Remember the days when you’d keep a diary where you’d write down your personal thoughts and innermost secrets? Most of us have fallen out of practice or never kept one to begin with. With technology, it doesn’t make sense to carry around a journal, right? Wrong.
These days, journaling has become a popular form of self-care, alongside meditation. There are many benefits to it such as a boost in mindfulness, memory, and communication skills. It’s also been proven that those who keep a journal sleep better, have a stronger immune system, more self-confidence, and a higher I.Q. Not only that, it’s quite cheap to maintain and only needs a pen and paper.
Keeping a journal also helps us in organizing our thoughts and acknowledging our emotions. Understand this and working on it has proved to have positive effects on people, and allows them to grasp a bigger picture of the life they are living — from forming and tracking habits to making sense of possible trauma. In return, memory and moods improve, allowing you to have a clearer state of mind and a better disposition in your everyday life.
How to get started?
The blank page staring back at you can be quite intimidating. What’s the best way to start journaling? Is there an ideal time of day? How long should it take? How many pages? To be quite honest, there is no right or wrong way on how to journal. What matters the most is why you’re doing it and what you wish to accomplish by doing it: whether it’s to have some quiet time with your thoughts, get something off your chest or prepare for the day ahead of you, it doesn’t matter. You can be as creative as you want about it.
There’s a popular method these days called bullet journaling, and it’s a great entry point to those who want to start jotting down their life is a simple and systematic way.
Some individuals have incorporated bullet journals into a planner-like system which helps with productivity and mindfulness. Minimal journaling is quite the trend among minimalists who seek to have more clarity and peace of mind. Bullet journaling is a great way of prioritizing what matters in your daily life, such as habits, task lists, etc.
What are you waiting for? Start journaling!
