The Unexpected Advantages of Journaling—Start a Journal This Spring!

You may have a stereotype about people that journal including being a geek or a nerd.  However, skeptics will soon be dissolved by science. There are serious, unexpected advantages to journaling that may make you want to pick up a pen and start your own journal. And, what better time to start than this spring?

Communication Improves

Writing and speaking are connected in a critical way. It is a kind of written communication to keep a journal, even if you are talking to yourself. Even with this situation, actual vocalization still comes from getting those inner thoughts cleared through writing. This improves your communication immensely.

Self-Discipline is Strengthened

It is an act of discipline to set time aside to write. Whether you do this regularly in the evening or every morning, it reinforces discipline in your mind. The more you do this, the stronger it gets, just like exercising muscles. Habits you form in one life area tend to spread. Just as keeping your bedroom tidy and your office clean leads to cleaning up other areas in your life, such as your financial portfolio, writing daily begets healthy habits as well.

Boosting Comprehension and Memory

The brain and the hand are related and composing ideas and thoughts are what sparks this. Ideas are represented by words. Penmanship helps the mind think of more ideas as you write. Information covered previously is strengthened and forces you to recall things cognitively.

Emotional Intelligence

The ability to manage and perceive emotions is called emotional intelligence.  Keeping a journal helps you increase self-awareness and process emotions. This familiarity with your inner life gives you an empathy-bridge. You will then be able to understand what other people are going through as well.

Goal-Achievement

Often, journaling includes ambitions and dreams. The idea that written words help achieve goals might be something you feel is just in your imagination. The thing is, can a home be built with no blueprints? It is the same scenario. Goals that you jot down tell your brain what is important. Your brain then flags you when there are opportunities that are relevant to your goal. When you write down your goals in detail, this is as good as a psychological blueprint that gives you a greater chance of goal-achievement.

Encourages Mindfulness

For a very good reason, mindfulness has been a modern buzzword these days. There is a strong relationship between mindfulness and happiness. Keeping a journal helps bring you to a mindfulness state. Future anxieties and past frustrations lose their edges when you are in the moment. It keeps your mind focused from passive to active engagement with your thoughts.

IQ Enhancement

The University of Victoria has reported that journaling enhances IQ. As part of language, writing has a positive relationship with intelligence. If you think about it, journaling is language exploration. You will have natural urges to increase your vocabulary and search for new words. The study also suggests that overall intelligence is measured singly by intelligence tests by testing vocabulary.