College is a time when we have to deal with so many new things and can experience a lot of stress. With all the studying, lectures, exams, and lack of free time, we might feel anxious and lost. That's why we must find a way to get ourselves together and not fall apart. One of the best ways to do this is to keep a journal.
Journaling is a healing, beneficial process, that can help you get through the worse times as a college student. It's also a good way to prevent mental health problems and keep progressing without stress. If you're thinking about writing a journal but aren't sure you should do it, just keep reading.
Here are 7 ways you can benefit from journaling as a student.
1: Unloading The Pressure
When you’re under a lot of pressure, you feel like you might burst. You also feel like it’s better to keep things inside and not talk about them too much.
But, the truth is, if you don’t speak about your problems, they’ll keep growing inside of you until they become too big for you to handle.
This is why journaling is a great idea:
- you don’t have to talk to an actual person
- you can say and write whatever comes to your mind
- you unload part of the pressure you’re feeling
Putting things on paper can be a huge relief for you. You’ll feel like you don’t have that pressure in your chest and you’ve gotten rid of a small portion of what’s bothering you.
2: Confronting Your Problems
Sometimes we feel anxious and stressed out but we can’t even pin down the problem that’s bothering us. If we don’t want to speak to a friend or someone close, we’ll find it hard to solve any problem we might have.
Luckily, journaling can help us with the process of solving a problem and finding inner peace. Here’s how it works:
- you write your journal without thinking
- you are 100% honest
- the problems will come out of you and transfer to paper
- by reading what you've written about for a previous couple of days, you'll be able to define the problem
Once you define the problem, you’ll be able to confront it and remove it. Suppressing your problems won’t get you anywhere and journaling can help you get straight to the point.
3: Positive Self-Talk
As a student, you’re very sensitive and afraid of failure. Expectations are high and you have a lot to achieve.
If you don’t believe in yourself, you won’t be able to get through those stressful moments and achieve the goals you’ve set.
A journal is a great place for you to use positive self-talk and get the support you need. It’s one of the best ways to get self-encouragement and start believing in yourself more.
You could write things such as:
- positive affirmations
- reasons why you know you’ll succeed
- encouraging citations
- motivational self-talk
This will make you a stronger and more independent person, and you'll develop the self-confidence you need for getting through college and life.
4: Handling Your Emotions
Getting emotional is a natural and normal thing. However, letting your emotions get the best of you can be harmful and dangerous.
A journal can teach you how to:
- understand how you feel
- understand the source of those feelings
- deal with different types of emotions
- learn from each new experience
- handle your emotions in a healthy way
By writing about your emotional state, you’ll be learning about your emotional side and strategies for keeping control over the situation. This will help you stay on track as a student, but it will also benefit you later in life.
5: Improving Your Communication Skills
To be able to conduct a healthy communication with others, you first need to learn how to communicate with yourself. Journaling can help you do this.
Here's what you're doing while keeping a journal:
- laying out different problems
- shaping meaningful thoughts
- learning how to deal with a problem
- learning how to listen to others when they’re speaking
By practicing this type of healthy communication with yourself, you'll learn a lot about communicating with others. This skill will be beneficial for you and the people surrounding you.
6: Reducing Stress & Anxiety
When we’re under pressure, or we don’t know how to solve a problem, we start feeling the stress.
Anxiety and stress are harmful to our mental and physical health and shouldn't be ignored. As a student, you're bound to feel stressed out and anxious at some point, and you must fight the problem immediately.
With this in mind, you need to give journaling a shot.
It will help you:
- define the cause of stress
- reduce the stress
- learn how to manage your anxiety
- lower your blood pressure and improve functionality
A stress relief such as this one is worth millions. Soon, you’ll find yourself writing in your journal every day as a way of taking care of your mental health.
7: Improved Creativity & Writing Skills
Finally, there’s one more impressive benefit you’ll experience from journaling as a student. You may not be aware of this, but journaling can be beneficial for your creative side as well.
Expressive writing such as journaling will help you improve both your creative and writing skills. You’ll learn how to:
- transform your thoughts into meaningful sentences
- structure a text
- use proper grammar
- express your ideas
- release your inner-creativity
In case you need more help with your writing skills, you can check out these essay service reviews.
Journaling is a great way to get your creative side going and improve your writing skills immensely.
Final Thoughts
As a student, you need to find a way to keep things in order. You also need to work on your self-confidence and improvement. Journaling can help you do all of the above.
The list we’ve provided lets you know about the great benefits you’ll experience while journaling. Now it’s time for you to try it out. Then you’ll truly understand the importance of journaling.
Author bio:
Daniela McVicker is a freelance writer and blogger. She has a master's degree in English Literature, and she is truly passionate about learning foreign languages and teaching. Daniela works with the students helping them to reveal their writing talent and find one true calling.
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