The Benefits Of Journaling

Don’t you feel the need to clear your head after a long day at work or during complicated times in your life? The need to organize and clean your mind in order to have clearer ideas and be able to make the right decisions? If so, it’s high time to start practicing journaling, the personal development tool of the moment! keep reading to learn more about the benefits of journaling.

What is journaling?

This term refers to a practice of keeping a daily diary. But, much more than the classic diary we had when we were younger, journaling is described as a way to write down our thoughts, our moods, our reflections in order to order them and see them more clearly. . Writing is free, without constraints or judgments.

Journaling, why?

Today’s society constantly pushes us to store a very large amount of information on a daily basis, whether with social networks, the media, at work, in the street and also in our social life. Our brain never rests, finally, never, constantly trying to sort through all the information received.

This overdose commonly called “infobesity” can cause depression, burn-out, mental fatigue, insomnia… if we do not take care of our mind seriously.

To avoid coming to this end, journaling can be a solution, although it will not solve all your problems. Because indeed, it is essential to have a healthy lifestyle by practicing a sport and having a healthy diet but also by fleeing as much as possible from the overflow of information which could lead to mental overload. For it :

• Turn off your mobile phone as soon as possible,
• Take advantage of your days off without television or mobile phone to rest your brain,
• Stay away from continuous news channels which are very anxiety-provoking,
• Same thing for social networks that can negatively affect our minds.

When its practices are put in place, journaling turns out to be one of the most effective tools. And the benefits of journaling are quickly noticed.

How to practice daily journaling?

–Define your motivations

They are different from one individual to another. This can be to free your mind when it has stored too much information during the day, or to take a step back from your emotions, or to improve your creativity. The reasons are many, and it is important to determine your motivations from the beginning.

–Get the right equipment

Find a beautiful notebook and pen that will make you want to write every day.

Other people may prefer a draft notebook in order to write without worrying about their handwriting and possible erasures.

Know that it is advisable to keep your notebooks to reread them in a few months or years in order to see how far you have come and to measure your progress. This can be very rewarding!

–Find the right time

In truth, there are no good times to write. It doesn’t matter whether it’s in the morning when you wake up to lay out the day’s goals or in the evening at the end of the day to unload your brain from the day’s information. It is an activity that should be done with pleasure and without pressure.

Feel free to create your own journaling routine by choosing the time and place, it can be different from day to day. You can even incorporate it into your morning routine if you already have one.

–Write without challenge and without pressure

The same goes for the time given to this practice, it is not necessary to write several hours. A few minutes can be enough, the goal being to clear your mind and not to write a novel. Moreover, it is important to write without judgement, society already judges us enough on a daily basis. Write only for yourself and since you’ve never dared to write before, even if you find it useless or unimportant, it doesn’t matter, no one is going to read you! Enjoy this moment just for you! Your sanity will thank you.

–Start by asking yourself questions

If journaling turns out to be a complicated activity for you, and you face the famous “blank page”, don’t panic! It’s completely normal not to know what to write at first even if your mind is saturated. To help you, here are some examples of questions to ask yourself:

• How do I feel today?
• What am I grateful for?
• What did this day bring me?
• What did I learn today?
• What are my future goals/dreams?
• What makes me happy?
• What’s bothering me right now?

The different types of journaling

–The Daily or Morning newspaper

This practice consists of writing everything that comes to mind, always without judgment or any filter. This exercise is usually done as soon as you wake up (Morning diary).

–The Gratitude Journal

It’s about writing about your happiness and victories of the day, what amazed you, the people and the situations for which you are grateful. It allows you to take stock of your life and realize how beautiful it is. This personal development tool allows you to value yourself and focus only on positive emotions.

–The Positive Affirmations Journal

The goal of the latter is to write positive affirmations that speak to you and to use them to boost you as soon as you wake up. These are encouraging phrases, very beneficial for your mental health, which help you believe in your potential and therefore strengthen your confidence. The repetition of these positive affirmations will allow your mind to assimilate them as if it were reality and subsequently, to calm you down on a daily basis.

The benefits of journaling

–Get to know you better

The benefits of journaling are numerous, it is a great way to get to know yourself better and improve your confidence. Writing allows you to dive deep inside yourself, to discover who you are and what you really want, but also to know your own limits and blockages.

–Calm your mind

By evacuating all your thoughts, you will feel better and much more peaceful. You free yourself from the excess of information that was preventing you from moving forward. Writing in the morning, in particular, would make you feel freer and ready for the day. Other people prefer to write in the evening so that they don’t have to rewatch the film of their day during the night and thus have a calmer sleep.
Morning and/or evening, journaling is an effective way to clean up your mind and thus improve your productivity over time.

–Develop your creativity

Creativity and writing go hand in hand. By writing every day in your notebook, you will very quickly improve your creativity. This can be revealed other than by writing. Indeed, journaling allows other forms of expression such as drawing, collage, painting, calligraphy. Do not hold back and let your imagination express how you feel.
Letting go will stimulate your creativity. Don’t forget that this is your moment, treat yourself!

And many more benefits…

• Analyze your behavior
• Realize the positive in your life
• Define aims
• Celebrate your successes
• Take time just for you
• Clarify a situation…

For more mindfulness content, click here.

I hope you enjoyed this blog post about the benefits of journaling and found it useful. Comment down what you think, or share with us your experience if you are familiar with this practice.

Looking forward to reading your comments, sending you love and positive energy!!!