Benefits of journal writing

     If you develop the habit of writing in a journal a few minutes each day, you will find it brings you many benefits. For ESL students, you will improve your writing. Writing is a skill and, like any other skill, you improve the skill by doing it. Journal writing also has other benefits besides improving your written English. When you have a problem or are worried about something, if you put your thoughts down in words, you will find that it will be easier to come up with a solution, or stop worrying about that thing that is bothering you. Some psychologists have their patients keep a journal and then discuss what they wrote down in their journal when they meet. Sometimes it just helps to get bad thoughts or feelings out by talking to someone about them or writing about them. Journals can even help you remember when you did certain things in the past. If you forget when you went to Chicago, you can look back in your journal and find what day you wrote about that trip. One final tip. If you write in your journal just before you go to sleep, your subconscious mind will think about what you wrote while you sleep. The subconscious mind never sleeps. You might find that you wake up in the morning with some new ideas about what you wrote about. You can thank your subconscious mind for that!