Why Keeping a Journal Could Change Your Life

Our lives are completely defined by connectivity, and this can cause a kind of stressful chaos which follows you wherever you go – which isn’t exactly healthy. Journaling helps you to slow down, breathe and reflect on yourself, all from the comfort of your couch or bed! This time of reflection and consideration is so incredibly valuable, so why don’t we all do it more often? It’s easy to stop and start your journal routine, discarding it in favour of scrolling on your newsfeed or replying to the one last email before bed. But would we keep doing this if we knew just how powerful it can be? If you’re struggling to commit properly to keeping a journal, here are the amazing, life-changing benefits that should get you back on track…

Clearing and understanding your emotions

We’re all only human, which means that we suffer from a lot of irrational emotions, mood swings and snap reactions. Writing out scenarios, thoughts and feelings helps to eradicate irrational behaviour and encourages a thoughtful, logical approach to emotional reactions. Journaling is also favourable for just working through the ebbs and flows of our daily emotional state, chewing through why we’re happy, sad or feeling burnt out and coming to a satisfactory conclusion. Understanding your own brain and mental state is essential to feeling happy and free, and putting pen to paper for an odd 30 minutes a day can be the key!

Switching off from the working day

Our work is like our shadow, dragging behind us constantly. With never-ending emails, phone calls and text messages from colleagues, bosses or clients, you can feel really trapped in your working day outside of the 9-5. Keep a task tracker section for your daily journaling and review it for ten minutes once your day ends. Write one or two sentences about your day at the office or about what you’d like to get done tomorrow and map out your tasks for the next day or week. After doing this, you should close your journal and connect with your family, friends or just yourself. You need to mentally switch off otherwise your productivity will completely burn out and you won’t perform as well as you’d like to. Let your journal help you to maintain your work-life balance and up your performance in the workplace.

Encourages thankfulness

For many of us, it’s so easy to get distracted by our daily hardships and small struggles and forget how lucky we are just to be alive and thriving in the world. So many lovely things, big and small, happen every day, and they deserve as much time and attention as the bad stuff does. Keeping a gratitude journal encourages us to be thoughtful and thankful for the good events and occurrences during our lives. Write three positive things that you’re thankful for in your journal every day and watch your outlook on life totally transform.

Enhances learning and reflection

We are not the best at retaining information, especially when it’s not associated with work or studies. Our daily lives teach us a lot of lessons and morals, and sometimes these lessons need to be expressed in order to have an effect. Journaling enables us to record, absorb and reflect on small happenings and big events, overall teaching us about ourselves and our environments.

Now those are some serious journaling benefits! Pick up a simple notebook, Moleskine makes great ones, and watch your life and mindset flourish!