5 Reasons Why You Should Keep a Journal

Need a few reasons why you should keep a journal? Want to get inspired to journal more? Journaling is a great way to help improve your emotional and mental wellbeing, keep a record of your life, process your feelings, and help you see how much you’ve grown. Everyone should keep a journal!

I’ve been journaling ever since I could write.

My first journal was a Little House on the Prairie journal where you wrote about your best friend and what you liked to do together. It had a purple plaid border on it and a picture of sisters Laura and Mary Ingalls on the cover. I’m pretty sure it even came with a locket.

Over the years I’ve filled several notebooks, diaries, blog posts, and journals with my thoughts and feelings. My parents still have them all in a box in their storage unit! I love journaling for lots of different reasons, and I’ve gone through periods of writing every day to more recently, writing every few weeks. Keeping a journal has always been a big part of my life, and I honestly love doing it!

There are lots of reasons I enjoy journaling, but I’ve narrowed it down to my top five reasons I love to journal, and why you should journal, too, and I wanted to share them today! If you’ve wanted to get into journaling but haven’t ever felt motivated enough, this is a great post to help you get started!

Five Reasons I Love to Journal

1. Journaling improves my emotional and mental wellbeing

Sometimes when I sit down and try to process my feelings, I get distracted or quickly think of other things I should be doing (mom problems, am I right?). But if I sit down and write down how I’m feeling, I’m able to identify, accept, and process what I’m feeling, good or bad.

Sitting down and journaling also helps me get clarity when I’m trying to figure things out. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve felt lost at the start of a journaling session and then by the end, felt so much clearer.

Journaling helps me get perspective and recognize what exactly it is that I’m worrying about. It helps me both emotionally and mentally because it helps me understand and cope with the feelings and thoughts that I have. We all have rough days, especially as moms, and when we’re feeling overwhelmed or stressed or like we’re about to snap, sitting down and journaling helps a ton! There’s really nothing quite like journaling to regain peace and direction in your life!

2. Journaling is a way to document things for my posterity

I want my kids and my future grandkids to know what my life was like, what I went through, what I learned, and how I felt about different challenges and events in my life. I know very little about my grandparents and their lives, and I don’t want that to be the case for my kids and grandkids. Journals are such great records for posterity, and that’s one reason I love to journal.

I also have one journal for each of my kids that I call their “memory journals,” where I record what they’re like at different ages, funny things they do or say, and little updates about them each year on their birthdays. I know when they’re older and I give them to them, they’re going to be special treasures that they hold dear. And I love writing these things in journals because it makes them even more personal and unique gifts!

3. Keeping a journal helps me remember things

I am notoriously forgetful, and I know that if I didn’t write down how I felt during events in my life, I would definitely forget the details. Journaling is a way to help me remember the little things that mean so much to me. I love to write about the quiet moments when my kids have fallen asleep in my arms, how it felt to hold them for the first time, and what it was like when my husband and I first started dating. It’s fun for me to read these journal entries and have the memories come flooding back to me. There are some things you just never want to forget, and journaling makes it so that I don’t have to worry about that!

4. I’m a better writer than speaker and I get my thoughts down better when I write

As much as I would love to be a motivational speaker, I’d be terrible at it. Even sometimes in regular conversations my thoughts get away from me and things just come out a mess. I’m a much better writer and when I write, I am able to get my thoughts down a lot better. I don’t know if it’s taking the time before writing or making sure that I use the right words, but I’m definitely better at writing than speaking. So it makes sense that in order for me to get clarity, sometimes I need to write things down rather than talk them out with someone.

5. Reading my journal entries helps me see how much I’ve grown

Self-reflection is an important part of journaling, and I’m able to learn a lot about myself when I go back and read old journal entries. I can reflect on how far I’ve come, mistakes I’ve made and what I’ve learned from them, and really see who I am and what makes me who I am. I can also read entires right after I’ve written them and gain new insight and direction.

It’s important to journal so that you can go back and see all the challenges you went through and what you learned. Going back and reading old journal entries helps me remember past blessings I’ve received and helps me see how much I’ve grown, through high school, college, my early married life, having my first baby, all the way up to now.

I truly love journaling. It’s a wonderful outlet when I’m feeling stressed, it’s a great way to keep a record of my life, and it helps improve my emotional and mental wellbeing.

I also think that there’s really a way to make journaling enjoyable no matter who you are. There are so many different kinds of journals and pens to choose from, you can include pictures or old ticket stubs or even family recipes! There are even apps that can help you journal by giving you prompts or ideas to get started!

There are so many reasons why you should keep a journal. All you have to do is find what works for you and get started!