When I was a kid, I loved reading fictionalized journals and diaries and always wanted to be a little girl who journaled her days away. But I think I always liked the idea of being a journaler more than the act, I just didn’t have that much to write about. Now that I’m an adult however, I find journaling is an indispensable part of my life.
I first started journaling in a very basic way via list making. I am super disorganized and literally can’t keep track of tasks for more than a few minutes, which was fine when I didn’t have much to keep track of, but life is too busy for that now! It wasn’t long until I discovered that I could empty my brain of everything causing my stress and anxiety just by writing it down.
Journaling fulfils a few different needs for me:
1. To get out of my head
When I write things down, I no longer have to think about them except for when I want to. The thoughts and feelings are organized, and I can set them down and come back to look at them with a fresh mind and a different attitude.
Writing stuff down forces you to look at what you are actually thinking about outside your head, and it requires you to understand your thoughts and feelings enough that you can transcribe them. Personally, my thoughts are very abstract and a bit of a whirlwind sometimes. It is often hard for me to separate what I am actually thinking about from the many, many other concepts and ideas that accompany that thought. Being able to pick apart the feelings and actual realities behind my thoughts makes them much more manageable and actually allows me to find a solution. This brings me to my next point…
2. Sort through difficult thoughts
It used to be that when I had a problem I would be completely overwhelmed by it and spend literally weeks, if not longer, rethinking and feeling the exact same things. It was exhausting, paralyzing, and completely useless to helping me actually make a decision or come to a solution. Journaling means that I can put down what the actual issue is on paper. Once it’s on paper, it doesn’t need to be in my head anymore, and as silly as it sounds, I have the space for new thoughts. What is the actual problem here? Why am I upset? What is contributing to this? How can I fix it?
The magic question. Instead of mulling over the same overwhelming things for weeks, I can cut to the chase. What will actually resolve the bad thoughts and feelings?
3. Look back on my life
Starting in adulthood, I can literally track the peaks and valleys in my life by whether or not I was journaling. If I’m writing down what is going on in my life, it goes well. When I stop, it all hits the fan. That’s actually how I realized that this was the answer for me.
Apart from that nugget, looking back on what you’ve written down gives you a completely different window into your life. What was on my list for the day? Did I accomplish it? Is the same thing carrying through for weeks? What was good, what was bad, it’s all there, alongside random things that I don’t even recall writing down. It gives me an idea of how I was spending my time. Looking back at my journals always reminds me of a song I wanted to look up or a recipe I wanted to cook. It is where I have written down favourites that I have completely forgotten about. It even reminds me of people that I would never think about, like old teachers who for whatever reason made a cameo. It’s nice to have another record of your life that is more personal than a photo and showcases what was going on inside your head.
4. Keep track of things that are important to me
Life sometimes gets really busy and it’s easy to move on from something that at one point was a huge part of your life. Journals keep track of what is actually important to you and what you wanted to continue or stop. I spent all of last summer on my bike, but after a long winter and a job change where I need to commute, biking isn’t something I was even considering for this summer until I saw an old journal entry about how much I loved biking. A silly example maybe, but I don’t write down things that aren’t important to me in some way. The same goes for swimming, or growing a garden. I’ve been writing it down here and there for months and I remember that those are things I want to focus on this summer. Without writing down what I want to spend my time and money on, I forget and end up focusing on what is important in the absolute moment. All the things I love will pass me by if I don’t think about them and actually dedicate myself to them.
5. Practice self reflection
Finally, all these things add up to reflecting on your life and behaviours, so that you are actually heading in the direction you want to be. I find myself thinking about the same things again and again because they are either problems in my life or things I enjoy. If it’s a problem, I start to realize pretty quickly a) that it keeps on happening, and b) there is something that I am doing to drive that. I would never have realized what an impact my disorganization was having on my life if I hadn’t written 85 journal entries where the root cause of the problem was that I had forgotten to do something important. I was always in a state of emergency, and there was no time in the day to day mess of life to realize the mess was only there because I wasn’t thinking far enough ahead. If I always feel the need to write down how great I feel after a walk in the woods, it sends a pretty clear message. Also, just the act of journaling means that you put aside some time to actually think about what is going on in your life instead of just going through the motions and the time alone is a powerful tool.
And that’s that. I love journaling for the mental release, and it is the only way that I get anything done. I would challenge you to try it, even in the most basic way. Try writing down something or everything that makes you happy, or go the opposite route and write about what in your life is a problem. Having your thoughts on paper gives you a completely different perspective.
The Avery Spectacle 