Overcome Writer's Block: 8 Surprising Effects of Daily Journaling

by Misty Blais

It is now a proven fact that daily journaling is beneficial for physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. Writing by hand is also great for overcoming writer’s block. It releases inner confidence and motivation. 

The best thing is that you don’t have to write something serious or academic like an essay. You can leave it to professionals at EssayPro. But simply keeping a diary of whatever comes to mind can help you feel less stressed and increase emotional intelligence. Here are several surprising effects of daily journaling.

Increases intelligence

Certainly, the habit of writing is helpful when it comes to learning a language and increasing overall intelligence. Journaling boosts the need to explore language and use new words. It enriches vocabulary and releases creative energy.

Helps to Reduce Stress

Expressive writing helps to deal with stressful thoughts. Putting worries on paper releases the brain from focusing on it. A study has shown that it is helpful for both emotional and physical health. The habit of journaling for 15-20 minutes a day resulted in lowered blood pressure and better liver functioning.

Overall, it is great to deal with overwhelming emotions. When they are not vocalized, bottled feelings can result in stress and anxiety. However, writing about worries helps to make this experience graspable.

Endorses Brain Functioning

Research has proven that there is a direct connection between writing by hand and neurological processes. Writing increases the brain function by providing new neural paths and involving more regions in the brain than typing. The best way to journal is by hand and on paper.

Better Health

This might be one of the most surprising effects of journaling. It actually does improve the immune system and provides faster and better healing, both emotionally and physically. This habit, when practiced constantly, results in improved functioning of the immune system. It lowers the risk of getting sick and improves overall wellbeing.

It also improves the functioning of the liver and lungs. This might be connected to a decrease in stress and stress hormones.

Helps With Depression

Of course, it is not the panacea, but it can help to reduce symptoms of depression and improve your mood. For example, blogging releases dopamine, a hormone that contributes to good mood and a higher happiness level. 

Journaling also helps as it offers an opportunity to be more aware of symptoms and their effects. A person can be more self-conscious about their struggles and thus have more opportunities to react in time.

Increased Memory Capacity

Handwriting trains the brain in many ways. And one of them is the memory boost. Not only does it help to better comprehend the experience and ideas. It also ensures a better remembering capacity. The creation of new neural paths helps to boost one’s memory.

Boosts Creativity

The best way to overcome writer’s block is by writing. It is as simple as that. For example, Julia Cameron has an exercise “morning pages” that helps to release creative powers, even if you are not a writer. It can help any type of artist or creative person to overcome the block and fear of beginning.

The main idea is to write 3 pages per day, first thing in the morning. They do not have to be good or specific, just journal about anything that comes to mind. It helps to clear the head and put off the pressure.

Self-Awareness and Confidence

Journaling about everyday life and things helps to get a better understanding of who you are. It also makes a person more aware of the people and situations in their life. What makes you happy, what makes you confident? Being aware of such things increases the quality of life, as one can nurture what makes them happy and eliminate toxic and stressful things.

And journaling about positive experiences helps to relive them. A person gets to feel the same achievement and satisfaction as in the moment of the experience. It releases dopamine, endorphin and helps to boost self-confidence.

In Summary

Journaling is an amazing habit one can practice. It has numerous benefits to physical and mental health. It reduces stress and anxiety, might helps with symptoms of depression. It also boosts self-awareness and confidence. From the point of physical health, it increases brain function, endorses the immune system and reduces illness risks. Overall, it makes a person more happy, healthy and emotionally adjusted.

Misty Blais is a professional journalist with more than 10 years of experience. She’s worked as a writer and a producer for magazines and radio stations. Misty is currently writing for various media as a contributing journalist.

5 Convincing Reasons Writing Is an Antidote to Stress and Loneliness

by Dorian Martin

Writing is a creative, artistic activity that people around the globe practice as a hobby or profession. Whether you’re writing books, poems, blog posts, short stories, articles, or even novels, writing is helping you cope with stress and loneliness.

You may not be aware of it, but writing is great for your mental health. If you're not sure how or why just keep reading and we'll break it down together.

Here are 5 convincing reasons writing is an antidote to stress and loneliness.

1.     Processing Emotions

If we take a deep look into ourselves, we’ll see all kinds of mixed emotions, hidden feelings, and desires. We'll also see our fears, worries, and problems.

However, it’s not always easy to take that deep look inside and process everything that we feel.

Luckily, writing is a great way to use creativity and artistic drive to:

-        process our emotions

-        express how we feel

-        cope with our feelings

Writing is a gateway to our inner world and helps us get in touch with ourselves. This further helps us fight stress and get all those suppressed emotions out on the surface.

2.     Fighting Monotony

Loneliness is a feeling no one wants to experience. Still, more often than not we start feeling lost, alone, and lonely.

