How journaling can change your life

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Journaling is a great way to capture and better understand your own thoughts. If you feel like you don’t have time to keep records, or you don’t know what to write about, use these tips.

Journaling is one of those tips that seem too simple to actually work. But it is often the simple things that most affect our lives.

By keeping a journal, you can:

• Get rid of daily anxiety.
• Identify the main triggers for your anxious thoughts.
• Facilitate difficult decisions.
• Develop creativity.
• Letting go of the past.

Journaling Helps Build Resilience

Sean Achor, a world-renowned psychologist and author of the best-selling book The Happiness Advantage, said in one interview that the ability to “endure” is not the main thing for the development of psychological resilience. On the contrary, it is more important to release tension every day and disconnect from everything.

And keeping a diary helps in just that. By writing down your thoughts on paper, you can get rid of them and study them more thoroughly. By reviewing the records for the year, you will begin to understand yourself better, learn to focus and worry less.

Keeping a journal can help you cope with anxiety

1. Concentration and purification of consciousness

Only by being fully aware of our thoughts can we change them.

Barbara Markway psychologist

Every morning we wake up with a swarm of thoughts and ideas in our heads. We think about what needs to be done today and what we did yesterday. In order not to go crazy, you need to redirect energy in a different direction and throw out all this stream of thoughts outward. A diary would be perfect.

2. Alienation from your emotions

Anxiety, anger, fear, insecurity and all other feelings can be transferred to paper and looked at from the outside. Then you will understand that all these are illusions, which are not worth wasting mental strength.

3. Fighting self-criticism

Silence your main critic - the inner voice that constantly condemns you.

4. Defining alarm triggers

Sometimes we experience anxiety or other negative emotions without knowing why. It may even seem to us that the matter is in ourselves, that something is wrong with us. But if you start writing in a journal, you can spot the underlying causes of stress and anxiety and prevent them from affecting us.

How to start writing

Write on plain paper

Taking notes on a computer or phone is a more passive and emotionally detached method. Of course, it’s faster to keep a journal that way. Only speed and volume are not the goal to strive for when starting a diary. The main thing here is introspection and clarity of thoughts.

Keeping an electronic diary can be thought of as traveling on an airplane. You will get to your destination faster (a certain number of words), but in the process you will not notice the surrounding landscape at all (your thoughts and ideas).

Find the one that's right for you

The most important thing when you start journaling is to find the approach that works best for you. There are many different techniques, all of them promise to change your world. If any one approach doesn't work for you, don't despair and don't leave your diary behind. Try something different or you will never see positive results.

And don't judge yourself too harshly. Don't necessarily try to write seven days a week. Start small - with one sentence.

Here are some more tips to help you get started writing in your journal:

1. Think about just one day.
2. Prepare a pen and notebook in advance.
3. Get up 10 minutes earlier than usual (if you write in the morning).
4. Write down one sentence. Don't worry about the content, write whatever comes to mind.
5. Try to do the same tomorrow.

What to write about

Three things you are grateful for

Gratitude is a superpower available to all of us. It helps us feel happier, worry less, and be more successful at work and in other areas of life. Write down what you were grateful for today.

One phrase for self-affirmation

Self-affirming phrases will also help strengthen psychological stability. Choose your words carefully to get rid of something in your life or, conversely, to create something new.

One fear you will overcome today

To get rid of anxiety, you need to try to face some kind of fear every day. This, of course, does not mean that you have to jump out of the plane or quit your job every day. We all have hundreds of little fears that we try not to think about. Start small and repeat day after day. Over time, you will learn to control your fear and channel it in a positive direction.

One question

For example:

• What would I do today if I needed to achieve my five-year goals within six months?
• Why do I always want to tell everyone that I'm busy?
• Who would you like to surpass at work and in life? What are the views and values of these people?

You don't have to stick to a box, just record the stream of consciousness.