When I started this very blog, keeping a journal was the only thing on my mind. Today, it has grown into a resource for people who want to become a better version of themselves. I have been an addict to personal writing for as long as I can remember. It has personally helped me at various levels and I want to share that process with you all. In this post today, we are going to explore how to journal for self-discovery and personal development.
What is Journaling?
It is a powerful technique to start personal development work. There are no right or wrong ways to do it. It is basically that time of self-reflection and talking to yourself that you utilize in the form of a piece of paper and a pen.
To help you find yourself, discover yourself a little more. I personally think journaling is a kind of life coaching and your improvement is based on asking quality questions to get to the bottom of what you really want and how you really feel about that certain thing and what actions you need to take to get where you want to be in your life.
For me, journaling is a way to express myself, listen to my thoughts, getting them out on paper and getting them out on paper helps me organize my thoughts. I need to write things down in order to get them in or out of my head. I guess I am maybe more of that kind of person.
Types of Journaling?
As I said earlier there are no right or wrong ways of doing it and no rules. There are multiple types of journaling that are out there which can be characterized by visual aspects or in terms of content.
For example, in terms of visual, Art Journaling and Bullet Journaling.
Now I am going to share a few examples of types of journals in terms of content.
In terms of content, I meant Diary, where you jot down about maybe how your day was, how are you feeling and so on.
Another example is having a mindset journal, where you define your goals/ habits and keep it to hold yourself accountable by measuring the daily progress.
Another example would be keeping a gratitude journal where you pen down things daily that you are grateful for each day.
Another example is keeping a journal with positive affirmations that you can read out loud to yourself and keep that journal with yourself as a constant reminder of a self-esteem boost.
You can pick any one of them, to begin with as you are the better judge of what suits your needs and interests. You can simultaneously pick multiple of them and mix and match as per your requirement.
Benefits of Journaling
- It holds you accountable.
Your journal holds you accountable for the commitments you have made to yourself as it is a constant reminder of them and your thoughts are not merely thoughts at this point they are that tangible thing you can see lying on your desk. You see what that means? It means that you are not only trying to tell yourself that you are improving but you are actually making an effort to improve and pen down the progress.
- The picture of before and after.
You will be able to see the progress.
- It helps you cope with stressful events.
Multiple studies have shown that personal writing can help you overcome stressful events and mental health problems such as depression and anxiety.
- It helps in devising the action strategy.
To achieve your goals and the results you desire.
- It helps you in discovering yourself.
- It trains your subconscious mind.
- Building focus.
Dropping distractions and listening to yourself attentively.
How to get started?
It doesn’t always have to be fancy and super artsy. It could be just a plain notebook that you dedicate to journaling. It could be as fancy as you like and creative as you like.
- Make it a habit
- Invest time
- Don’t try to sound too good. Just be yourself and prefer the stream of consciousness.
- Plan a structure to make it helpful for you. Use your personal unique style to write and don’t stress yourself by thinking about the overwhelming possibilities instead try to make a structure that will help you in making it a useful habit.
Experiment and find out what approaches work best for you.
Recommended Journal Approaches to try
- Morning pages
- The Goal/ vision journal
- Gratitude journal
- The affirmations journal
- Mindset journal with a focus on your values
- The ideas Journal
- The habit tracker
- The monthly plan journal
How to get the most out of journaling?
- Do not censor yourself. Be brutally honest.
- By setting your intention.
- Be consistent.
- Having fun.
To be honest, I am not always successful at keeping a journal, but I try!
