If you're a parent, it's likely that you've heard about the benefits of journaling for kids. Maybe you've even encouraged your child to start keeping a journal. But do they actually benefit from this practice? You might be wondering if it's worth the time, or if there are any real benefits to journaling beyond just keeping an organized record of their day-to-day activities and improving writing skills. The answer: A very clear YES! Journaling benefits kids of any age in many ways. Here are just some reasons why...
Journaling Helps You Understand Yourself
As you grow older, you will learn that there are times when your feelings need to be expressed. Keeping a diary or journaling is a great way for kids to write about their feelings.
You may find that journal writing helps you deal with negative emotions, such as anger or sadness. When you go back and read some older journal entries, you may even start to understand the difference between your emotions like anger, sadness, embarrassment, jealousy, etc. Journaling is also a very personal activity, so it gives children the chance to express themselves in a way that no one else will see or judge them for (like friends on social media). It helps kids figure out how they feel about certain topics by getting their thoughts down on paper rather than just thinking about them in their heads all day long!
Journaling can even prompt a child's interest in their own expression of themselves, and this can lead to a myriad of wonderful things, from acting to music to book writing and so much more!
Journaling is an Outlet for Strong Emotions
Writing can be a great way to get feelings out. It’s cathartic and therapeutic, but it's also helpful for understanding yourself. You may find that you have strong emotions about a certain topic or experience, and writing allows you to figure these things out on paper.
People often write because they want an outlet for their emotions, whether they are sad or happy. Sometimes people write because they need advice from someone else or just want to talk with them about what happened in their lives.
Journaling about Your Strengths and Weaknesses Can Help You Self-Regulate
Writing about your strengths and weaknesses can help you better understand yourself. In order for you to improve your ability to self-regulate, it’s helpful to know what your strengths are, as well as where you need work. By getting in touch with what makes you an individual person—what makes up the “you” of “I am me”—you’re more likely to feel confident in yourself and be able to trust that whatever problems or challenges come up, they don't have anything on YOU.
On top of this, writing about your strengths and weaknesses can also give kids a sense of control over their emotions. According to psychologists at Stanford University who specialize in childhood development (and who really know their stuff), children who write down positive things about their lives tend not only to feel happier but are also less likely than non–journaling kids to develop mental health issues later on in life. So if there's anything more refreshing than seeing a happy kid with lots of friends at school, it's seeing a happy kid with lots of friends at school who writes regularly!
Helps Reduce Stress
If a child is experiencing stress, journaling can help. Stressed children often have difficulty sleeping, concentrating and eating. Journaling can help them deal with their feelings in a healthy way.
Journaling is one of the best ways to reduce stress because it helps you relax and clear your mind. It also gives you a way to let out all of your thoughts so that they don't pile up into an overwhelming mess or cause arguments between family members who are overwhelmed by the same issues day after day. You can release these feelings into a journal instead of having them sit inside your head until they become too much for one person to handle alone!
If you have kids in high school, you know all too well how stressful that time can be, and sometimes, whether we like it or not, there are just some things that they don't feel comfortable telling their parents. Journaling is one way to help them process emotions, and express themselves in a safe, but private, way.
Journaling Enhances Memory Recall
The act of writing can help kids remember things better. This is especially true if they are journaling about past events and experiences, writing their memories down in order to make sense of things that have happened.
Writing is an effective way to organize one's thoughts, which will help the child learn new information more quickly.
Improve Writing and Communication Skills
Writing is a tool you can use to find your voice and learn to communicate better with others. It is no wonder then that journaling helps improve writing skills and communication skills. This, in turn, helps in many other areas of life, as well.
By helping you learn to read and understand others' writing, it also helps you write better for school and work.
And if you can also develop better handwriting, vocabulary, and better written communication, all the better!
Track Progress and Growth
When you journal, you are tracking your progress and growth. This is a great way to learn more about yourself, giving yourself an opportunity to see things from a different perspective, as well as what motivates you and what doesn't. You start to notice what makes you angry, what makes you feel better, and any other underlying emotions that you may not have been aware of before. You can use this information to set goals for yourself in the future, adjust as you go along, and develop into a healthier human being. Writing down this information will also help keep your motivation high since it's easy to lose sight of where we've been when time passes by so quickly.
Boosts health and well-being
By journaling about your experiences, you are able to understand yourself better. When you write, you give yourself a chance to express your feelings and thoughts in an uncensored way—and this can be extremely beneficial for those who don’t have someone else they feel comfortable opening up to. Writing can also help children with ADHD focus their attention on one simple task without having to shift gears due to distractions like TV or video games.
Journaling also serves as a way to handle strong emotions that may otherwise be difficult for children (or adults) to express verbally or even physically; it helps them work through difficult situations in order to move forward in their lives more positively than they might otherwise have done so if left untreated by journaling alone!
One study that followed participants over ten years found that those who kept regular diaries were less likely than others who were not journaling at all to suffer from illness including depression later on down the road.
This is the first step in understanding yourself.
Journaling is a fun, great tool for helping you understand yourself. It helps you understand your emotions, your strengths and weaknesses, your dreams and goals, and even your beliefs. This may sound like a lot to learn about yourself at once but the process is actually very easy.
When journaling, it's important to be honest with yourself because if you're not then it won't work. You have to be honest with what you feel without holding back anything. The next step is writing down what happened in detail including what caused certain feelings or actions in order for them not to happen again later on. Then, write down how they made you feel emotionally. Also, talk about how these emotions affected you physically, things such as headaches, aches, pains, etc. Finally, describe any thoughts on what these experiences meant for future events like "I should never do this again" or "It taught me that...".
Conclusion
Journaling for kids is a great idea as there are many different personal benefits for both children and their parents. Having kids write in their journals every day is a great way for them to pen out their feelings and thoughts. It encourages and aids in self-expression and expressive writing, communication skills, writing skills, creativity, emotional stability, gratitude, and more. It also helps them understand themselves better.
Kids (and parents) of any age can start journaling as long as they can write. It can be fun and interesting, giving them their own complete freedom to process their thoughts and feelings. So grab a paper, notebook or diary, or a few, for your kids and for yourself, too! Or you can try out this daily journal from Boomshuga, with cute graphics and prompts for gratitude and reflection.
Practice being completely honest with yourself and your feelings, record your thoughts throughout the day, adding as much detail as you can, and make it a habit to do it again every day. As you go through the pages, you'll start to notice trends, a different perspective here and there, and more, which prompts your growth into healthier beings. Give it a try!
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