5 Reasons you should start journaling today!

Throughout history, many great people have had a consistent journaling practice. They swear by it because they've seen its effects. Today, we're going to break down the five most important benefits of journaling.

1) Increased mindfulness

Journaling is actually a very underrated form of mindfulness. How can that be? It's simple. Both mindfulness and journaling require you to be present in the moment. They also require you to be judgment-free and face hard truths. The only difference is that journaling is a bit more active because you are writing down your thoughts in the moment. This is an especially useful practice for those who can’t sit still for a stretch.

2) Self Awareness

Following mindfulness, the next step is self awareness. (Disclaimer: This is not a sequential list, all of these processes can happen parallelly as well)

Making a note of what you are feeling or thinking or experiencing everyday is a great way to look at yourself objectively. Once you put it down on paper, this will help you to put some distance between you and your perception of yourself. This is a great method to solve problems and make changes to your behaviour and lifestyle, free from what you normally assume to be true. Self-awareness can lead you to acknowledge and account for your strengths and weaknesses in an optimal way.

3) Emotional Regulation

A lot of us have a tough time figuring out exactly what we're feeling. And even when we figure out what we're feeling, we end up labelling it as good (happiness) or bad (anger). The truth is that all emotions are normal and valid. Emotional expression in a lot of other ways is also stifled based on the situation and the people you’re around. Journaling is your private space where you can be yourself and express your truest self. It is a very effective tool for this purpose and this inevitably helps with emotional regulation too. You can’t regulate yourself if you don’t know what you’re going through, so give your own personal therapist journal a shot.

4) Increased memory and decreased stress

6,200. That’s the number of thoughts an ordinary person gets in a day and it is a massive number. Trying to keep a track of each and every one of these thoughts is a sure fire way to lose your mind. What you can do instead is to note down what is important to you and ignore the rest. Have an important deadline one week from now that you can’t stop thinking about? Note it down! Get it out of your head and onto the paper. Trying to figure out Robert Downey Jr’s birthday but don’t really have the time for it? Give it a pass. You have the freedom to decide what to do with your thoughts.

5) Combats inertia and boosts creativity

We are all creative people by design but we have so few creatives (as a relative percentage of the population at least). Inertia and fear – these are the two main reasons. Being stuck, in a rut or otherwise, is a symptom of a huge chunk of the population. Journaling is a simple act of creating and that too privately, which gives you the freedom to express yourself without being subject to external scrutiny. It’s a great technique to work on your self-expressiveness and it’s the ultimate tool to unleash your creativity. A lot of great artists and writers swear by it, who knows maybe journaling will set you on the right path to becoming a famous writer one day!

So, what are you waiting for? Start your journaling journey today!