We all have been there when we have kept a small diary venting out our feelings in it. That diary was filled with unresolved anger, mushy feelings, melancholic quotations, or a happy face drawn all over. It helped us as a child to process what we were feeling, and most importantly, to accept those feelings. But now, as we have grown older that diary must have been hiding in some corner of the room. Though the benefits remain intact and now, it is called journaling.
Journaling helps us to analyze our feelings, think rationally, and then act upon these feelings. It helps us to keep our mental health intact when everything around us might be crumbling into pieces.
Benefits Of Journaling
Some of the benefits that are associated with journaling are:
1. Write Down Goals And Ambitions
A journal can be thought of as a good place to write down all your goals and ambitions. Writing your aspirations will help you to monitor your progress as well. You can also write positive affirmations alongside, such as ‘I can do it.’ or ‘I believe in myself.’ These can prove to be a great source of motivation when the outcome might not be favorable.
2. Introspecting Yourself
Journaling your thoughts and ideas will help you to stop, look back, and reflect on yourself. Life can be moving pretty fast if one does not stop once in a while to look back and might miss some golden chances. This self-reflection can be done at night before going to bed where you can reflect upon what happened the whole day. This will help you to understand and improve your behavior patterns.
3. Unleashing The Creative Side
You might not know it now but you might be one of the most creative people out there and journaling will help you to unleash your creativity. You can be yourself in the journal, writing down your most honest feelings, thus, where you can explore your inner creativity. You can let your imagination take control.
4. Improved Communication Skills
A Stanford University study has found a relationship between speaking and writing. Writing helps to determine clear thinking, which in turn, reflects clear communication. Therefore, writing down a journal will help to clear your thoughts, which will further help in clear communication.
How To Journal?
Journaling might not be an easy task, to begin with, and it might seem confusing and a bit weird but with the help of the following steps, journaling can become a habit of yours.
- It is your will that is most required to start journaling. You can set a schedule and fix certain days and allot time when you will be journaling. This will help you to make journaling a part of your daily life. If you wish, you can also journal every day.
- You should always lookout for a perfect corner to journal so that your creative juices can flow without any interruptions. This place could be your bed, balcony, or study table. It will also be easy for you to focus on writing.
- At first, you might be confused about what to write and that’s perfectly fine. You can write in your journal about anything you want. You can close your eyes, reflect on the day, and can write whatever you feel like.
- There are no particular rules as to what you should be writing. In the beginning, it will be easy to begin the sentences with, “I think” or “I feel”. What you write in your journal is the reflection of your thoughts. You should be more at comfort since it is your personal space.
- Set a time limit for yourself for how long you will be writing. Somewhere around 5-20 minutes is ideal. Setting time would help you to not get carried away with your writing. It is easy that you feel like you need to write every detail and this will help to prevent that.
- Once you are done with journaling, go back to it and give it a read. Add some lines if you wish to. You can add a line or two at the end summarizing your ideas and thoughts about your own writing.
Journaling might feel burdensome in the beginning. But you need to be consistent with your journal. You can set aside a particular time slot for journaling. You can write in a place where you feel comfortable and relaxed. You will get to know a lot about yourself such as your deepest fear, desires, and thoughts. You can call this time as a ‘me-time’ where you simply just de-stress. This is something that will affect your mind and body positively so look forward to your time of journaling. So, grab your pens and start journaling!
Read Also: How to Glow From Within? (In Easy 9 Ways)
