Studies show that putting your thoughts and feelings down on paper has numerous benefits.
Benefits of having a diary
- Most importantly, writing a diary or allows you to become more in tune with your values and emotions, set appropriate goals and cope with difficult situations.
- There is also a therapeutic element to writing which calms the mind and relieves stress, whether you write about serious issues or simply go over your activities that day. Putting feelings into words changes the way your brain deals with stressful information and makes room for other, more positive thoughts.
- Committing to writing a journal also creates a sense of achievement, as it gives you something to work on consistently.
Furthermore, research has revealed that writing concerns down before performing a task increases performance. Even ten minutes of writing can be beneficial. Organising information meaningfully and writing down the steps to a problem means that you don’t have to remember them all, and can instead focus on positive thoughts. Studies show that under pressure, people who are usually good at holding information in their short-term memory suffer big drops in this type of memory under pressure – so the more help you can give yourself, the better.
