A simple method that will help you organize your thoughts, reduce stress and find inner peace. Scientists confirm its effectiveness and the best part is that it is completely free.

We live at a time when our time is dangerously shortened, expectations are growing and our ambitions are growing. In this chaos we easily forget about the most important – Our mental well -being. The teeming thoughts, stress and an endless list of responsibilities are preventing us from focusing on basic questions: How do I feel today? What bothers me? What goals do I have? What am I proud of? What am I grateful for? However, there is an easy way to answer these questions while improving your mental health.

Journaling: pen and paper as the cheapest therapist

Journaling, or expressive writing, is not new. People have been writing their thoughts and secrets for a long time. Today, this form of organization of ideas and recording memories has become popular thanks to the social media, which described it as a free home form of autotherapy.

Mental well -being is as important today as body care. The newspaper management has become part of the routine of many people, like a drinking regime, exercise or healthy eating. It is an element of a lifestyle focused on health that improves the comfort of life and ensures peace.

More than just writing: surprising benefits for both body and mind

The benefits of logging are really impressive:

  • Increasing self -awareness
  • improving concentration and mood
  • a reduction in stress
  • Increasing creativity
  • support for troubleshooting

But that’s not all. In the 1980s, American social psychologist and professor of the University of Texas at Austin James W. Pennebaker, considered the creator of the expressive writing method, conducted an experiment. He asked a group of people to keep a diary for about 15 minutes every day. He randomly divided the participants into two groups: experimental, which was supposed to write about difficult life experiences and control, which was to write about less important topics.

At the end of the experiment, Pennebaker found that they had less often needed medical assistance compared to the control group of a person from the experimental group, taking less aspirin and more positively evaluated the overall effect of writing. This method, called “expressive writing”, is still considered an excellent form of support for psychological therapy.

Start right now: 5 minutes to change your day

You can start at any time. Do not wait for the first day of the new month or the next Monday. Do not postpone the decision to start writing later, as the benefits of it are not dependent on the “round date”. Experts recommend writing at least 5 minutes a day, during which you write down your thoughts and conclusions from this day, plans for the next days, advice for yourself, words of praise, support or gratitude. It is not important form, aesthetics or the number of words. The actual act of writing is important.

He has gained a huge popularity of the Trend 5 minutes Journal, where users show their notebooks, diaries, even available Journaling applications. You can buy ready-made 5-minute diaries in which you just need to fill the prepared sheets with questions or a place to express gratitude. Examples of questions you can find in the notebook or overwrite them into your diary:

  • What am I grateful for?
  • How did I feel today?
  • Should I improve something?
  • What have I achieved today?
  • Today’s pleasant experience:
  • What do I need today:
  • What I like:
  • What did I learn today?

In the long run, keeping the diary and expressive writing aimed at releasing difficult emotions and experiences guarantees improvement of mood, Better handling of stress and a noticeable reduction in the impact of negative experiences on our lives – this results from research published in the National Library of Medicine. It’s worth trying. You don’t need any training for this.

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