Journaling is recording the events in your life as well as your reactions and perceptions to those events with the aim of gaining clarity and making positive changes where necessary.
Journaling is an ancient tradition that dates back to 10th century Japan. Successful people throughout history have kept journals, including John D. Rockefeller, Charles Darwin, Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, Earnest Hemingway, Sara Blakely, and Ronald Reagan. Journaling is a useful therapeutic tool which anyone can benefit from.
BENEFITS OF JOURNALING
1. Evoking Mindfulness
Journaling brings your into a state of mindfulness. There is a strong connection between mindfulness and happiness. Past frustrations and future anxieties lose their edge in the present moment. It calls a wandering mind to attention, from passivity to actively engaging with your thoughts.
2. Self-reflection
Journaling regularly gives you the opportunity to step back from your busy life and reflect on yourself. Writing regularly will help you find out what makes you happy, as well as situations and people that are toxic for you – important information for your emotional well-being.
3. Achieving Goals
Journaling often includes your dreams and ambitions. Writing down your goals improves your chances of achieving them by 42%. Journaling about your goals helps you clarify what you want and encourages you to take action to achieve them. It helps you identify what you should prioritize on a daily basis and what you should let go of.
4. Reduce Stress
Writing about emotions or situations releases their intensity and can be very cleansing. When you write about your anxieties or frustrations, you are less likely to harbor them inside, which creates stress. Writing frees up any tension you may be internalizing. This will help you feel calmer and better able to stay in the present.
5. Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive and manage your emotions and that of others. Journaling is an outlet for processing emotions and increases self-awareness. This internal familiarity becomes a bridge of empathy, you’ll better understand what others are experiencing.
6. Boosting Memory
Regular writing helps you memorize important information. It trains our attention and strengthens neural pathways. Organizing our thoughts and putting them down improves memory, comprehension and cognition. When you write about your experiences you are able to process them and see opportunities that may not have been apparent initially. Reflective writing has also been shown to improve decision making and critical thinking.
7. Brainstorm Ideas
Journaling helps you keep all your ideas in one place. Write down whatever comes to mind. You can come back to these ideas later and look for connections and conclusions that may lead to even more new ideas.
8. Self-Discipline
Setting time aside to write is an act of discipline. And discipline begets discipline. Like a muscle, the more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes. And habits formed in one area of life have a tendency to spread. Your daily practice of writing will domino onto other healthy habits.
9. Healing
Writing promotes emotional, physical and psychological healing. Research indicates that regular journaling strengthens immune cells and decreases the symptoms of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. Other studies have shown that the emotional release from journaling lowers anxiety, stress, reduces viral load in AIDS patients, induces better sleep, and even speeds up healing after surgery.Stress often comes from emotional blockages. Writing about stressful events frees you from the mental and emotional entanglements to them, thus reducing the impact these stressors have on your health.
10. Self-Confidence
Writing about a positive experience allows your brain to relive it. It reaffirms your abilities when self-doubt appears. The release of endorphins and dopamine will boost your self-esteem and mood. Journaling offers a wonderful opportunity for personal growth.
HOW TO BEGIN
Use pen and paper
Although there are several good journaling apps, according to most sources, using pen and paper is essential to reaping the benefits of journaling. Writing things out by hand improves memory and encourages deeper thinking and reflection.
Make it a habit
Journaling is a great way to keep your thoughts organized and clear your mind. To get the most out of it, make it a regular habit. It is most effective if you do it daily or every other day for about 5 – 20 minutes, preferably at the same time every day, either in the morning to organize your thoughts before the day; or in the evening to review and capture the day.
Just write
The most important rule in journaling is that there are no rules. To start a journal you just need to be willing to write. Write whatever comes to mind at the moment. When you journal you are telling your own story. Put your thoughts on paper. It doesn’t have to be pretty. Since your journal is private you can be as frank as you need to be. Don’t edit; just write.
Gratitude
Include a few things you are grateful for in every entry you write. Studies have shown that writing about something you are grateful for on a regular basis can improve your sleep, increase happiness, and even reduce the symptoms of illness.
Goals
Incorporate your goals into your daily journal. Just writing your goals down increases the chances that you will achieve them. The simple act of writing them down will make you more aware of ideas and opportunities that will move you towards achieving your goals.
Curiosity
Research shows that curiosity is associated with stronger relationships, greater levels of happiness, higher intelligence, and more acute problem-solving skills. Curious brains are active brains and active brains become smart brains. Challenge yourself to write about one thing every day that made you stop and ask a question.
Review
Go back and read through your journal entries and add additional thoughts. You can chose to do this after every entry, weekly or monthly. As you read, ask yourself what you can learn from the entries. Look for patterns from week to week and month to month. Note what has changed and what has stayed the same.
THANKS FOR READING
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