Journaling- The New Medicine

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Journaling can be a therapeutic tool used to express emotions, work through life events or feelings.  Here are some benefits and tips to using a journal-

Benefits:
Lowers Stress and Anxiety
Journaling provides an outlet where you can effectively sort through and reflect on your thoughts and emotions in a non-judgmental environment. This can result in better health outcomes.

It Improves Mood and Feelings of Well-Being
When people continue to write expressively regularly, the practice is linked with improvements in mood and feelings of well-being. The biggest benefits come in the long term.

Tips:
Write whatever you’re feeling at the moment. The benefits of journaling come from being honest with yourself about whatever you’re feeling, and then expressing those feelings.

Ignore grammar and punctuation rules. Worrying about whether your spelling is correct or whether you’re putting a comma in the right place will only get in the way of you saying what you need to say. Don’t worry about these details. No one is grading you.

You only need to spend 15-20 minutes. The maximum benefit of journaling is reached in the first 15-20 minutes.  You can write more, but the benefits come even with that relatively short amount of time.

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