The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognizes how journaling positively impacts one’s health. Journaling helps people in a variety of ways, including keeping a food and activity diary for those individuals dealing with diabetes or other physical diseases dependent upon diet and exercise. Furthermore, keeping a diary allows one to pinpoint reasons for stressful events, whether they be sporadic or consistent, and lead to solutions through reflection.
The positive powers of journaling include:
- Boosting creativity
- Improving memory
- Problem-solving
- Understanding your strengths
- Identifying your challenges
- Clarifying thoughts and feelings
- Managing stress
- Recognizing one’s successes
Journaling is a common part of recovery from substance use disorders (SUDs) due to the many positive outcomes provided by writing down your thoughts and feelings.
Writing Positively Impacts Recovery
Journaling may help one continue on the path of long-term recovery by revealing challenges and managing stressful thoughts or situations. Since writing down one’s thoughts is a reflective action, it is an important tool in recovery and maintaining sobriety. Everyone is busy in their lives, and life does not just stop because you need a break. When one is focused on recovery from drugs or alcohol, navigating through life events may be difficult.
For example, anticipating attending an upcoming wedding or birthday party may lead to thoughts of how to avoid alcohol at these events. These thoughts may create stress, which one can alleviate by self-reflecting through writing and engaging in positive self-talk. Journaling allows one to contemplate these problems, question what to do next, and examine the direction in which one will take.
Writing Even Improves Physical Health
Processing emotions through writing exercises not only positively impact mental health, but it also promotes physical well-being by:
- Strengthening the immune system
- Improving lung function
- Improving liver function
- Reducing depression
- Increasing emotional health
- Lowering blood pressure
Are You, Or Someone You Know, in Need of Help?
Writing allows you to work through problems, understand yourself, and enact strategies to avoid or deal with stressful situations. Journaling may even help you to understand what caused substance misuse in the first place and identify triggers for the use. You may not have realized that your marriage or career did not fulfill you until self-reflecting through writing exercises. Therefore, journaling allows you to grow through tracking of your progress throughout recovery and life as well.
At Alta Loma Transformational Living, you will meet knowledgeable, compassionate professionals that understand addiction in all its forms. Alta Loma uses an integrative and holistic approach to treat addiction and mental health issues. No treatment is one-size-fits-all, where you will have a team of experts prepared to create your customized treatment plan. We offer care for your mind, body, and spirit, so that you can heal from the inside out and look forward to a lifetime of sobriety and wellness. If you are ready to take the first step in your recovery, please call us at 866-457-3843.
