This past winter break, I impulsively bought a three pack of moleskin journals. I have always meant to start journaling, but I just never got around to it. What finally made me take that leap was binge-watching the whole “Grey’s Anatomy” series. Periodically throughout the series, Meredith Grey would mention the journals her mother wrote in. Now, of course, these journals were filled with basically only things surrounding the medical field. However, watching Meredith read your mother’s journals made me think about what kind of things my kids and grandkids would have to hear about my life even after I’m gone. So, I bought the journals and decided I would start journaling on the first day of the spring semester.
I have — surprisingly — been keeping pretty up to date on my entries. I will occasionally forget to write for a few days in a row, but it’s normally still recent enough that I can remember most of the key things that happened that day. My entries vary in length and content. Sometimes I will use two full pages for one day, other days I may only use a fourth of the page. Since starting the journal, I have found a lot of good that has come from it.
Whenever I write a journal entry, it is like a living reminder of the things I have to be thankful for or even the things I need to improve on. If I had to describe it I would say its like talking to yourself in the mirror, but it lasts forever. Except when I talk to myself in the mirror – I have a hard time taking myself seriously – but with the journal I am really in my element. I have always loved writing and have always seen myself as being pretty good at it. There is something so soothing about journaling for me. My journal is like a safe place for all my thoughts and experiences to live.
I could go on for hours about the benefits of journaling, but there is one specific thing that has really been a game-changer. I have always had a hard time admitting to myself my more emotional feelings. I typically take forever to even acknowledge when I start to have those like heartfelt feelings. For example, since starting college I have only ever had genuine feelings for two guys. In terms of the first guy, it took my like a month, at least, to even let myself accept that I had feelings for him. Then it took like a few more weeks to tell him. Since starting my journal I met a guy and found myself journaling about my time with him and even began to notice I was writing out those feelings. Don’t get me wrong I still have trouble saying those things out loud, but even just writing them down is a big step for me. Since I started writing about my feelings for him I have even taken the big step to tell him about those feelings. Which it goes without saying, that is an even bigger step for me.
As much as I went into the idea of journaling thinking it wold just be talking about my day-to-day life, I have actually made a lot of personal growth. I have started to feel so much better about my thoughts and feelings because I am not just ignoring them and mentally shaming myself for having normal emotions.
At the end of the day, I think everyone should try to keep a journal at least once in their life. I think the benefits of journaling are vast and could even surprise you. Whether you do it for the relaxing and healing environment it creates or you do it to keep a record of all the things you do in one day, it doesn’t hurt to try it.