Unexpected benefits from 6 years of journaling
Growing up, for me keeping a journal or diary always had a stigma for being a ‘girl’s thing' and came with labels of being sensitive and soft.
However slowly over time this view has changed, with the practice not seen so much as a soft, 'girly' thing and more of a scientifically proven mentality tool, and with that that it has been increasing in it’s adoption.
Not only is there the scientific studies, but there are notable influencers sharing about it’s benefits too.
Ryan Holiday for example will often share how Marcus Aurelius and other stoics would keep journals and provides examples throughout his content and books of other modern day examples who journal too.
I also love how he says that journaling is like emotional windshield wipers. That’s exactly how I see them. I may not do it every single day, but I certainly don’t feel as clear with myself when I don’t do it.
I’ve been journalling most days of the week for over 6 years now and along with the common benefits such as a sense of clarity, peace and calm, here’s a few unexpected benefits I’ve gained from the practice and what you might experience too if you stick with your own journalling practice:
Awareness of underlying root causal feelings
After going for long enough on a particular journal entry and letting myself go, I notice I go deeper with my emotions and eventually uncover root causes.
With your journal, you have a sense of security that allows you to get underneath the rug and really see where certain emotions are being driven from.
Acceptance of unpleasant circumstances and taking back control
Sometimes, (more often than we’d like!) life doesn’t go our way. However rather than fight reality and try to directly change the facts of life, the circumstances, journaling has given me the habitual tool of coming back to my thoughts and selecting the most empowering and useful thought for the occasion at hand.
A record of how I’ve thought, felt and dealt with similar issues in the past
Using a tool like Evernote with it’s tagging and notebook features has been super useful for me when it comes to being able to spot patterns in my thinking.
Sometimes when I know ahead of time I’m facing a particular situation, I can look back to past journal entries and see how I dealt with it all and choose to either model the thoughts and actions or completely avoid them!
Help me understand my feelings are not facts
A lot of the time I’ll be about to start a new journal entry and I can see some of the past entries I made in the days and weeks before and funnily enough, my mindset on those issues has often completely shifted and that is ok.
The practice of getting your thoughts out onto a page even if they’re lacking in logic allows you at a later date to see how much your feelings were or were not influencing your thoughts and your ultimate actions and therefore help you avoid making those same thinking traps.
So there you go. Whatever way you go about your journalling, I hope you’ll get at least some if not all of these unexpected benefits.
