Keeping a Journal May Positivity Influence Your Life

One of the best ways to gain understanding and clarity about your life is by journaling (or writing in a diary) about your thoughts and feelings. It’s especially helpful if you’re feeling conflicted or confused about a situation you’re in. Writing it all down can be incredibly helpful. Science has shown that keeping a daily log of your day has a lot more benefits to it than merely creating a place to dump your deepest thoughts in private.

You don’t need to be a writer or even want to become one to start journaling or to journal effectively, but you might just want to run out and buy a cute notebook after you read these benefits journaling can have for you. You don’t need to spend a lot of money on a fancy journal. I recommend using a regular, lined notebook like the ones you had in school. Then you won’t feel so much pressure to be “perfect” in what you write. You won’t be afraid to scribble and scrawl whatever happens to flow onto the paper.

Here are some great reasons to start journaling, if you aren’t already…

  1. It boosts your creativity
    It’s one of the more obvious benefits, but you’ll find that you become more creative when you just let it flow in your journal. It’s a stream of consciousness process that allows you to go where your mind takes you, and much like dreams, that’s pretty exciting.
  2. It restores mindfulness
    Happiness is directly linked to mindfulness. When you’re writing in your journal, your frustrations and anxieties ebb away, and you’re left to unite with your thoughts completely.  Sometimes simply having a place to dump all of your feelings, disappointments and thoughts also gives you a way to let them out and walk away from them.  This release helps you to feel your feelings, sort through them via pen and paper, and move along in a healthy manner.  It’s quite powerful.
  3. It gets you closer to your goals
    When we journal, we often write about the things we wish we could accomplish. That café we dream of opening or that dream vacation we’ve had on our minds for years. No matter what it is, writing it down helps your brain focus on those goals and find ways to bring it to fruition. Essentially, it means you’re more likely to achieve those goals if you simply write about them first.
  4. It improves memory
    Writing things down not only serves to prevent you from forgetting them but using a pen and paper forces your brain to engage with it cognitively. That means even when you’re not writing something down in the moment, like say at a social event when a new contact tells you their name, you won’t space out and forget it if you journal.
  5. It improves your communication skills
    Keeping a journal is a way to help vocalize your thoughts. Interestingly though, it also benefits the way you speak, since it naturally forces you to build your vocabulary and put your thoughts in order. You’ll find that when you’re out in the world engaging with others, your journaling will have served you well for this purpose.
  6. It provides an opportunity for gratitude and perspective
    Writing down your thoughts and feelings about an event gives you unlimited time to explore the depth of your feelings. But it also provides you with the space to ponder on why a person did what they did, or why that situation happened. If you are skilled, you may be able to see and realize that they likely didn’t mean for it to happen that way, or didn’t realize you would feel the way you did about it. This exercise alone may give you the perspective to let an issue go and move on from it.
Image Credits:
     Lisa Fotios licensed under Pexels License

Christy R. Hall

Christy R. Hall is a Wellness Mindset Coach & Emotional Alchemist. She focuses on helping people change their lives from the inside out. Trained in hypnosis, Rapid Transformational Therapy (RTT), various Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), she has numerous skills to help clients achieve real and lasting change. Christy says, “When you know how the mind works, it’s easy to make changes.” Christy fancies herself to be a Jedi Master, a verbal Ninja, and a Mindset Architect. In her free time, she spins yarn (both literally spinning fiber into yarn, as well as, writing), crochets for charity, watches silly cat videos, looks at pictures of Corgis, and plays massively multiplayer online games. Her current favorite is Elder Scrolls Online.