Benefits of Journaling
In Guided Parenting, parents need to use the tool of reflection in order to understand triggers, see patterns and lessen anxiety. Journaling is a great reflective practice that can help with this.
Milestones
5 minutes
Introduction to Journaling
Welcome to the first day of the Benefits of Journaling Pathway. We will be looking at the major benefits of journaling and how that fits into Era’s Guided Parenting framework.
Let’s start with a general overview of journaling and why it is particularly important for parents.
Journaling is the practice of writing down your thoughts, feelings, experiences, and reflections. Although around 50% of the population has kept a journal at some time in their lives, only 8% keep an active practice. And this is despite the fact that 73% feel that journaling benefits them.
They are right. Research shows that there are many benefits to journaling, including improved mental and physical health, self-discovery and boosting confidence. Journaling can also inspire you, improve your memory, accomplish goals and keep records of events that may fade in your memory over time.
Furthermore, journaling is a powerful tool for understanding your emotions and reactions. Writing about troubling or inspiring situations helps clarify your thoughts and identify emotional triggers. By approaching the process with honesty and minimal self-judgment, you open the door to self-discovery. This practice deepens your awareness of your strengths, challenges, and the environments where you thrive, ultimately fostering personal growth and emotional resilience.
In Era’s Guided Parenting framework, we ask parents to use the tool of reflection in order to understand triggers, see patterns and lessen anxiety. This understanding will help you become a better parent and help your child form a more secure attachment. Journaling is a great reflective practice that can help with this.
Reflect: What do you hope to get out of the experience of journaling? Do you wish to become more reflective, mindful, or perhaps to keep a record?
Let’s end today’s lesson with a journal prompt that could help you as a parent.
Reflect: Name the people in your life that make you feel most at ease. What is it about them that makes you feel this way?
Mental Health
In the last session, we talked about how journaling is a great tool for understanding your emotions and reactions. Today we will dive further into the mental health benefits that are gained through journaling.
As we mentioned in the last session, writing helps us gain a sense of agency over our personal experiences, enabling us to view them with greater clarity and perspective. Journaling has been shown in studies to alleviate anxiety and emotional distress while enhancing resilience, allowing individuals to better manage challenges. Remarkably, these improvements can become noticeable within weeks and persist over time, demonstrating the power of consistent reflection through writing.
These benefits do depend on the type of journaling you are doing. In other words, what you write about matters. The best results come from emotion-based journaling rather than just writing down your day’s events.
Another type of journaling that has the capacity to improve your mood is keeping a record of what you are grateful for. This “gratitude” journal can help you see your life in a more positive light. Writing down inspiring thoughts, humorous things you have heard throughout the day and good things that happened to you can also have this effect.
For people with anxiety, writing down their swirling thoughts can have a calming and organizing effect. By putting thoughts on paper, we can break free from cycles of overthinking, offering the brain a chance to pause and reflect.
(Note: there are other effective ways to journal such as keeping an audio journal or using apps such as Era)
Journals can also be used to set goals. The act of writing down a goal can help you stay motivated to accomplish it. You can use the journal to keep track of your progress and if you meet your goal, it can raise your self-confidence.
Reflect: Spend a few minutes writing about something that happened to you today, how you reacted, and how it made you feel.
Reflect on how you feel before and after writing. Did exploring your experience through journaling help shift your perspective or feelings?
Physical Health
In the last session we talked about the mental health benefits of journaling. Today we will look at how journaling can improve your physical health.
In the past three and a half decades numerous studies have been conducted to study the effects of journaling on physical health. The results are that there is a significant correlation between journaling and improved long-term health outcomes including illness-related trips to the doctor, days spent in the hospital, lung and liver function, blood pressure and immune-system functioning.
These outcomes were a result of a specific type of journaling which the studies call, “expressive writing,” where participants were asked to write for 20 minutes a day for four or five days in a row about their
“very deepest thoughts and feelings about the most traumatic experience of your entire life or an extremely important emotional issue that has affected you and your life.”
Interestingly, this exercise showed both short-term benefits for physical health and significant long-term improvements, even for those who didn’t continue journaling.
With results like these everyone should be journaling!
Reflect: Spend a moment thinking about what you would write about if you were given these instructions.
What are your thoughts after learning about these studies? Has it changed any intention that you mentioned in Day 1?
Getting Started
Welcome to the last day of the Benefits of Journaling Pathway. In the last session we talked about how “expressive writing” can lead to improved physical health. Today we will look at some ways to help you journal on a regular basis.
Journaling is not the only reflective practice that you can do to improve your parenting. There are plenty of other pathways that __help you reflect and build practices that can help you parent more effectively__. However, since you are in a journaling app, we will assume that you either want to start keeping a journal or that you would like to gain the same benefits as someone who does.
To get started:
- Choose a time: Try to work it into a routine you already have. Get in bed or wake up a little earlier to make time for it at the beginning or end of your day.
- Make it doable: Start small. Commit to one sentence a day, you can always increase when you feel like it.
- Set an alarm if you need to: Hopefully, your need for this will end as it becomes part of your daily routine.
- Remember: There is no “right” way to journal. Different types of journaling have different results, but they all have a purpose. Start today.
Reflect: What time will you set aside for journaling? How much time will you spend? Set that alarm while you are thinking about it.
The good news is you’ve already started journaling by reflecting and responding to Era’s prompts. While digital journaling is great, there’s also value in writing by hand—research shows it improves brain connectivity. If you choose to journal before bed, handwritten is better since it will keep you off screens.
Whether you prefer handwriting or using the app for more in-depth entries, Era is a great starting point. If you’re unsure where to begin, simply review what Era has written for you and let that inspire your next steps.
Let’s end with a quick journal entry. Choose a prompt:
Write three things you are grateful for.
Think about the last time you cried. What made you cry?
What is one thing that went well for you today?
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