As a university student, the pressures of academics and your future life planning can lead to feelings of instability and stress. Navigating through these feelings can leave some feeling unsure and overwhelmed about what exactly to start tackling first or how to even go about dealing with certain circumstances. Swirling thoughts and responsibilities can get lost in one’s head; however, I have come to find journaling as a helpful and easy tool, which I highly recommend in laying out and sorting through responsibilities and emotions.
Journaling allows for an outlet of reflection and helps create a map of different aspects of your life. Throughout my day, I began bulleting certain points that crossed my mind. These are points that would usually get lost throughout the day because of how minor they were or how quickly they passed by in thought. However, bulletin minor stressors and looking back on them later helped me with organizing and feeling these smaller moments before they could become bigger. Bringing them to light and addressing them helps regulate emotions and lay out a plan for oneself. It doesn’t matter how big or small. From setting goals for yourself for the day or the next to pouring your heart out over minor or major feelings you may have. Journaling can be used as a place to allow yourself to free your mind.
Journaling for me has become an outlet where I am able to go in-depth on certain situations that are bothering me or just a place where I am able to pull my thoughts from my jumbled mind and have them laid out for me to look back on and use later. There is no wrong or right way to process your thoughts, and journaling is an example of that. Many think that their journal needs to be aesthetic and perfectly drawn out; however, this is not the case. A journal is a place that is meant just for you. It’s a place where you are meant to feel safe and express yourself freely without any set rules or guidelines. As a college student, having a space where you can be messy during a time when every action influences your future can serve as both a breath of fresh air and a daily reminder of your accomplishments.
In a time filled with high emotions and uncertainty, journaling offers a moment of clarity and control in a person’s life. Having the ability to find the time to put your thoughts to paper, from minor daily stressors to major future goals, journaling helps to express your feelings while also allowing you to organize your thoughts. It creates a space where overwhelming thoughts and ideas can be laid out, felt, and approached with a clearer mindset. For me, journaling has become an essential part of my daily routine. It offers a brief pause in the day where you can focus entirely on yourself and what you are truly feeling. A journal never judges you or holds you to made-up standards. It instead offers a place for you to be completely honest and vulnerable. In many ways, it does the one thing everyone needs in their life: it quietly sits and listens.