EMPOWERING BENEFITS OF JOURNAL WRITING
- Pauline Samuels
- Aug 11, 2023
- 4 min read
Keeping a journal is a great tool for maintaining a healthy balance in life. The benefits can provide you with the power to unlock your full potential.
In this article, I’ll go over, what is a journal, how to use your journal to acquire your optimum potential, and the powerful benefits journal writing will bring into your life.
WHAT IS A JOURNAL:
A journal is where you write the events, thoughts, or desires of your day. It can become an invaluable tool for reaching your goals in life. In some cases people do video or audio journaling. However for this article we will be discussing the written form of journaling.
HOW AND WHY TO USE YOUR JOURNAL:
One thing I recommend is to always add the full date at the start of your journal. This will be useful as you reflect back on your writings. If you’re just starting out, you may miss days and can reflect back and add in your details of missed days. It is also perfectly fine to have a lapse in time. Just remember, you’re building a beneficial and useful habit. Staying on top of it is the goal for the optimum results.
As you adjust to your new daily habit, you may want to consider setting up a reminder system. I use my Alexa device, which also sends me notifications on my phone, so there’s less chance of missing this important reminder. There are a number of systems and tools available to us for setting reminders, including selecting your ideal time and adding a daily reminder in your phone’s clock. Alternatively, you may want to add important information when you wake up. Perhaps you had a dream or just a morning thought. You can still write in the evening. I do this sometimes. You may just add “morning thoughts”, and follow up with “evening thoughts” for those special double tap days!
Another way is to place your journal where you sleep. Not next to where you sleep, but literally in the space you sleep. Like under your pillow or under the covers. This will make it easier to remember. A journal is like your best friend and should be with you at home or in your luggage when traveling.
Remember, this is your new adventure of self discovery and it’s happening in real time. How exciting! The fact is we spend so much of our time getting to know other people and one day find that we need to get to know ourselves too. For longevity of connecting with and helping others, It’s important to include yourself in the getting to know you process of life. So think of your journal as one of your allies and close confidante. Your journal will aid you in living a healthy more balance lifestyle.
It doesn’t happen overnight and should become part of you building and maintaining healthy life habits and routines. The fact is that it usually takes at least a year to recognize your season’s peaks and valleys. This is where you may notice reoccurring patterns in your life. For instance you may have a new job or a raise in March and October and remember that other such opportunities happened during those same months as you look back at your life. Likewise you may notice that In August, you had a tough time and reflect back that this also happened in prior years.
This is one of the master keys you’re handed by keeping a journal. That knowledge is your power tool for change and a real breakthrough.
POWERFUL BENEFITS OF WRITING A JOURNAL:
Your journal is a blueprint for you and is not merely the days events or feelings you went through. It can be a to do with ideas and future aspirations. As you start writing, your mind will go through an exploration of brilliance and move you to push the boundaries of possibilities. You may come up with a new idea for a business or a solution for something else you conceive. So keep writing and outline as many details as you can. Once you put pen to paper, all your genius will start pouring out. So don’t worry about keeping your day to just one page. This is your time to build the master blueprint of YOU! Remember that some days may be just a sentence and others may take several pages. Likewise you will continue to have great days and not so great ones too.
You may fill your journal up in a month or six months. It doesn’t matter as long as you find time to hang out with your new friend and confidante the journal. Start building your own personal library of the explorations of your mind and life.
Once you have your collection going, it will be interesting to see what you once felt about something or someone verses how you feel now. Your journal will have those answers and may include the process and steps that happened in your life to feel so different.
As you read back through your journal even years back, you may find ideas that you implemented and others you didn’t. Additionally, you’ll find situations that were dire or without hope, that you managed to make it through. Reading back over your journals may also provide you with one of your really good ideas that you forgot about. There are limitless possibilities available to you from keeping a personal record of your thoughts, ideas, feelings and experiences.
Your journal is a strong tool and can help you with: Problem Solving, Self-Reflection, Goal Setting, Emotional Release, Creativity & Inspiration, and help you build healthy habits and routines. You really get to know and understand a lot about yourself with just 2 readily available tools…Pen & Paper…or for my tech readers…Laptop & Keyboard.
Sign Up and subscribe to get future articles from paulinesamuels.com