Five Reasons to Keep a Journal

We all have hopes, dreams, concerns and goals — ideas that are worthy of our time and should be well thought-out. But life sometimes gets in the way of reflection. What if spending just 10 or 15 minutes a day reflecting could change your outlook on things? Would you invest your time and effort into something so worthwhile?

I hope you would! Writing in a journal daily or even weekly can help you tap into your inner source of wisdom. Here are five reasons you should keep a journal:

1. Track your progress: When you set a long-term goal, keeping a journal can be a very useful and powerful tool. You can record your progress day-to-day or week-to-week. As time goes on, you can look back through the pages and see how far you’ve come. Sometimes the simple act of writing is all it takes to motivate you to stick with your plan.

2. Manage stressful thoughts: How many times have you written a text or an email and later regretted it? Perhaps you said something you shouldn’t have, or you jumped to conclusions. Writing about your concerns and seeing your own words in black and white gives you all the perspective you need.

3. Record your life: “There is no such thing in anyone’s life as an unimportant day,” said Alexander Woollcott — and I couldn’t agree more! Recording your experiences in detail could serve as a historical document for you and your family.

4. Become more self-aware: Keeping a journal regularly will help you tune into your own thoughts and feelings. Writing is a great tool for self-discovery and can help you build self-knowledge and confidence. As you read through past entries, your words are evidence of the things that make you happy and the things that are distressful.

5. Improve your health: Recent studies have shown that people who write about their deepest thoughts and feelings as they relate to upsetting events have stronger immunity and visit their doctors half as often as those who do not journal. That’s easy! An entry a day keeps the doctor away!

What other benefits are there to journaling? Please share your thoughts.