Journaling was once thought to be an activity for little girls. You see the denim-covered diaries with tiny lockets and you can only imagine all of the juicy details about cartoons, crushes, and emotions. I don’t think having a diary is childish at all though because I know just how healing writing can be.
I went to schools that encouraged emotional expression in all of its forms, whether it be through acting, painting, music, or writing. I also had a bookworm/writer for a mom who constantly filled notebooks with songs, ideas, and thoughts. When I moved to New York in my late teens, I didn’t know anyone and wanted a way to speak about what my new life was like. That may have been one of the first times that I finished a journal.
In a cover story for Monitor, writer Bridgette Murray discussed how writing can have physical benefits.
“Writing is no stranger to therapy. For years, practitioners have used logs, questionnaires, journals and other writing forms to help people heal from stresses and traumas…Now, new research suggests expressive writing may also offer physical benefits to people battling terminal or life-threatening diseases.
Studies by those in the forefront of this research–psychologists James Pennebaker, Ph.D., of the University of Texas at Austin, and Joshua Smyth, Ph.D., of Syracuse University–suggest that writing about emotions and stress can boost