Research in Psychosomatic Medicine finds that jotting down impersonal information can heal wounds faster, and researchers from Brigham Young University find that keeping a daily journal can significantly boost happiness and life satisfaction. But what exactly makes journaling so healthy? “Journaling creates a venue for the unconscious to express itself,” says Gayani DeSilva, MD, a clinical psychiatrist at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, Calif. “It’s an exercise of writing about experiences and feelings, which gives the writer a chance to examine internal conflicts. This allows for some progress towards resolution of a conflict.” Alexis Conason, PsyD, a clinical psychologist for a private practice in New York City, would agree. “The process of verbalizing your feelings is very therapeutic, with the main benefit being it gives people a chance to pause their day and reflect on what they’ve been experiencing and check in with themselves and their emotions.” These could be leftover emotions from your divorce, as was the case for Bialik, or it could be something else entirely. Whatever the case, journaling works best when you think of it as a love letter to yourself, says Tamara Hill, MS, a child and adolescent therapist. “I am a firm believer in journaling and solitude, which seem to be one in the same. You are re-organizing emotions and processing at deeper psychological levels the things you are writing about. While you are doing this, you are re-structuring your perspective, renewing your mind, and de-stressing by getting things off your mind and on to paper.” Sound like something you could get into? Dr. DeSilva suggests starting out with a fresh pen and notebook. “I ask [my clients] to spend a few minutes every day writing anything—what they have appreciated during the day, what they hope for tomorrow, what they like about themselves, what made them smile during the day, etc,” she says. (Get inspired by these joy-boosting journal exercises.) Though, in Dr. Conason’s opinion, it doesn’t matter where you journal—just as long as the platform enables you to take time outs. “If you wait for the perfect scenario, like an hour to yourself at home, on pages in a pretty lock notebook, it’s never going to happen,” she says. “You might have a thought on the bus, and if you wait until you get home, you’ll get distracted.” Keep in mind that entries don’t always have to be pages along. They can be as simple as two to three sentences, says Dr. Conason. “A lot of the benefits come from being able to just hash out feelings in an uncensored way, in a way you won’t feel judged by others,” she says. And yep, psychologists totally practice what they preach. “I have kept a journal since grade school,” says Dr. DeSilva. “Harriet the Spy was the story that got me started journaling. I used it to express anything and everything I thought and felt. Once I had written it in a private journal, I could contentedly spend time with friends and family, or go to sleep, without feeling that desperateness in the pit of my stomach of needing to tell someone about my angst.” More from Prevention: Love Your Life After Divorce Can Divorce Make You Happy?
