Journaling is a fun and relaxing activity that helps you express how you feel and what is running through your mind. As a senior, we want to keep your mind active and documenting is an excellent way to do that. While it may seem like a simple hobby, journaling has a lot of benefits for your mental health and self-awareness.
Here are some great reasons to develop a healthy journal habit:
To Document Our Experiences
Journaling is a beautiful activity because it helps you record your views and experiences of things in your own words. You can always go back to your writing and relive the moments and add to your experiences. This way, you can record important moments in life and even share them if you want to.
When it comes to journaling, you are as free as a bird to write things as you wish. Write it shorthand, write it in rhyme, write it in verse, it's up to you! Turn your life’s events into songs or use them as inspiration for stories.
Helps Us Manage Stress
Sometimes you may feel overwhelmed and stressed out and keeping a journal can go a long way in helping you express how you feel and deal with issues. It can help reduce anxiety and helps to explain events in your life. Use it as an opportunity to chat with yourself, set goals and encourage yourself, and gain insight into your own habits of thought. Another benefit of journaling is the ability to look back upon past events and remind yourself how you viewed a situation and what you decided to do about it. In the heat of emotions, we can often overreact or misspeak and journaling gives us an avenue for perspective.
Feel free to ask one of our in-home caregivers to assist in developing a journaling routine to help manage stress.
Helps with Memory
There is an old proverb that says the faintest ink is better than the sharpest memory. There is only so much our minds can hold at one time. Journaling is an effective way to help train and boost your memory. This is especially important as we age, once the days and details all seem to overlap. Journaling gives us the opportunity to actively recall memories and record them.
Great for Self Care
Journaling can be a part of your self care routine. Light some nice candles, put on your favorite music and find your cozy corner and make a routine of journaling. Life can often come at us extremely quickly and having a time to ourselves where we actively reflect and journal about our lives can be an excellent self-care routine. By journaling, we begin to learn more about our inner selves and it helps build our confidence. You will notice the positive effects of journaling almost instantly as you return to previous entries and begin to evaluate your needs and desires with more clarity. Keeping a journal is a simple way to spend time with yourself and come to understand yourself better.
Improves Your Communication with Others
Dealing with others can be hard sometimes and communication is not as easy as it seems. As we mentioned, writing your thought process is a way to relieve stress and give you a better perspective on your feelings. As a result of better understanding your feelings, you will improve at being able to express your feelings to others. You can also begin to see patterns in your moods and understand and come to understand how those moods affect your interactions with others.
While journaling helps improve emotional and mental well-being, it is still a limitless activity where you can approach it in the manner best suited to you. You can get journal materials in any design or form that resonates with you and start jotting!
We certainly encourage journaling and our caregivers would be happy to provide support and help make your experience more pleasant and meaningful. Reach out to us today for an in-home care provider that cares about your physical and mental well-being.
Comments