Final year journalism undergraduate. Passionate about social justice issues, animal welfare and health. Follow her on Twitter @lainefullerton
In an increasingly online world, studies suggest setting time aside to write in a journal can have health benefits.
Journal writing has been around for centuries but in today's digital society many people forget just how easy it is to reap the benefits of putting pen to paper.
Dr. James Pennebaker, a psychology professor at the University of Texas, published his first study on the topic in 1986 and continues to research journal writing to date.
"Expressive writing is a technique where people are asked to write about emotional issues," Dr Pennebaker said.
"We know a lot more about it today than we did in the past. For example, writing over and over again for days and weeks is probably not beneficial because it's associated with rumination and essentially getting too deep into a topic."
The 2016 book, Opening Up by Writing it Down: How Expressive Writing Improves Health and Eases Emotional Pain, written by Pennebaker and Joshua Smith, summarises expressive writing for a layman audience.
"The book tracks when writing works and when it doesn't and what health problems we know it works best for," Dr Pennebaker said.
"It increases your immune system, it decreases blood pressure and it's certainly effective for psychological issues such as reducing stress and anxiety."
Gail Rice, a psychologist and therapist, is currently running monthly workshops on therapeutic journal writing.
For those suffering chronic illnesses, she has seen the ways that writing produces numerous benefits.
"It increases your immune system, it decreases blood pressure and it's certainly effective for psychological issues such as reducing stress and anxiety," Ms Rice said.
"For chronic diseases, it helps both psychologically and physiologically."
Ms Rice believes typing could compromise the health benefits of journal writing.
"I think if we use a more primitive tool like a pen, we can tap into the subconscious. The physical act of connecting to the pen does something more to your brain. Our relationship with the computer and our brain is quite different," she said.
In 2014, a British survey commissioned by Docmail found that one in three people hadn't written anything on paper in the previous six months.
Raina Rabin, a client of Rice, has been using journal writing since 2013 to help manage the stress and anxiety triggered by university study.
"Journal writing almost always makes me feel good by the end of an entry. The techniques provide perspective on overwhelming thoughts and feelings. However, the process can be pretty painful, because you are engaging with emotions that hurt," Ms Rabin said.
While she hasn't used typing for therapeutic journaling, she feels more comfortable putting pen to paper.
"I suspect it could be generational, but there is something about putting pen or pencil to paper that resonated more deeply as opposed to using a device," Ms Rabin said.
"The physical act of connecting to the pen does something more to your brain. Our relationship with the computer and our brain is quite different."
Luke Eilers, a vlogger with 50 000 subscribers on YouTube, has posted multiple videos on how to journal and the ways it has helped him. Being a vlogger, Eilers epitomises the way technology has allowed us to express ourselves online, yet he still prefers the physical act of writing.
"I feel it grounds me, and the act of writing may help seep what I wrote into my subconscious," says Eilers.
Over the past five years, many have claimed that 'blogging is the new journaling'. With online platforms such as Blogger, Live Journal and even social media channels, it can be tempting to use these for monetary or publicity gains.
However, if people are using these platforms to substitute physically writing down thoughts and emotions, while tapping into the 'editor self' and catering for an online audience, they may need to reconsider.
Putting pen to paper through writing is a skill we are taught as a child, and utilising this can have a substantial impact on health while increasing compassion for one's own struggles.