I never really thought much about journaling, in fact when I first thought about it I pictured a 13 year old girl writing in her diary. Then over the last few years I have worked with a spiritual healer and we would talk about things that give me anxiety or things from my past and she always says “you need to journal about this.” Well, what does that mean? Literally sit down with a notebook (or a cute journal) and a pen and just let your mind wonder, write down anything that comes to your mind, you will be amazed how you can just continue to write when you felt like you had nothing to write about. It’s like a massive brain dump! I was amazed at how refreshing this exercise is. Now I feel like I tell people they need to “journal about that” all the time.
Like most things I hear about I always want to research the benefits so that is what I did. WOW, there are so many benefits to journaling.
- Reduce stress, help with depression and anxiety. By getting your thoughts down on paper, you can gain a deeper understanding of the causes of your own internal conflicts, you can discover what you are fearing or having anxiety about. Journaling has a way of bringing concerns to the surface so you can start to address them. Writing about stressful experiences can help you manage them in a healthy way.
- Helps organize your life. When you feel like have so much on your mind and you can’t seem to manage them in your head, journaling is a great way to start to organize your thoughts. Not to mention you know have what is on your mind on paper to reflect on later.
- Improves your Memory. Writing something down lets your brain know you want to remember it. Plus, you know have what you were thinking on paper and can re-read it to improve the chances of remember it.
- Help you achieve goals. When you use your journal to write down your goals, you can keep better track of your intentions. Writing out your goals and why you want to accomplish them has been proven to help you achieve your goals. It’s a great way to hold yourself accountable.
Believe it or not, writing can help you better identify what you want and why you want it.
- Boosts emotional intelligence. Journaling is a great way to get to know yourself better, you can make sense of why you are feeling a certain way about a person or situation. It can also help you understand your triggers. Journaling is a great way to self-discover, by writing down your thoughts as honestly as you can, will help you grow and develop how you react to situations in the future.
Another way to journal is to use journal prompts. There are many different journals that have daily or weekly prompts for you to write about. I post a journal prompt every Sunday on my Facebook page. This makes journaling easier as it relates to knowing what to write.
Here are some examples of journal prompts:
- What are your top priorities this month?
- Think back 10 years ago, what have you accomplished in the last 10 years?
- List 5 things you love about yourself
- What do you want to improve in your life?
- Describe your perfect day?
I decided this year to focus on being intentional, so I purchased an Intentions Journal, it’s a weekly journal that gives me prompts to help be live intentionally. https://a.co/d/7y286L3
If you have never journaled, I highly recommend you start even if it’s just 10 mins a week. It is very therapeutic and has so many other benefits as mentioned above.
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