We all have much on our minds these days. Our thoughts are filled with the devastation of the pandemic, the turbulence of the economic fallout, the divisiveness of the political climate and the safety of our loved ones. How can we process it all, find peace, stay on track with our goals and bring healing to ourselves and others?
Journaling has proven to be an effective way of liberating ourselves from mental and emotional baggage. It’s also an activity that can help us in pursuing our path to success — whether related to our career or our personal growth. Several well-known innovative thinkers kept journals, including Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Mark Twain and Charles Darwin. The daily practice of exploring problems and solutions can give rise to discoveries large and small.
Journal writing provides us with a judgment-free space in which to incubate ideas. It’s a way to check in with what’s occupying our mind, and it has a cathartic influence on everything from stress to despair. Neurologists estimate that we think approximately 70,000 thoughts a day. Journaling allows us to sort through our thoughts, make sense of them, and discard those that don’t serve our purpose.
Embarking on a daily practice of journaling can help us to see our path forward with clarity. Just as our car’s windshield gets dirty each day, we use journaling like windshield wipers to clear the view. We’re able to do a thorough sweep of what’s occupying our minds to find out what’s dirtying or obstructing the truth.
By committing to journaling regularly, you will start to realize these benefits:
1. Exploring problems and their potential solutions through journaling gives ideas a chance to blossom.
2. Pursuing thoughts in writing exposes unhelpful points of view and replaces them with more insightful viewpoints.
3. Chronicling events from your day improves your memory.
4. Organizing your thoughts on paper focuses your thinking and calms your busy mind.
5. Confronting a difficult or painful memory through journaling can help bring a new awareness to the experience and alleviate some of the pain.
6. Taking time to stop the “doing” and to connect to your more spiritual being through your written insights unites you with your higher self.
7. Checking in with yourself through daily journaling keeps you aware, awake and ahold of the wheel.
On your self-led journey through life, journaling will help you focus and arrive at your goal. It will lead you to a place where you feel authentically yourself and capable of designing your destiny in exactly the way you choose.
Special Offer – Get started on your journaling journey with a free copy of the newly released Live True Daily Journal: Mindfulness Quotes, Prompts, Tips and Reminders to Stay Authentically You to the first 20 readers to respond here with “Journaling” in the subject line. Watch more on the journal here.
**Originally published at the Happiness Series