Many things are causing us to feel lonely:

-        lack of true friends

-        monotonous lifestyle

-        not enough people to share our ideas with

-        nostalgia over an old friend or former home

However, using the power of our imagination can take us wherever we want to go. That means we can use writing to fight against loneliness.

We can write about a whole different world and escape using our fantasy and creativity.

3.     Personal Growth

People don't like to stand in one place. Stagnation is something we should all avoid. Instead, we should always aim toward personal growth.

Working on our personal improvement gives us a sense of progress and purpose. This, in return, makes us feel happy about ourselves and even gives us a reason to wake up with a smile.

Writing is a great way to work on ourselves and improve. Here’s how:

-        researching for our writing enriches our general knowledge

-        perfecting our writing skills boosts our confidence

-        exploring different types of written content broadens our horizons

-        learning about tools and resources help us improve

“Learning, improving, and mastering new skills is what every person should strive for. Personal growth will make us feel accomplished and will reduce the stress we might otherwise have to struggle with,” says Maria Faber, a freelance writer and editor at Subjecto.

4.     Critical Thinking

Sometimes, it’s hard for us to think clearly and set our head straight. When we’re busy, anxious, or tense, there’s no way we can deal with the problems and struggles we’re facing.

Instead, our minds get even blurrier and we find it harder to address our problems.

However, writing can help to:

-        clear our mind

-        critically assess the problem

-        explore our options

-        focus

-        calm down

While we're doing something that we love, writing, we're calming ourselves down and becoming more focused. Also, we even get to write about the things we're facing and assess them from a different standpoint.

This is a great way to cope with problems and stress.

5.     Staying Connected

We all want to feel like we belong somewhere and are connected to the rest of the world. Being connected with people is what fighting loneliness is all about.

Luckily, writing gives us a chance to connect with people from all over.

Publishing and sharing our work with the rest of the world is crucial for feeling accomplished, happy, satisfied, and connected. Once you share your work, it will continue to live.

People will:

-        respond to your work

-        give you feedback

-        enjoy what you’ve written

-        reach out to you

Your social life will be richer since you’ll be making connections with other fellow writers, critics, and your audience.

When you’re publishing, make sure that everything you write is proofread. Use Studyker, Grammarly, or Write Scout to ensure you’re sharing top-notch content.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, writing is a great way to reduce stress, fight anxiety and loneliness. Writing will lift your spirit, awaken your creativity and help you process your emotions.

Keep writing and you’ll not only enjoy time well spent, but you’ll also benefit your mental health immensely.

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Dorian Martin is a freelance blogger and a writer with years of experience. He primarily focuses on giving actionable tips to his readers, as well as providing guidance and giving credible information. He’s currently working as a writer at Top Essay Writing and Classy Essay.

10 Inspiring Tools & Resources for Writers and Authors

by Scott Mathews

All good writers know that without inspiration, nothing can flow from the pen. However, if you are struggling with writer’s block, there are a large number of apps and tools available to help you find inspiration. 

The tools you could find not only help find inspiration, but they can help you through every step of the writing process, including researching and editing.

While many writers spend years slaving away at the same task, it is well-known that having the right tools at your disposal can ease the process. 

When you have the right tools at your disposal – be it a writing app, thesaurus, or a good pen – your writing process becomes more comfortable and enjoyable. An enjoyable writing experience helps ease the effect of writer’s block.

Pages

Pages is an Apple app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, which uses iCloud storage to allow you access on all devices. Pages is a word processor that allows you to write, edit, and view documents even when you’re on-the-go. 

In addition to plain text documents, Pages offers a variety of templates that can be used for creating reports, letters, flyers, posters, and cards. The app also allows you to export documents in formats such as Pages, Microsoft Word, and PDF for easy sharing.

Pages is a great app for the Apple user who is always traveling. Giving you access to your work across a number of devices, you can create when inspiration strikes. You can also edit and publish on-the-go, making it easier to meet deadlines and maintain a schedule no matter where you are. 

Write

Write is an Android app designed for use on tablets, but many newer phones also support the app. While the app isn’t designed for word processing, it allows for journaling and note-taking which is a great way to jot down ideas on-the-go. 

Write documents can be exported to other apps like Microsoft Word for better editing and in-depth word processing needs. You can also easily export documents to email, blogs, and WordPress, making the publishing process simple. 

While you can’t use the app to write whole novels or blog posts on-the-go, it is a good way to keep track of thoughts and ideas you want to use later. With Write, losing ideas will be a thing of the past, as you can write down ideas when they happen.

Chapters

If you are a writer with multiple projects and ideas running at the same time, Chapters is the ideal app for you. The app not only lets you collect and separate information for various projects, but you can also search notes, back them up, export as PDF, and add photos.

While Chapters is not a word-processor, it can give you a whole new way of finding and maintaining inspiration. By adding photos and pictures, you are more likely to manage and trigger the ideas you had at the time when you made the notes. 

