After 20 Years of Journaling, These Are The Top Five Benefits I've Experienced

I have been journaling for over two decades. Yes, you read that right. I have been journaling for over 20 years. Though this hasn’t been a daily journal, I more than likely wrote about four entries per week. At 20 years with at least four entries a week, that’s a total of 4,160 journal entries! So, when I talk about the benefits of journaling, I have some big personal experiences to back it up.

I received my first journal when I was 10 years old, I could have been nine... Anyway, below are the top five benefits of journaling I have experienced over the years.

1. Journaling helps relieve stress or other uncomfy feelings

When I find myself hyperfocused and stressed about something, I pull out my journal. Whether the topic is about the past, present, or potential future, I know that writing about it will help my brain. Here are a few questions I answer as I write.

How Am I feeling?

Why am I feeling this way?

What’s the situation or circumstance that triggered these feelings?

Can I change what happened?

Do I need to respond? If so, how do I need to respond?

Where do I go from here?

2. Journaling helps clear out unneeded mental clutter and brings focus to the task at hand.

When I am feeling overwhelmed with my to-do list, for work or home, I simply pull out my journal and write it down. I call this a “brain dump.” In said 'brain dump' I record undone tasks, pending projects, new project ideas, emails & texts I need to respond to, and anything else stressing me out. All these things are on a constant scroll in the back of my mind, like the jumbotron at the sports game. Yes, it is that distracting for me. I get nervous that I’ll forget something, so the mental scroll would begin, reminding me of all the things. I find that when I journal about these things, I save myself a headache since I no longer have to remember what I've already written down. That way when I’m planning out my days and weeks later I can review the list and plan accordingly. I tried to be a multitasker for a long time, but all that bought me was micro progress on everything. Nothing ever really got checked off the list. This was, as you can imagine, very discouraging. Recording a daily 'brain dump' helps remove unneeded mental clutter and helps me focus on the task at hand.

3. Journaling helps me problem-solve.

People process feelings and problems in different ways. For me, writing things down helps me process emotions and problem-solve situations. When I write out the problem by hand, something occurs that helps me see things more clearly. I write what the problem is, what may have caused it, and any possible solutions. Sometimes solutions do not reveal themselves, right away. But, I find that the process of writing the problem down helps me to think through it in a new way. When I put the problem down on paper, it's like I've released it into my long-term memory. This helps my brain work on it in the background while I am free to focus on other things.

4. Journaling is a safe place for me to completely feel my emotions.

I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid, I wasn’t always able to express my emotions in a safe place, so I turned to my journal. When I wrote in my journal, I was able to be 100% authentic as I poured out my heart. As I wrote how I felt, I realized that I didn't have to hang on to all my feelings. What I needed was to acknowledge them and make space for them so that I could feel what I felt and let it go. I don't think I knew that’s what I was doing at the time. But now I understand that my feelings don’t define me. I just have to make space to feel them fully before I can move forward.

5. Journaling helps me record all my great ideas!

Have you ever had an amazing idea and by the time you try to write it down or work on it, you’ve forgotten some of the brilliance of it? I have felt this way before. And it's always such a bummer. This is where a journal comes in handy! If you keep losing your journals then you can try using the notes section on your phone to record your ideas. I like to use my daily journal for this because I have it with me all the time. And, because I index all my journals, I can quickly find the things I'm looking for later on. Indexing a journal is pretty simple. All you need to have is page numbers and 2-3 blank pages at the beginning of the journal. You can index as you go, or go back and index when the journal is full. I do both depending on how I’m feeling at the moment. The point is, I write down my ideas as thoughts as I have them. This way I don't lose out on an idea or profound thought and I can go back to it when the time is right.

Each of us has many things going on in our lives. It can be hard to keep things organized and process all of the emotions we feel. I’ve found that journaling helps me relax, reduce mental clutter, problem-solve, process emotions, and record my ideas.

So what about you? Have you given journaling a try? Let me know in the comments below!