How Writing Reduces Stress and Combats Negative Thoughts
If you're struggling for ways to reduce your stress levels and keep negative thoughts at bay, you're not alone. Stress is prevalent in today's world and is so normalized; we forget we don't have to live this way. Fortunately, you can do simple tools and exercises to stay on top of the negativity and find the peace of mind you're looking for. Here's how writing helps reduce stress and puts you in greater control of your life and feelings.
Manage Stress & Anxiety
In today's busy world, we often don't have an outlet for managing our anxiety. Hobbies get lost in the work-life balance battle, social media sparks fear of missing out, and we're wired to obsess over success.
Grabbing a journal or a daily planner can reduce anxiety by getting a handle on your schedule. Write out what you need to do for the day, jot down some goals, and make a note of how you feel. Writing out your day the night before can also help reduce your anxiety so you can see what's ahead.
Improve Your Physical Health
Writing, especially when it's expressive, is shown to strengthen your immunity and decrease your risk of illness. Studies show journaling has lessened symptoms of asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and even could help wounds heal faster. The idea is when you write out stressful, traumatic, or emotional events that you release that stress and turn it into a therapeutic tool for your health.
Address Loneliness
It can prove challenging to process our emotions and stressors without setting aside intentional time to do it. Writing helps define and express personal stories and can be shared to help foster deeper social connections. Whether you want to trade stories and writing with a friend or keep them to yourself, writing out your experiences helps give them more context and validation.
Reach Your Goals
The frustration of not meeting goals is significant and can derail our motivation to keep going. Neuroscience shows that describing and writing down your goals in written form is strongly associated with goal success. You're likely to reach your goals faster than those who don't write them down, and you'll have more clarity around what's working and what's not in your journey.
Get Clarity
Writing, tracking, and journaling helps you get clear on what's bothering you and where you're overwhelmed in life. However, it also shows you how much you've accomplished and eliminates feelings that you're not doing enough.
Using a daily or academic planner brings more context to your day, how you're spending it, and what you're really getting done. Make a note of your wins along the way to celebrate the big and small successes to keep you feeling optimistic.
Find Peace
We all have our moments of frustration and confusion over a stressful event, a fallout with a friend, or an issue at work. Writing it out helps put the event into perspective and clarify what's going on. When you can see how you feel and think about a situation in written form, it offers more peace of mind and the ability to find closure.
Reduces Mental Clutter
Too much paper and clutter lead to a negative impact on our mental health. Research even shows that clutter and chaos lead to weight gain. Aside from reaching for your favorite organization tools to tame the clutter, writing everything down also makes a positive impact. From meal planning to to-do lists, writing out your day keeps you organized and reduces the clutter in your mind.
Final Thoughts
Negative thoughts and feelings often get the best of us but can be tamed with the help of writing. Focus on organizing, reframing, and clarifying your thoughts to find the peace of mind you're looking for.
Ready to tame your thoughts with the journals, planners, and organizational tools? Shop our Paper & Plan collection to turn the art of writing into your favorite part of the day.