The Power Of Journaling
I’ve always liked to put thoughts, ideas, and stories down on paper. When I was younger, I had bookshelves filled with notebooks of my written words. Back then, I loved to simply create stories, outrageous little things that filled the time I wasn’t in school or reading books.
The concept of a diary isn’t a novel idea. Writing down your thoughts, whether to be read again or to be forgotten through the passing of time has been with us since we, as a species, could write. But journaling, is so much more than simply self-reflection.
Journaling is a tool we can use to process how we’re feeling and what we’re thinking to better understand ourselves and the world around us.
Our world is so fast-paced, it’s easy to get stressed, and overwhelmed. It’s meant to be a safe space to express yourself. Journaling can and will offer different benefits to different people, but here’s what it’s done for me:
I can express myself better
What do you mean you can’t read my mind? When I was younger, I just assumed others thought like I did, so I didn’t have to explain everything. Turns out, that’s not how the world works. Writing in my journal(s) allowed me to understand what I was feeling and better explain or express that. It easily worked its way into my spoken life after that.
It gave me clarity and self-awareness
When you have time to let your emotions settle, things just become clearer. Journaling gives you that time. There’s only so fast you can write. As my mind was swirling, and my fingers tried to catch up, I had time to process.
This added time is two-fold. Instead of immediately reacting to something and not knowing why you did it, journaling allows you to go back over your feelings and behavior. It can give you insight about things that trigger you or situations that make you feel a certain way.
It made me more creative
Here’s a novel idea, if you practice something regularly, you generally just get better at it (did that sarcasm come through??). Journaling everyday, or every other day meant I was practicing the habit of writing.
Going hand-in-hand with that was the fact that my writing, in general, got better. I could play around with self reflecting, or write to my future self about what was happening presently.
Task management and setting goals
I can’t stress enough how beneficial it has been, but the biggest benefits to journaling, for me, came in two forms, time and task management and setting and achieving goals.
When I started to take journaling more seriously, I started it by simply putting 3 tasks I wanted to get done the next day at the end of my writing time. It didn’t have to be crazy difficult or even related to what I talked about, it just needed to be three things I wanted to get done the next day. They could be as simple as “go to the gym”, “schedule my dental appointment”, and “call my sister”.
But what this did for me was gave me a place to put down those last minute ideas, and it allowed me to figure out how best to prioritize them without being “in the moment”. I know I have to call my sister last because we’re going to end up being on the phone for 3 hours, and I don’t want to then have to rush and try to get a gym workout in afterwards.
But the greatest perk to journaling for me, was setting and achieving goals.
You track things you care about, and one of the best ways to track your goals is to write them down. You build in accountability when you see what you want. It’s easy to forget, but when it’s written, it’s more concrete, more tangible.
So if you want to start journaling, here’s just a few pieces of advice I’d give.
Make it convenient- Journaling doesn’t have to be 30 minutes before you go to bed (though it’s a great thing to have in your sleep routine). If you’re on the train and you’re frustrated, take out your phone, open the notes app, and jot down how you’re feeling. Even better, carry around a little pocket notebook for less distraction (this is what I do).
Be open and honest - No one else will ever read this if you don’t want them to, so be honest with yourself. If you can’t be honest with you, how can you ever think to be honest with anyone else?
Be creative - You don’t only have to write; you can sketch, create music, throw photos in there, anything that allows your creativity.
