Reasons to Start Journaling
REASONS TO START JOURNALING
Journaling, the habit or activity of writing to keep record of events, thoughts and ideas or emotions. If you’re looking to get into the habit of journaling but are not sure it’s right for you consider these possible benefits:
Journaling your thoughts helps put them in order in such a way that your mind is not having to constantly hold onto all of that information and keep track of a million thinks, thoughts and ideas, it clears your mind and helps you process all the information required to solve each problem on your plate.
VISUALIZATION
Write the vision and make it plain. On your growth journey, working on a goal? Journaling is a great way to practice visualization. It takes the intangible images in your head and makes them tangible. But the secret is in going back and reading it. It really clears things up and makes it easy to slip into the character of who you see yourself being once you’ve accomplished your goal.
BREAKS THOUGHT CYCLES
Sometimes our brain can get caught up in a cycle of holding onto things and repeating thought cycles. So, our minds get trapped in a state of the same things coming back up again and again. When you find yourself in a thought loop (as I call them) or constantly overthinking in your head, or playing the same thing over and over again, writing them down helps. When you write them down it puts things into perspective and places the ideas that have been swirling around in your head in order, it clears up space in your mind now your brain doesn’t have to hold on to all of that information.
PUTS THINGS INTO PERSPECTIVE
Our minds are like echo chambers. Writing down what we’re thinking kind of give us a different perspective. It makes it easier to see things objectively as opposed to how we’ve been viewing it in our head. Especially, if those thoughts are written down in a particular order or structure. For example, guided planning pages, question flow sheets.
SOLVING PROBLEMS
Our minds can only hold so much information at a time. Let’s face it sometimes we have deeply complex problems that we have to figure out but seem too big for us to get a grasp on it and find the solution we’re looking for. Journaling can help by giving us a space to really work out multiple possible outcomes and not worry about forgetting any idea we came up with.
PROCESSING
Our brains though powerful can only hold and focus on so much at a time. So if you’re trying to figure out something that like a really big problem, big as it having a lot of steps and complexities, like planning out your whole week, writing a blog post, preparing for a presentation writing it down on paper is a really big help.
THOUGHT BANK
Our brains are in a constant never-ending process of getting rid of things in order to make space for the new information that is ever showing up. So, when we’re trying to solve or sus out a particularly difficult problem or think through a complex and layered problem having a pen and paper to store that information. Especially if you find yourself constantly forgetting things that you oh so really want to remember like, the name of that book, or the website for that blog with the banana bread recipe you were planning on making
CALMS MIND
Now eventhough our brains are really good at getting rid of thoughts sometimes it gets a thought and holds onto it and doesn’t let go. And when our brains hold they hold. Journaling, therefore is a great practice that helps our brain to detox, if you will, removing present thoughts, giving your mind space to breathe.
MEDITATION
The act of writing performs a similar function as counting or breathing does during meditation. It give our brains a monotonous task to focus on. For example, the scratch of the pencil, the shaping of letters, the spelling of your words and the structuring of your sentences..
Journaling, specifically the act of writing thoughts down, idea by idea, word by word is the perfect tool for clearing the mind. It also serves as a way to calm overthinking, relieves stress and if it is a hobby of yours it can be quite calming and relaxing.
Some of the more common or popular reasons for why people journal are to record memories or ideas for things they plan to do, to clear their mind and help them process their emotions to return their mind to a state of calm and achieve clarity through practices like braindumpung.
In my case I journal because there’s way too much stuff passing through my mind more that I can hold onto or remember. So jounraling for me is a way to record my thoughts and ideas and to process. My goal is to get better at using journal to keep tract of memories and their movements throughout the day,
I’m curious…
Why do you journal? What’s the main driver for you?
