Journaling to Relieve Stress and for Spiritual Growth

This has been quite a year, hasn’t it? It seems like we get past one crisis and then here comes another. Living through quarantine, COVID, surviving financial challenges, family life, can put a lot of stress on anyone. So, are stress relief techniques for women?  What are stress relief techniques for men? Are kids any different? The answer is a resounding NO! We are all stressed and looking for answers. It may seem simple, but journaling and incorporating journal prompts into your life and help. That is the focus of this blog post from www.100PageJournals.com.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention did an article recently on, “Mental Health and Coping During COVID-19” It is a really good piece with some information that will be unhelpful for just about everyone. We all know pandemics can be stressful. If we are honest, even without a global pandemic, we know life can be stressful. The question is – what are you going to do about maintaining your sanity. There isn’t one easy answer on how to fix anxiety in your life, but there is one easy thing you can start today.

Journaling may be one of the easiest ways to enhance your wellbeing on multiple levels. Along with physical activity (exercise of some sort), journaling can be a huge help. Mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health can all benefit from the practice of journaling. 

You may say, “I tried to do that once, it didn’t work.” Well, maybe you didn’t do it correctly. Maybe you weren’t consistent. Maybe you were too hard on yourself and were trying to be “perfect” with what you wrote. The key is to start where you are to get to where you want to be.

A research study out of New Zealand suggests journaling (writing) may even help wounds heal faster (Article in Scientific American). The sub-headline says it all, “Expressive writing may lead to faster recovery from injury.” Now, I’m suggesting writing is a fixer of everything that is hurting in your body, but who knows? I’m interested to hear what you think in the comments below.

Using journal prompts (or reminders) can keep you on track. Even if you tried in the past, this time can be different.

The good news is, you don’t have to be a New York Times Best Seller to start journaling – far from it. The other piece of good news is that you don’t have to worry about spelling, grammar, or punctuation. After all, this isn’t sixth grade English – it’s about expressive writing and helping yourself. 

What does matter is starting where you are, setting journal prompts for yourself and being consistent (whatever consistent means for you). At the end of the day, it is about the attitude, intention, and focus you bring to journaling. Your journal notebook is personal, private, and (hopefully) brutally honest.

If you are interested in journaling for women, men, teens, even children – Outstanding! Wanting to learn is why you want to write in your journal notebook in the first place.

Here’s the rub. If journaling or creating journal prompts was easy, you would already have everything in your life perfect, right? Probably not. But, you would likely be doing it on a regular basis. 

What is Journaling, anyway?

Journaling is writing down your thoughts and feelings for self-analysis, discovery, and to reflect. This is a good place for me to stress again, it doesn’t have to be perfect. I hope you’re getting the idea now. It’s not about being perfect, it’s about doing it.

And, before you say, “I’m not into all of that warm and gooey stuff,” give it a chance. You can work out a lot in your life if you know you’re not going to be judged for what you say (or in this case) write.

14 Benefits of Journaling

For such a simple thing, journaling benefits our entire existence. There is actually research to back this stuff up.

I already talked about healing your wounds earlier (If you buy into that. So that’s one. Here are 13 more benefits of journaling:

1. It is known for Calming Anxiety and Anxiety
2. It can Strengthen your Immune System
3. It can Enhance your Mental Health
4. It can teach you How to Deal with Depression
5. It can with How to Communicate with Others
6. It can help you learn How to Find Hope
7. It can help with extreme anxiety or PTSD
8. Journaling can help with Spiritual Growth
9. Journaling helps – Coping with Panic attacks
10. Researchers say Creativity Can Be Taught and is Helped by Creative Writing
11. Journaling Will Genuinely Improve Your Life
12. Journaling can Help the Grieving Process
13. Teaches you How to Use journaling for Loneliness

For more, read our blog on the best ways to get started journaling.