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Clear Your Mind, Write It Out Tori Berkowitz Okay, don’t lie. You really miss your Password Journal from fifth grade. Or maybe your parents wouldn’t splurge so you were stuck with one that had a little lock, but no matter how well you hid the key, your older sister always found it. For some reason, there was a point where you stopped writing in your journal. Middle school came around, you got too busy with soccer practice, homework, and trying to get that popular girl, Kate, to like you. Well, Kate’s in jail now, you’re at an all time low of productivity, and trying to plan your future has you feeling a little lost. How can you restore your drive and get yourself to where you really want to be in life? Journaling isn’t the answer to all of your problems, but it can definitely help. Journaling gives you the opportunity to design your future, to lessen the gap between the person you are and the person you want to become. It will prevent you from feeling burnt out, improve your writing, and increase the creative flow in all areas of your life. Here’s four different ways daily journaling can benefit you if you keep up with it: Gratitude and Happiness My experience with journaling began when I was feeling either frustrated or bored with everything around me. So every Sunday, I started writing down all of the good things that had happened to me that week. Incorporating gratitude into your journaling experience will train you to look for the positive in all situations, and in turn, prepare you for when things go wrong.
Additionally, it’s been scientifically proven that gratitude will make you happier, healthier, and boost your self-esteem.
can improve your ability to make decisions in the future.
Decrease Your Stress Level
Yes, giving yourself a time and place to plan is a huge part of journaling, but your journal can also be used simply to write about your life. While you don’t need to give a play by play of your day, or pretend that you’re writing an autobiography, recording your experiences and personal thoughts will tell so much about the person you were at the time you were writing it. You can use your journal to draw, sketch, write questions without answers, or recall some of your favorite memories. However you decide to go about it, you’ll find that the most valuable part of journaling is that it’ll be an authentic reflection of you.
Use the time that you spend journaling to plan out your daily to-do lists and help relieve the overwhelming feeling of, “I have so much shit to do.” Writing down each task you need to accomplish will help you prioritize, and then physically crossing it out will allow it to leave your mind so you can focus on the next thing at hand. By taking note of everything you have to do, you’ll clarify your thought process and keep yourself on track to complete the most important assignments first, leaving busy work that may seem urgent for later. Reflection and Motivation Taking the time to sit down and really think about what you want can help to make it a reality. If you use your journal to refine your vision for the future and break down your big-picture goals, they’ll begin to feel more attainable. As you pursue them, you should write about what does or does not work. At the end of a long day, reflect on what went well or what you would have done differently and put it in your journal. Acknowledging the things you did well or wrong
Write Your Own History