Journaling is not just a simple act of sitting down and writing what you feel, journaling is more than that. Journaling is a brilliant strategy that is used by wise people throughout the world.
Journaling is a process where you sit down and start writing your thoughts and feelings to understand them more clearly. Journaling can be a great way to struggle with stress, depression, anxiety. Because journaling helps you to see from an another perspective what you truly feel, what are your emotions and may improve your mental health. Hence journaling is a great way to achieve mental peace.
Great personalities and journaling:
Many great personalities from all over the world understood the benefits of journaling and hence they had journals where they wrote various stuff. Some famous people who practiced journaling are Marco Polo, Leonardo da Vinci, Ludwig van Beethoven, Charles Darwin, Marie Curie, Winston Churchill- only to name a few.
Marco Polo in his journal, Livre des merveilles du monde (Book of the Marvels of the World) wrote about his travels to Asia and explained the Europeans the vast size and wealth of one of the unexplored corners of the planet.
The Italian painter Leonardo da Vinci in his journal used to record his thoughts in some personal notes which were put together after his death.
The journals of Beethoven revealed the different side of Beethoven. This German composer wrote about his deafness, as well as depression. He used this technique of journaling for coping with stress.
Hence various famous people used the technique of journaling to cope with stress, get new ideas, their experiences and many more. So we can't avoid the fact that many famous personalities used this technique of journaling because they knew the benefits of journaling.
Benefits of journaling:
You might have got a clue about what are the benefits of journaling. But let me list them so that you may take a quick glance:
1) Journaling helps you to bring your problems in a journal.
2) Journaling helps you to leave your destructive thoughts in a piece of paper.
3) Journaling gives you a different view to your problems so that you can find some solutions easily.
4) Journaling helps you to know about what you feel, what are your thoughts and helps you to learn more about yourself.
Some of the science backed benefits of journaling:
1) A study by Cambridge University found that journaling helps to improve well being after traumatic and stressful events.
2) The journal of Experimental Psychology found that journaling before bed decreases worry and helps you to fall asleep faster.
3) According to a study by Harvard Business School, people (aka participants) who journaled at the end of the day had 25% increase in performance when compared to participants who didn't journal.
4) Journaling improves conversation skills because writing reflects clear thinking and in turn clear communication.
How to start journaling?:
You may have many questions arising in your brain such as 'What's the best time to start journaling?' 'When to journal?' 'Where to journal?' 'How long to see the benefits of journaling?' etc.
There's no solid answer to all these questions but the only thing that matters in journaling is just sitting down with a pen and paper and writing. You can write a journal about various sorts of things: You may journal about your day, you may journal about your problems, you may journal about your mental health, you may journal about new ideas and these are only to name a few. The benefits of benefits only hit when you practice journaling religiously.
Every morning after I wake up and brush my teeth I do gratitude journaling where I write down all the things that I am grateful for. This has eventually turned into a habit and now I don't care about the benefits but I just do this gratitude journaling because this gives a positive start to my day.
Here's a clue on what type of journaling to use for what reasons:
If you want to feel better: Just sit down with a pen and paper and do gratitude journaling. Write down a few things you are grateful for. You can even write I am grateful for the chair I am sitting on, for the pen I am holding etc. This journaling is helpful if you want to feel happy.
If you have too much of mental load: Sit down with a pen and paper and do what is called dump journaling. In dump journaling write down everything what comes to your mind, why you feel, what secrets you have, everything which is bothering you just write them down until you have to force your brain to write things in your journal. That's when you stop the journaling practice. After this journaling practice you will slowly start to have more mental clarity.
If you feel stressed: Just do the dump journaling method explained earlier.
If you feel overwhelmed by tasks: I don't know what's the name of this journaling practice. But in this journaling practice you sit down and just write down the tasks that you need to perform and after this journaling practice you will find that there aren't many tasks to perform. It's just a handful of tasks that keep revolving around your head due to which you feel overwhelmed.
If you want to plan out your life: I don't know what's the name of this journaling practice but here just write down your plans about life. This journaling practice will give you a somewhat clearer picture of what to do with your life. This journaling practice may be helpful to find your purpose.
Journaling is also used for various other purposes. You can journal to record about the events that happened during the day, new ideas, you aim in life, your problems etc.
In this blog I only write about the things that I have learnt through self development and this is what I have learnt about journaling so far. So wait for the future blogs as they will be more detailed.
Final note: I suggest don't journal only to see its benefits and if you journal only for its benefits then you should stop journaling altogether. Practice journaling only for expressing your thoughts on paper and reducing mental load. I promise one day the benefits of journaling will surely kick in.
Best of luck with your journaling practice.
Hope you liked this blog about journaling.
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