In addition, by allowing you to separate multiple projects, you are less likely to cross-over ideas, allowing your writing to stay on track more easily.

The Guardian Style Guide

The Guardian Style Guide is a great resource that helps writers understand grammar rules and correct word usage, along with good phrases and acronyms that can add to your writing. 

The Style Guide is compiled as a book and is regularly updated with the latest style and writing tips. Not only is the tool arranged alphabetically, you are also able to search for entries or jump to a rule through alphabetized hyperlinks.

The Style Guide is compiled by active and qualified journalists. This means you are likely given access to current, relevant information that aims to improve your writing. Since these journalists also refer to the guide when they are writing articles, you can rest assured that the information is accurate and useful.

Daily Writing Tips

If you are an established writer, it might not be necessary to access a style guide tool. Rather, Daily Writing Tips works much like a Word of the Day app in that you are provided with a new tip each day. Tips cover topics like grammar, spelling, and vocabulary, and the site is best suited to freelance writers.

The tips on the site are aimed towards digital and business contexts, with guidance on creating clear writing with tips on topics like writing for a particular audience or successful captioning. This makes it very popular among the essay writing services that provide uni assignment to college and university students. 

When you improve your writing, inspiration begins to flow. Writers often become comfortable in their style and sometimes this can make their writing dull. Trying new things by applying tips like these can revamp your style and motivate you to write more.

Kindle Spy and Kindle Rocket

Kindle Spy and Kindle Rocket are two very similar apps offered by Kindle. These apps are great for a writer who is stuck with a bit of writer’s block, since they help you find the best topic to write about. 

The apps make use of algorithms that scour popular titles and genres to establish what the best-selling topics are. They suggest these topics to you, and you are able to start writing about something that is popular and likely to sell.

Kindle Rocket is also great for the writer seeking tips for self-publishing, as you can use the app to publish and promote your book. In addition to helping you find a profitable niche, both apps are available with a once-off payment and lifetime subscription. 

While Kindle Rocket is a bit more expensive, having access to self-publishing tools might just make the price worth your while.

Hemingway

Once you have written your book or blog, you need to edit and proofread. While you could do it the old-fashioned way, it has since become much easier with sites and apps. Hemingway is a free tool aimed at making your writing clear. 

It has a word counter and offers an instant readability score, but its real value lies in its suggestions. It identifies and highlights areas of text that may be hard to read or hard to understand as well as finding instances of passive voice.

Jane Crowe, who works for the top essay writing service, UK assignment help, finds it very handy when working on academic assignments. In her view, having a text editor that not only tells you there are errors but points them out as well is invaluable. While Hemingway does not offer clear suggestions on how to correct the errors, merely being able to identify them should be enough to help an experienced writer along the way.

Cliché Finder

Another useful and free text editor is Cliché Finder. Often, writers use metaphors and similes to make their writing more descriptive and interesting. While you may think you are drawing in readers, you might turn them away if you use too many clichés. 

Cliché Finder searches your writing for clichés and highlights them. This helps you identify them and make sure they add meaning rather than just take up space.

Using clichés is not always a bad thing, but if they are not adding meaning to your writing, the reader might feel bored or lose interest. As a result, being able to find and identify them might help improve your writing and attract more readers. 

Grammarly

One of the best online editors is Grammarly. It is not only available through their website, but also lays over programs as a plugin and extension for browsers 

You can have Grammarly checking as you write regardless of which apps you use, meaning that those typos in your emails will be gone forever. Grammarly also helps you improve your writing by offering alternative word suggestions that aim to simplify and strengthen your writing.

If you are hoping to avoid plagiarism, passive voice, and wordiness, you can also use the paid version of Grammarly. The monthly fee gives you access to plagiarism checkers that can help you avoid all kinds of legal trouble, as well as a fully comprehensive grammar and style checker.

Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild

If you are a beginner writer, or a skilled writer looking to improve, Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild offers a wide variety of writing courses and tips. While the courses are free, you need to apply for a place since space is limited. 

In addition to courses that aim to boost your confidence, write a good novel, and write inspirational texts, there are a range of articles available to help.

The Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild is a useful site that offers to help writers reach their fullest potential. If you are interested in more writing tools and blogs about writing, Jerry Jenkins has you covered. It is useful to read blogs and articles from experienced writers to help you improve your own work.

Conclusion

There are a wide variety of tools available online to help you improve your writing and maintain inspiration. From on-the-go journals and word processors to writing courses and style guides, the internet has it all. 

As a writer, you should aim to improve no matter how experienced you are. When you feel inspiration and motivation slipping away from you, use some of these tools to help spark it back up and get you into the groove once more.

Scott Mathews works as a freelance academic writer for dissertation writing services that provide assignment help to Ph.D. students. He also works as a cover letter, LinkedIn profile and resume writer for a jobs and career website. In his free time, he loves to watch classic movies and work on DIY coffee tables.