Journaling is something I’ve been doing for years; nothing about cracking open an untouched journal gets old. Journaling allows you to be honest with yourself if you choose to and allows you leave it all on the pages between you and God. I’ve looked back at old journals of mine and wow I was angry. Angry about all kinds of things that I’ve since worked through in therapy, but having the ability to literally look at my journals now and compare them to what I used to write about is really nice.
I can see how much God has changed my life and how journaling and asking myself hard questions allowed me to open up to the idea of all that I do now. We blame and focus a lot of our energy regarding healing on outside factors, but the truth is it is our responsibility to dig deep and uncover what it is that makes us behave and/or act a certain way. You owe it to yourself to figure out what it is so you can be free. That said I’m sharing 3 reasons journaling is good for you.
Journaling Allows Release and Honesty
Journaling is great for letting go. Sometimes the conversation isn’t for everyone and isn’t for discussion and journaling is so good for that. Letting things go and letting things out is already a task for a lot of us, but it’s necessary to keep us from exploding down the road. I’m pretty sure I’ve always had a journal, I’ve certainly always been into really cute notebooks and stayed with Hello Kitty everything when I was younger, as I’ve gotten older, journaling has totally been a form of self and internal therapy.
Another reason journaling is beneficial is because it sets the stage for honesty; it’s for you! Journaling is everything about you and nothing about anyone else. Whatever it is that is on your heart, whatever it is you can’t understand, write it down and go to God about it.
Journaling Becomes A Reference Point
I have a lot of journals, more than 50, probably more than 100 completed and my favorite thing about that is the reference points in my life, which is still important history by the way, it allows me to revisit where I was, what I was doing and who I thought I was or needed to be in that moment. Journaling and getting things down in ink basically preserves a moment in time. I love seeing how far I’ve come, the way I talk to myself is different, the tone of my writing is different, but I only get to see that because I have references of it thanks to journaling.
Reference points don’t always have to be deep either, something as simple as writing down you want to have a business or monetize something and seeing it happen is a solid reference point that you can go back to.
Allows For Big Dreaming
Journaling reminds me of reading a book. The words written come together to tell a story that you you didn’t know prior to opening the book. Journaling is good for unpacking your life and issues, but it’s also great for writing down and dreaming up things you may not think you can have at the moment.
There is one journaling exercise that I love to do; you describe your dream day in detail. It seems so simple, but often times we haven’t even put into words what it is we actually want out of this life. We say things like “I want success” and “I want to own my own business”, but what does that look like in your ideal world? What are you having for breakfast? Is it avocado toast with feta over buttered sourdough bread? Are you having dark roast Columbian coffee with a shot of espresso? You get to choose all of the details that you feel equate to success or the good life. It may be temporary, it may be my push to seek it out fully, but working from home is something I’ve consistently written down when I think of my perfect day.
I’m in my home office, I’m making smoothies and lunch and though I never wrote down how it would show up, here we are, and what a reminder and taste of what I can have even if this is the moment it needed to show up.
I don’t know if you all journals and actively use them or not; if you don’t I would encourage you to write down how you’re feeling. Start there and then when you’re ready, I’m challenging you to write about your dream day in as much detail as possible.
Do you journal? Do you free write or use prompts?
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