Why Journaling Could Be The Best Hobby For Indian Older Adults

Find out how journaling can be beneficial for older adults.

When a Mumbai-based 90-year-old eminent business school lecturer was brought to a psychiatrist by his daughter, he was struggling hard with acute anxiety and depression, that too for over a decade’s time. All these started soon after he lost his wife, sank into loneliness and isolation and lost interest in engaging with his family and friends. While he did not want to take any medication or go for counseling, the psychiatrist suggested journaling as a treatment option. And guess what, within a very short period of practicing journaling, the nonagenarian came to terms with his conditions. Now, he has become super active, been able to fight loneliness and got engaged with his family members and is a pro in spending quality time with his grandchildren. 

Not just this nonagenarian, a study highlighting the importance of journaling reveals that about 47 per cent of older adults suffering from chronic health conditions like asthma and rheumatoid arthritis and stress-induced mental conditions in the habit of journaling, show a remarkable improvement compared to those who are suffering from similar conditions but are not into journaling. Penning down their stressful experiences appears to bring in a great deal of relief among them.  

What is journaling? 

Journaling or expressive writing is the practice of writing a diary or journal exploring the thoughts and emotions experienced in life. Dr Santosh Bangar, a geriatric psychiatrist and neuropsychiatrist from Mumbai believes that journaling helps in processing one’s emotions in a positive way and can create an opportunity for self-dialogue. While simply putting down words may not be that effective, but effective journaling can lead to enhanced quality of life among older adults. 

“Journaling can be effective for many different reasons. It helps you clear your head, make important connections between thoughts, feelings, and behaviours and even buffer or reduce the effects of stress and mental illness. While journaling is a very popular hobby among older adults in Western countries, it is not that popular among Indian seniors. This could be due to our social and cultural influences. However, I recommend it for every older adult for ample benefits journaling offers,” says Dr Bangar. 

Ways by which journaling can help Indian older adults

It can help in preserving memories and enhance memory skills: Memories fading away is a common age-related aspect often observed among older adults. This could lead to various serious consequences and result in a certain extent of stress and irritability, affecting the quality of life. Writing down daily life activities and simply re-reading the past journal entries later on, is a great way to preserve memories. 

Older adults tend to lose their cognitive functions of which memory is a vital cognitive process allowing one to encode, store and retrieve information. Loss of memory skills could be due to various factors like lack of adequate sleep, stress, anxiety, deficiency of Vitamin B12 and more. While the loss of memory skills can cause a lot of trouble for seniors in their day-to-day lives, regular journaling can help them remember things and keep their memories fresh. 

It can help create a routine for older adults: Having a daily routine is extremely beneficial for older adults as it helps them predict and plan their day. It's also easier to cope with memory and cognitive issues when daily activities are priorly scheduled and predictable. And journaling is a fantastic way of creating and maintaining a regular timetable for seniors. 

It can act as stress-buster: Stress is perhaps the origin of most physical and mental health issues in today’s world, especially during the post-pandemic time. Undoubtedly, older adults have been affected the most due to pandemic-induced stress and anxiety. Journaling is a safe and healthy way of helping seniors deal with stress, tackle overwhelming emotions and keep their mental stability in control.

It can help improve coordination skills: Making use of the sense organs on a daily basis is an ideal way to keep the coordination skills up to the mark and mind and body active. Writing is a great way of keeping and improving motor skills, coordination and communication skills of older adults. 

Dr Bangar adds: “Journaling has been found to enhance the sense of well-being, reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression, improve working memory, dexterity and creativity, curb stress, preserve vocabulary, provide possible protection against Dementia and add structure to the day. Journaling can also help in physical illnesses which are stress-related like Hypertension, Diabetes, Arthritis and Pain Disorder.”

Tips on starting with journaling if you’re a newbie

All you need is a notebook and pen to start journaling. However, to make it fun and interesting, you may try doing a collection of fancy, eco-friendly, themed notebooks of your choice. To begin with you may choose to write about your day to day experiences. Here are some suggestions:

1. Write about what you did for the day.
2. Write about what scares you.
3. Journal about your goals for the next five years.
4. Jot down your ultimate dreams.
5. Write about decisions you need to make.
6. Write about what you will do for the day ahead.

There are ample reasons why journaling could be the best hobby option during your silver years. Please do try it out and let us know about your experience at connect@silvertalkies.com or in the comments below.