A quick Google search on journaling everyday brings you tons of articles talking about the life-changing abilities of journaling or how journaling can save lives. As someone who is very into self-improvement and self-care, I had to try it out for myself after hearing all of the success stories that have come with keeping a journal daily.
Image via Edit911
I kept a daily journal starting from June 2017 until December 2017. I started it right after my last semester at community college because I wanted to document my transition from community college to UCSB. It was such a big time in my life. I thought it would serve me well to record it somehow.
Journaling every day fulfilled my original purpose of documenting my life on a daily basi; it did so very well. I was able to record all my thoughts and feelings about what was happening around me, whether it be school-related or not. I was able to record my fears about moving away from home, my excitement about almost being done with school, my anxiety over living with roommates, my frustrations with my job at the time. Everything I was feeling was all contained in one, safe place where I could let my thoughts out freely and without fear of judgment.
But more than being a record keeper and a cathartic release, my journal became my teacher. The ritual of writing in my journal daily forced me to confront everything about myself, good and bad. When I recorded what I thought or did every single day, I started to see a lot of patterns in my behavior and thinking. From the way I thought about myself, to how I approach relationships, to the way I dealt with negative situations, writing it all out made me mindful and accountable for how I act and think. I realized that I was a lot more responsible for what happens to me than I thought before. I finally understood that I do have control over what happens to me. This was insight that nothing else but my journal could provide for me.
So, has a journal changed my life like it did for other people? My journal has empowered me in a way that no self-help book I’ve ever read, self-care routine I’ve tried, or whatever self-improvement bandwagon I’ve jumped on ever has. In other words, yes.
Journaling may not be the answer to all your questions or the fix to everything that bugs you but I encourage you to give it a shot, even just for a little bit. You never know what you’ll learn about yourself in the process that could be life-changing.