How Can A Habit Of Journaling Change Your Life?

Something we all are looking for is a more organized and peaceful life. Only some of us are successful in achieving that. People adopt different ways to organize their lives and to be aware of ourselves. One such way is journaling. It is nothing but the process of writing in a journal or diary regularly.

A journal can be anything you want it to be. There is no fixed format to follow that’s what makes it liberating. It can help you not only in organizing but also become more self-aware and happy.

You can start by writing about your day. All the events that happened and what was your response to a certain situation or anything you find important. It is a way of reflecting on your old self and what you can learn from it.

Once you get used to writing daily, you will be able to see the benefits you can enjoy from writing down your thoughts on paper.

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The best part about it is that it becomes your no judgment zone. Your journal won’t form an opinion because you’re feeling certain things or you did something bad. It is the best way to process your thoughts when you don’t have anyone to talk to. It’s even better than talking to someone. It gives you the freedom to write whatever you want, in any way and you get to read it again any time you want which brings us to the other benefit of journaling.

You can take out your old journal whenever you want and go through the thoughts and emotions you once faced. Analyze how far you’ve come and how much have you changed since. This boosts our motivation to not give up when faced with difficult situations.

You can plan your day by writing down your to-dos, quotes, or goals. Studies say you are 42% more likely to achieve your goal if you write them down. It helps in motivating you to complete the tasks or goals. Also, it gives you a bit of satisfaction when you complete the task and cross it off your list. You can even go through it whenever you feel drifting away from your main purpose. Writing inspirational quotes alongside them gives you a push to go for it.

It is a huge help if you’re ruminating. Ruminating is cycling through the same thoughts and concerns over and over and over again. Writing down your concerns on a paper and focusing on what is important and what needs to be done about it will help you have clarity in life. You will also be able to analyze what it is that bothers you the most and take corrective steps.

The journal can also act as a notebook for brain dump. A brain dump is a way of transferring all your thoughts, knowledge about a particular subject from your brain to a paper/notebook. It doesn’t need to be sentenced. It can be phrases, words, or even smiley faces and drawings. Once you do that, observe it again and try to make a sense of it. It doesn’t always need to make sense or sound logical. But the main thing is, it’s outside of your brain, now you can look at it whenever you want rather than doing a tough task to remember everything. Brains need to be relaxed, not stressed out with a lot of information to remember.

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It is also therapeutic and some mental health experts do recommend journal therapy to people dealing with mental issues. You can write down your emotions, process it in better ways. It can improve your mood and manage symptoms of depression. It also serves as a medium for venting out stress which further helps with anxiety level. Whenever you feel that your stress or anxiety is acting up, dig out the journal, and start writing, the results would be very satisfying. Consider it as the daily self-talk you do to keep yourself mentally healthy.

The most common and known advantage of journaling is that it boosts productivity. Write down important information and move on. This way, you’ll be able to keep more information. Studies have found that writing things down is the most effective method of enhancing memory. It also saves time, how? When you want to remember something but couldn’t get ahold of it, you can take out your journal and look for the information you need because you wrote it down earlier. Stressing out your brain is not a good idea.

Many of us have been a victim of impulsive behavior, either we did it or we had to face someone else’s doings. We all end up regretting the things we did because we weren’t thinking logically. Journaling can help you control this behavior, when you write, you try to think and when you think logically or even read what you wrote because you were feeling a certain type of way, it makes you process what’s right or wrong. It allows you to think about what should be done rather than what you want to do.

If you are very creative and look for ideas everywhere, journaling is definitely for you.

You can make different pages, decorate it. Have a theme for the month and much more. Journaling can also be a way to express your ideas, it would help you in analyzing them better.You can have a whole journal dedicated to idea mapping if you want to, you don’t need to constantly remember them. Just write it down and organize accordingly. Some ideas might turn into great opportunities for you. idea mapping. 

There are various sections you can make in your journal to help you organize your life such as – 

1. Gratitude journal – You can do this every morning or every night. Write down things you’re grateful for in life. It can be the smallest thing or something that happened during the day. If you do this in the morning, you are already off to a great start of the day.

2. Habit tracker – Track your habits by making a section in your journal. Color or tick off the day you complete the task, you’ll be able to adopt the habit you want to if you’re consistent.

3. Goal tracker – It can also be a progress tracker for any project or any goal of your life. Track each step so you get the motivation to achieve the goal faster.

4. To-do list, Reminders –  Write down your tasks for the day, in the morning, or the night before. It helps you remember the tasks you have to complete and be on track.

5. Daily life journal– Describe how your day went. How would you summarize it? What were the highlights? What did you learn?

6. Life experiences– When some incidents keep bothering you and you can’t get it out of your mind, pour your heart into the journal. You will feel very light and relieved from inside.

7. Inspirational quotes– Quotes to make you work more efficiently and walk towards your goal are always a good idea. It pushes you to do better to achieve your mission.

There are plenty of other benefits and uses of journaling to enhance your lifestyle. You can comment them down below and also share how journaling has helped you change your life. 

For more inspiration check out Bullet Journal Page Ideas You Need To Try. 

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