I tried repeatedly as a teenager to keep up a habit of journaling, but I usually wouldn’t stick with it for longer than a few months. But on October 3rd 2023, I wrote my first journal entry in about 15 years, and now, two notebooks and almost a year down, it’s a vital part of my life. 

I started journaling again because I was in the midst of a creative slump, and I decided to try to use Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages method (from the book, The Artist’s Way) to get re-inspired. The practice of writing completely in stream-of-consciousness soon fell off, but I enjoyed just sitting down each day and writing whatever I felt like, and so the habit stuck. And somehow, I still write exactly 3 pages!

I don’t necessarily write every single day now, but I still write in my journal regularly, and I’ve found a lot of benefits to it that I wanted to discuss in this post. It’s probably not for everyone (and I will discuss some downsides at the end), but if you’ve never journaled before, I really recommend trying it. 

So here are some benefits I’ve found in journaling: 

It’s good for memory keeping.

One of the most basic functions of journaling is memory keeping. For a lot of people, journaling is just about documenting their days, and is something they can look back on for years to come, to see what they were doing. 

My own journaling involves some memory keeping, but is more about getting my feelings out. But I still think it’ll be interesting for me to look back on in the future, to see where I was in my life when I wrote the entries. 

I do also think that the act of recording things can also help strengthen your memory, so that’s also a benefit!

It allows you to get things off your chest.

For me, one thing I’ve found most useful about journaling is getting things off my chest. As a person prone to being anxious and pessimistic, I live in my head quite a lot, and so I’ve found it really beneficial to purge myself of a lot of negative feelings on the page. 

Does it make me feel completely better? No, but I have found that letting it all out allows me not only to feel a little better but also to look at things rationally. Which leads me on to the next benefit of journaling…

It helps you process your emotions.

As well as letting you get your emotions out, I’ve also found journaling helpful for allowing me to process my feelings, and really understand them.

When my thoughts are swirling in my head, they’re just a confusing mass, but the act of having to put them into words and place them on the page, and then being able to read them back has really helped me to process my feelings, and start to make changes. I feel like this has helped me work through several problems in my life, and has been really beneficial overall for my mental health. 

It allows you to explore your interests.

As someone with multiple slightly niche interests, there’s only so much chattering about it you can do to people in your life before they get bored (unless they share your interest). So one thing I love to write about in my journal is my interests, and it’s another fun way to explore my hobbies. 

That’s why my journal probably wouldn’t be overly interesting to a lot of people, as a lot of it is me discussing my latest fountain pen purchases, plus the games I’m playing and books I’m reading.

It’s good for creative expression.

One of the original reasons I started journaling was to try to reinvigorate my creativity, and I feel like that has definitely worked. Your journal can be anything, so if you want to fill it full of poetry, or drawings, or plaster it full of stickers, you can do that.

So far my journals have just been writing, but I’ve used it to think through some of my creative projects, and when I start my next notebook I am considering bringing some more creative aspects into it (inspired partly by some of the beautiful journal spreads I see people doing on Instagram and Youtube!). 

It could be interesting for future generations.

Throughout history there have been a lot of famous diarists whose work is read even now. Most of us won’t become famous through our journals, but for a lot of people, they like the thought that after their death their family members will be able to read their journals.

Personally, my own journal isn’t like that, and I’d rather they were just thrown out after my death (my family probably don’t want to read my in-depths thoughts about each of my pens after I die!), but leaving a legacy to your family could be a potential benefit to keeping a journal. 

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However, despite all these benefits, there are a few downsides to journaling too:

It could lead to overthinking and wallowing in negative emotions.

One thing I’ve had to be careful about when journaling, particularly because I use it a lot to process my emotions, is to not let it become just a way to wallow in negativity. At certain points when I’ve been having a tough time, most of my entries have just been me stewing on things, and without actually trying to work through things and come up with solutions, it can make you feel much worse. 

So now when I feel myself being constantly negative I make sure I’m actually coming up with a plan to work through those thoughts, and I try to bring in some positivity. 

It could become a chore.

My early failed attempts to keep a journal usually went wrong because I felt like I had to write every single day, and it became a chore. As soon as it becomes a chore, I feel like it’s no longer helpful, even as a memory keeper, because there’s no joy in it. That’s why I no longer write every single day, only when I feel like it. 

Someone else could read it. 

One big downside of journaling, is that in a lot of cases you’re putting your private thoughts out there in a physical form. This can be extremely beneficial to you, but it does also mean that those thoughts are now at risk of being seen by someone else. 

Of course your journal should be a private space just for you, unless you invite someone in, but not everyone respects people’s privacy. Personally, I’m lucky, because I know I could leave my journal wide open on a table and I don’t think anyone in my family would spare it more than a glance. But that isn’t everyone’s situation and is something to bear in mind if you have nosey people in your life. 

So do you journal? What do you think are the pros and cons of it?