Rachel Wilkerson Miller says in her book Dot Journaling, “Writing about yourself and your life — even just brief notes! — is a huge privilege, and that writing can be incredibly liberating. Writing in a diary is, at its core, a declaration that your voice matters.”
We’re three months into 2020 and although I hope many of you have found yourselves accomplishing the goals you recently set for the new year, I know some of you may have fallen off or never even started. Don’t get down on yourself, it happens to the best of us. We all have long lists of self-improvements to get too but I highly encourage everyone to give journaling a try.
WHY?
I find journaling to be a beautiful form of self-care. Writing has many mental and emotional benefits. The stress release in decompressing your emotions is freeing. It allows you to clarify and understand your thoughts and feelings all while simultaneously allowing you to find yourself. Not to mention spending time writing keeps your creative ideas flowing. Regardless of what you write, I’m sure that keeping track of your thoughts in time allows other goals of yours to fall in place. Taking just 10-15 minutes out of your day to create a habit solely dedicated to yourself isn’t going to solve all the problems in your life but in time, such a habit will create order and bring awareness to the other aspects of your life you may have found yourself ignoring.
HOW?
If you’ve never picked up a journal before or written outside of a school assignment you may be asking yourself, well what do I write about? Keeping daily logs allows you to reflect on your days and focus on your day to day feelings and interactions. I enjoy being able to look back at old journals and see how I was thinking, what I was learning, how little I knew and how much progress I’ve made. There are no limitations when it comes to this practice so get creative. Talk to God and yourself. Write a love letter you’ll never send. Or keep it simple and jot down a few plans and ideas for yourself or your future.
Don’t think too hard about it, what matters is if you are willing to give it a try. After all, your journal is for you and only you. What and how you choose to express yourself in it is up to you, so write away!