When I first heard about journaling, which is many years ago now. I did think, how is that going to help me? I didn’t understand how writing things down would affect me. I really didn’t think it would make me feel any better.

Would it be like the teenage diary we all had when we were young, writing who we had a crush on, and how our lives would be over if they didn’t like me back. What was I supposed to write in it, I don’t have time to sit and write down pages and pages of thoughts and feelings. I didn’t know what to do. Of course I can write, but what do I write. It got me thinking, what actually is Journaling? 

Me and my journal

I treat my Journal like a good friend that I would tell everything to. I usually have it next to my bed, and write in it at night, because to me it’s the end of the day and I can just get everything out of my head. But if you prefer you can write first thing I the morning, do whatever feels right for you. You can even carry it with you throughout the day.

Types of journaling

There are many different kinds of Journaling, from a Food Journal, to a Gratitude Journal, one for ideas and inspiration, even a Travel journal if you do a lot of travelling. Some people buy themselves a beautiful new notebook to begin the Journaling in, others use an app on their phone. I personally am a notebook queen, and I can’t resist buying one if I like it, I have a box of new brand  new notebooks for when I need them.

Why you should journal

But I suppose this post is to guide you more in the direction of a Daily Journal. A place where you can write down your innermost thought, fears and feelings. For me personally I find it helps enormously to write thoughts down, firstly it stops them from swimming around and around in my head all day. It gives a certain order to my little world of chaos that is my mind. I also find that is helps me if I write down a couple of things I am grateful for at the end.

Journalling and gratefulness

You may wonder why I do this. Trust me when I say actually writing down what you are grateful for that day is amazing. Just this small little thing will have you looking for the positives on a daily basis, and when you start to look for the positives in life it changes you whole outlook, and life itself turns into a much more positive place to be. I can only ask that you try it. I also make list’s in my journal to set some goals, and just writing them down helps me focus more on them and think about ways of achieving them.

Clearing of the mind

But for me I find that it helps to clear my mind, I am an over-thinker and it drives me crazy! So for me to just let everything out, to pour it all out onto the pages of my journal is just a relief. There are times when I have gone back and re-read some of my entries and I can see how much I overreacted over a certain situation or how I was so calm when maybe I should have been angry.

I really do think it helps you to get a hold of your emotions and discovering your triggers. It’s also a great way to connect with yourself. I’m sure a few of you rolled your eyes when you read that sentence, but how busy is your life? Do you work, have kids, have people to look after. We are extremely busy people nowadays and most of us put ourselves at the bottom of the list when it comes to putting ourselves first. Maybe you have a busy family life, a stressful job. When did you last sit down and really think about you and your life and where you wanted it to go and what you wanted to achieve. Not many of us have the time to focus on the multitude of areas in your life you want to change, just thinking about that makes me feel exhausted.

Benefits of journaling

The benefits of Journaling are huge. Firstly it helps clear your emotions by increasing your focus, releasing and letting go of pent up feelings and emotions, letting go of the past, it helps you clarify your thoughts and feelings.

Reduce stress by writing down painful emotions helping  to release the intensity of these feelings. Don’t go over and over arguments you had in your head, write it all down, you may see things differently. It puts things in perspective, it stops you obsessing over it. By getting into a routine you might discover more about your emotional well-being, you may discover who the toxic people are around you. Just maybe you become clearer about what you actually want and this makes you confident and happy. 

It helps you manifest the goals in your life. Write down your dreams and goals, think about what you want to achieve.  Make list’s, add to that list and cross them off when you achieve them. 

So how do you start Journaling?

As I said earlier on, buy a notebook, it’s entirely up to you what kind. Then just begin by writing a couple of sentences about your day. A couple of things your grateful for, it could even be as simple as you are grateful it didn’t rain today. Little things that made you smile today.

You don’t have to start writing pages upon pages of emotion filled words. It’s about writing down what is in your head at the moment. Things you are worried about, good things that happened, bad things that happened. It doesn’t matter, just start to write! If you can turn to your journal when you wake up instead of reaching for your phone to scroll through social media looking at other peoples lives, what if you wrote down a couple of things you wanted to see that day, what if you wrote down what you wanted to see in your life.

One day you will look back through your journals and it will be the little things that make you smile, and you will be amazed about the big things it helped you to do.