The written word is such a beautiful form of communication. The way our mind sees a cluster of symbols mashed together and is able to create not only sense of it but an image in our head. We read the letters M-O-U-N-T-A-I-N and we immediately create a picture of a tall pique formed covered in glistening snow. This picture is all thanks to our sense of recognition and how certain words can trigger thoughts or emotions. This process of recognition is one of the things that makes journaling so important. There are millions of memories that we can't possibly all remember without a little hint. The words we place on our journal pages will help our mind remember, letting us revisit that joy that was experienced so long ago. Besides this wonderful perk of being able to relive all our most joyous memories, here are 7 reasons why you should start journaling.
1. Discovery
Life often gets so busy to the point where we find ourselves rushing through it without taking any time to reflect. We skip past the beautiful moments and never give ourselves time to process the bad events. By living such a non-stop style of life, our mind can reach exhaustion and leave us feeling very tired in our day to day lives. If you are someone who lives a life similar to the one I am describing I suggest you try out stream of consciousness journaling. This style of journaling requires minimal effort and serves as a method of release and discovery.
Start by writing out the first couple thoughts that come to mind. After this, you will feel your mind start to wander and come up with all theses other things you may have been worried about or distracting you in your daily tasks. Write all that comes to mind and don't leave out anything. It's ok if your writing isn't perfect as nobody will have access to theses words but you.
This way of self expression gives you the opportunity to conduct a self discovery. As your mind travels, your hand will print word for word what you may be thinking. You will find yourself coming up with solutions for problems you didn't even know about, but most likely have been the reason for your recent frustrations. You will explore new things about yourself that you might not vocalize, but will surely be useful to know when dealing with future struggles or ambitions.
The process of stream of consciousness writing is liberating, but sometimes confusing. The first time around, accept that your hand may not be fast enough to capture every nook of your mind, but make an effort to write out what comes naturally instead of forcing phrases onto the page.
2. Forgiveness
Journaling is a way of forgiveness towards both yourself and others. If you feel any sort of guilt or even hatred towards someone else, you may need some time to process theses feeling in a healthy way. Write out letters to those you feel have hurt you or you have hurt sometime in this lifetime. Theses letters will never be sent, but addressing the person may give you the release you need to move on. Write about how situations made you feel, how sorry you are or how sorry you feel that person should be. Write a letter to yourself, from yourself if you feel self hatred. Apologize and accept this apology as you would if a friend sent you a sorry letter.
3. Goal setting
Writing out our goals is a great way to remember what we are striving towards. Theses goals can be long term or short term, giving us in either case a way to share our ambitions with the universe. You can refer back to this page to be reminded of what you wish to accomplish allowing you to make a plan on how you are to get there. Of course a new school year or the new year is a great time to do this, but never limit yourself to two days of the year to map out your life. Take the time once a week or every month to determine what would be an important accomplishment for this upcoming time period.
4. Take it out on the page
Anger is a feeling no human shies away from. The outcome of our life can be severely influenced on how we choose to act upon this anger. Consequences are often a result of our actions when we act without thinking or processing our thoughts. When faced with anger, give yourself 30 seconds to feel angry but make the conscious effort to keep it inside. Let yourself release this anger and make a mental note that you will return to it if need be later on in the evening. When you get home take out your journal or a scrap piece of paper and write out any leftover anger from this day. After this process, you will feel relieved you didn't react as soon as the emotion showed up. It is never good to hide away our feeling as they will only build up, however it is also important to reflect before making decisions we will most likely regret.
5. Improved creativity & writing
If this isn't obvious already, writing a little bit everyday will improve your writing which is an essential skill for most people both in the professional world and social. So much of what we do depends on the written word, and how others perceive theses words we write.
In adition to possibly raising your grade in english class, journaling is a wonderful creative outlet. Most of us tend to think we are not creative people as we may have not done great in our elementary art class. However, we all have creativity in us that must surely be shared with the world. Journaling is a great place to start if you are exploring creativity. It is a safe place that nobody but you will see, and it gives you the chance to explore what you like and dislike through self discovery. Whether writing is the form of creative expression you choose to stick with or not, you will feel more inclined to explore other forms of creativity if you start somewhere judgement free.
6. Self love
As individuals living in modern time, we are often always "on". We stay in touch with everyone from the second we wake up to the very moment we go to sleep. Time to ourselves is limited as even when we are alone, we are usually still social online in some way. Since this is true, it is so important to take just a few minutes of each day or week to unplug. Showing ourselves some love will truly give us a better view on life, allowing us to process all that happens around us. Take a break from whatever you may be doing and give yourself just five minutes to breathe and relax. Write down a couple things on a piece of paper and make a note to do this everyday as well as how calm you feel in this present moment of alone time.
7. Looking back
When you are experiencing something upsetting, it is often very difficult to get past it and see the good in what's to come. You are in such an awful place in this one moment that your whole life seems like a disaster.
When we are going through times like this, we need comfort that everything will work itself out and turn out ok. However, when you are in such a dark place, it's almost as if your mind blocks out all past happiness and only let's you replay the bad memories in your mind. If you've been keeping a journal for the past year and have written about all the good and the bad, you will be able to go back and look at theses times during difficult moments. Yes you will read about the bad times, but you will see just a couple weeks later everything turned out ok. Having this knowledge will allow you to place hope in the future to come and peace in your mind.
I hope some of the points made above gave you some inspiration to start a journal of your own. Please let me know if you have any questions and I will be happy to share my thoughts with you.
--Sarah
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