by Steven Vukaj, Product Specialist
Before you skip over this and assume that journaling is for young children who begin their entries with the infamous “Dear Diary,” allow me to explain how journaling could benefit you! (P.S., you could start it off with “Dear Diary,” no one’s stopping you). I began journaling after a good friend of mine gifted me with a notebook with a combination lock on it for my birthday. I primarily use it to express my feelings and thoughts when I am not comfortable sharing with other people. Although I have only started journaling recently, I can already see tremendous personal growth. I would love to share this with as many people as possible!
For starters, I would recommend getting a journal that has a lock on it. Your privacy matters, and it wouldn't be good if your thoughts were in the hands of someone else that you wouldn’t want to share. If you do not have access to a therapist or feel uncomfortable expressing your thoughts with others, writing what's on your mind is a great way to let it out. Understand that keeping your thoughts running through your head constantly and not allowing them to unleash will not help. Putting your thoughts in a private place will benefit you mentally and give you a more relaxed mindset.
What I like to do is write in my journal right before I go to sleep at night. You are more likely to think about your day as you’re lying in bed, so why not write it out? Personally, after I finish writing, which usually takes me somewhere between half an hour to two hours, I feel much more relaxed! All my thoughts are released, and I have a clear mind when falling asleep. I’ll usually start at the top of my entry with the date and current time I began writing. From there, I’ll talk about how my day was, what I did, any emotions I might have felt, and so on. You are free to write as much or as little as you want! It could even be written in bullet points if you wanted to. The overall effectiveness of doing this is to express yourself so that you don’t feel restricted by anyone’s inputs or opinions. While also being able to write down your thoughts, you can also set goals for yourself. What do you want to do tomorrow? What do you wish to accomplish in the future? Manifest it by writing it out!
Other than releasing your thoughts of the day, another great benefit of journaling is that it allows you to improve your memorization. When you look back on your memories, you will probably forget about them after a certain amount of time. At nighttime, or whenever you choose to write an entry, you could perhaps think from the moment you woke up to the moment you lay down and write out all that happened throughout the day. The best part about it is when you can look back in the future, read what you wrote, and have all those memories come back to you. You can even do this to show how much you’ve improved mentally since then! It’s all about boosting your memory and getting your thoughts out there.
Think of your brain as a busy road. You have thoughts that zoom across all the time, similar to cars speeding down the street. If you were to block something on the road, the vehicles would frantically break and potentially even cause a crash. The same thing goes with your brain. If you put a halt or wish to stop your thoughts, it’s going to give you more problems in the long run. Letting your thoughts out will benefit you in many ways! What better way to do this than through journal writing!