{"id":72,"date":"2021-03-03T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-03T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/healthinahurry\/?p=72"},"modified":"2021-04-13T16:53:47","modified_gmt":"2021-04-13T16:53:47","slug":"dear-diary-the-benefits-of-journaling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/healthinahurry\/2021\/03\/03\/dear-diary-the-benefits-of-journaling\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear Diary&#8230; The Benefits of Journaling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">What is the last thing you do before you go to bed? I found myself scrolling through social media for half an hour, at a minimum. Then, right before I\u2019d close my eyes, my mind would go wild. I reflect on the day, look at the past, and think of all the \u201cwhat ifs\u201d in life. All these thoughts just ate at me, costing me my beauty sleep.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">&nbsp;For the past month, I\u2019ve implemented something new into my nightly routine. Something to help lift the weights off my shoulders and, allow me to fall asleep faster. My solution: journaling. Right away you may think \u201cI\u2019m such a bad writer there is no way I could journal.\u201d My response to that is you don\u2019t have to be good at writing! There are many different kinds of journaling for you to choose what\u2019s best for you. Along with there being many kinds, there are also many benefits to journaling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Benefits to Journaling<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">As mentioned before, I feel much lighter after a journaling session. My mind is clear which allows me to fall asleep faster and improve my sleep quality. Depending on your journal style, you can also let your creativity run wild. Some doctors may suggest you keep a journal to log whenever you feel a certain way. Other times you just need to get something personal off your chest and rather not talk about it with anyone. Journaling can also:<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>manage anxiety<\/li><li>reduce stress<\/li><li>increase emotional intelligence<\/li><li>improve communication skills<\/li><li>help in the healing process<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">We all go through tough times but, sometimes we don\u2019t feel comfortable talking about it with someone else. Putting your feelings into words can be hard, especially when you\u2019re trying to talk to someone. While journaling, you can take a moment to reflect, and then you can write down your feelings.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Shaking the Journal Jitters<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">You don\u2019t have to be a good writer to journal. The nice thing about journaling is that there are zero rules you have to follow. No one else is going to read your journal unless you choose to share. While you&#8217;re writing, don\u2019t worry about spelling mistakes, grammar, capitalization, or any other rules. Just write like a mad man. Here are some tips to help kick off your journaling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Customize Your Journal.<\/strong>&nbsp;We aren\u2019t going to want to journal in public if we are too afraid to pull out a journal decorated from the second grade. Buy a journal that you like and customize it until you love it. Use a different colored pen for each entry or, press flowers between the pages. Anything you do to make you love the journal will make you want to write in it more.&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Bring your journal everywhere.&nbsp;<\/strong>I know earlier I was talking only about journaling before bed but, who knows when you are going to strike a thought and want to write it down? I carry my journal with me everywhere I go because it is right on my laptop. I downloaded a journaling app onto my MacBook that allows me to journal anywhere. The app can only be accessed through a password so I know no one will be able to get in. It is very easy to pull out my laptop anywhere and start journaling my thoughts.<\/li><li><strong>Don\u2019t reread your entries.<\/strong>&nbsp;One time I went back a reread one of my older entries and it brought back all the feelings that took a great while to forget. I use journaling to get my thoughts out and keep them out. Rereading the past did quite the opposite for me. If you plan to use your journal for this reason, I recommend not rereading the past.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">I can be bad at explaining my emotions. I also tend to bottle things up and just try to forget about them. All the things in the bottle were preventing me from being happy. As I\u2019ve started journaling I noticed I fall asleep better and do a better job of not hiding my feelings. I suggest putting journaling into your nightly routine and see what kind of difference it can make for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the last thing you do before you go to bed? I found myself scrolling through social media for half an hour, at a minimum. Then, right before I\u2019d close my eyes, my mind would go wild. I reflect on the day, look at the past, and think of all the \u201cwhat ifs\u201d in&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/healthinahurry\/2021\/03\/03\/dear-diary-the-benefits-of-journaling\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Dear Diary&#8230; The Benefits of Journaling<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8364,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28508,77787],"tags":[1459329,278,1459330,1459328],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mental","category-physical","tag-benefitsofjournaling","tag-health","tag-howtojournal","tag-journaling","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/healthinahurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/healthinahurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/healthinahurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/healthinahurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8364"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/healthinahurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/healthinahurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/healthinahurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions\/101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/healthinahurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/healthinahurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/healthinahurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}