Does keeping a journal have benefits?

I started writing in notebooks, daily, when I was about fifteen. I stopped at seventeen and then only wrote when I had some big event or something that I needed to get off my chest. I’ve been kind of down lately, and started writing again to see if it would help.

I’ve found that reading over my old journals makes me happy, at times, and really sad at others. I’m not sure if keeping them and reading them later is actually a good idea. I’m pretty sure that writing it all down helps me, momentarily, though.

What are your thoughts on journal keeping? Useless? Helpful? If so, should you read them later or dispose of them?