Keeping A Journal Has The Power To Change Your Life
Writing your thoughts and feelings down can help clarify your goals, simplify your life, build better relationships, and identify behavioural patterns. All you need to do is keep your pen moving, and every so often take time to reflect on past entries.
Why a journal works…
Sitting down to write a journal gives us space to think, and it allows us to listen to our inner voice. Quite simply, we stop distracting ourselves, and can start joining the dots of life events and putting things into perspective.
The act of writing down thoughts and feelings makes them somehow real. It is an acknowledgement of what you really think. This release helps people to move forward in life because they can “let go”. It can also highlight repeat behaviour; cycles and patterns that may have been too vague to notice before, but become more obvious once you have written them down.
Armed with this knowledge, it is possible to affect change simply by setting intentions for the day, the week or the year. A journal is a gift to your future self, using the lessons of the past to change your life for the better.
The Challenge: How to keep a journal
- Aim for a daily entry – either first thing in the morning reflecting on the previous day and setting a new intention; or last thing at night, summarising your day and setting an intention for when you wake.
- Try to fill a sheet of A4 paper – this goal will stop your inner self from making excuses to keep thoughts and feelings trapped inside.
- Let your mind go and keep your pen moving – write anything down, even if you don’t know what to write, start writing “”I don’t know what to write”, you’ll be amazed how once you let go, the words will just start to flow!
- Don’t be precious about your writing – don’t get tied up with spelling and punctuation, just let the feelings and thoughts flow through your pen. These entries are for you to express yourself, not something that others will judge your writing skills on.
Then make sure you look back on what you have written…
After a week or month, read some of your past entries to see how your thoughts and feelings have changed towards specific situations. After a while longer, look back on your journal and see how you have developed as a person. See how your goals have been accomplished, or changed.
More than anything, use your journal as a tool to help build a happier and more fulfilled life.