Here is a blast from the past…Dear Diary. I know you are probably rolling your eyes, but stay with me. In this week’s Intentional Living, how going back to what we used to do as kids can actually help your health.
Sara Hooks is a Counselor at Lubbock High School and says, “journaling is an amazing stress management tool. It’s something simple and it’s free and it’s not time consuming.”
I’m not talking about the cute little diaries we used to have with locks on them. Journaling does more than just help you record your memories or find self-expression. It’s good for your health.
Hooks tells us, “sometimes when you get it out and get it on paper, it relieves some fo the stress you’re having because your stress can affect you physically, mentally, and emotionally.”
But before you grumble you don’t have time…writing your thoughts down about your day doesn’t need to take long. “we do get busy, and sometimes that is our excuse, our excuse not to self care to take care of ourselves, and so this is something simple you can do and sit down by yourself some quiet time alone time you can spend five or ten minutes you don’t have to do it every day to write your thought’s down and how you’re feeling and for a lot of people it takes a lot of burden off their shoulders and it takes five minutes of your day.”
Health benefits include strengthening emotional and immune functions, it can also boost your mood and help you let go of the weight of the day. Hooks says, “it kind of let’s your brain relax and gets it all out and it keeps you ready so you can go into a peaceful sleep. Some people just stay up all night just thinking about what’s coming. It’s proven it keeps your memory sharp.”
The best thing about journaling is that it doesn’t have to be anything big. It can be whatever your want it to be. “It can be a scratch piece of paper it can be a book that you keep it doesn’t matter, it’s whatever you want to keep your thoughts in.”
Just remember you can be any age to journal and it’s not something you have to share with anyone else.
