The Benefits of Journaling

I'm sure there are dozens (if not more) of blog posts and articles talking about journaling. What's one more? This is not an exhaustive post; I'm sure I'll miss a few benefits (feel free to mention any more in the comments!). So why write yet another blog post? Well, I've been journaling for about thirteen years and I thought maybe my experiences would be helpful to someone.

I'm a memory person. Photos, videos, mementos... anything that can help me remember an event or person, I want to save it. In that regard, I can kind of be a hoarder. This is my first benefit of journaling - it helps you save memories. But not just the memory of the day or event. No, journaling is YOUR personal recollection. It's the record of how you felt, what you experienced, what you liked and what you didn't. I might recall an event happening, but will I remember the emotions?

Another thing that I love about journaling is that it helps process things. Now this benefit is specific to internal processors. Some people are better at working through tough things when they think about it and write it down. Others are talkers. I believe anyone can benefit from journaling, but this specific one probably isn't as helpful to external processors.

I am definitely an internal processor. I can appreciate a discussion and sometimes that's necessary, but more often than not, I find clarity in confusion when I can write it all down. There is something about figuring out the way to put the thoughts into words that orders jumbled thoughts. Can anyone else relate?

Lastly - and this one may be because I'm an internal processor, but you can let me know if external processors benefit from this too - journaling helps get it all out of your head. If something just keeps going round and round in my mind and I write it down in my journal, more often than not, it stops bothering me. I can stop thinking about it all the time.

I received my first journal from my grandmother in 2007. It had dolphins on it and I loved dolphins at the time. The pen even had a dolphin carved into it on the end! How cool! That first journal lasted me years because I was very sporadic at writing. I could go months between entries and then just write once before another long break. Looking back, I regret my lack of writing. This year is the ten-year anniversary of a health scare I had and I barely mentioned it in my journal. I wish I had more detail to look back on.

At some point, I decided I was going to start the habit of writing every day. My granddad journaled every day and I could do it too. So I went to the other extreme. I got very legalistic about it, to the point where I would get mad at myself if I missed a day or I was stressed about if I would have time to journal. Not good. I wrote every day, but it wasn't with the best mindset. I don't regret having all those days recorded, but I do regret the angst I put myself through.

Now, I'm kind of in between. I certainly don't write every day, but it probably works out to about once a week. I record fun things, exciting things, new things, but I also record my thoughts and feelings and do a lot more processing than I used to in previous journals.

My journals show my growth. They show how I've changed and learned. They record happy times and sad times. They bring back memories and tears. I might look back one day and wish I had written about such and such or just written more, but at this time in my life, it's working for me. If there is one thing I've learned as I've grown up, it is to have balance. Not let things and schedules control you, but work for you. I went from not controlling my journaling to letting it control me to now making it work for me so I think I'm in a pretty good place.

Do you journal? Have you tried or do you want to try? There are so many great ways to journal, from five year journals to bullet journals to lined and unlined books. My granddad used Microsoft Word and journaled on the computer.

If you are a journaler, do you have a favorite company or product or do you just use what you find when you need a new one? I'm trying to find a new journal and this is the first time I'm being specific about what I want. It's proving to be challenging!