Health – Journaling for health

The start of winter is upon us as May rolls into June – though admittedly it feels like we have already had enough rain to last us a lifetime.

All that aside this is the season for evenings spent rugged up on the couch. Before you reach for that smartphone though, hear me out.

The human brain makes up a mere 2 percent of our body mass, and yet it consumes over 20 percent of our energy demands simply to keep our body systems functioning! Keeping the brain healthy has been proven possible with a raft of activities such as reading, chess, Sudoku, crossword puzzles and more.

Another activity increasingly showing up in the cognitive function literature is the art of journaling. This is a habit that I personally adopted around seven years ago when first going into business ownership. My journaling is perhaps better described as ‘rambling’ as I use simple, plain lined A4 books void of dates, days or in fact any other detail. Along with the date that I write in the top right corner, the most common two headlines on any given page are “Thoughts” and “Headspace”.

Each journal of roughly 100 pages will last around two months, with the date ranges for each book written on the inside cover. Once completed it will be carried around along with its replacement for a week or two before joining the growing collection on the bookshelf at home.

Some of the personal benefits noticed include improved decision making, improved sleep and being able to process and work through challenges with less stress. I found myself able to better reflect on situations while writing by hand; often with tangents, arrows and diagrams thrown into the mix. For this reason an iPad or phone-based journal wouldn’t work for me, though I am aware there are some tech options out there. I have found that when facing a similar challenge to one encountered in the past, I am able to find the exact journal and page where I had written about it with almost photographic precision. Given I can hardly remember where my keys are on any given day (as my wife can attest to), this is rather surprising.

The research however shows why this is not a surprise. Journaling has been shown to improve memory, reduce stress, improve recovery from injury or trauma and create long term reduction in symptoms of anxiety and depression.

For some the habit takes a while to develop and may need a daily almost ritualistic approach. Others, such as myself, are more free-spirited, sporadic and random. Every entry certainly doesn’t need to start with “Dear Diary” but regardless of which approach is taken, I would highly recommend this to people of all ages and stages.

Get writing people!