'll be able to leave the negative thoughts behind and focus on the good things happening in your life. Pantry Food Co is offering a promotion where you can get a free gratitude journal by buying any product of ours. Just purchase any one of our products and get a free all-new gratitude journal for yourself!

5. Make It A Time

   Journaling can be a way of enjoying "Me Time." Just take some time out of your busy routine in the environment where you feel the most comfortable and yourself. A place where you are not interrupted by any outside distraction. A place where only your thoughts follow you.