Daily Journaling: What It Is And How To Start
‘Daily journaling;’ ‘expressive writing;’ ‘daily pages’… If you’re in the loop with the latest wellbeing trends, or found yourself trawling the internet for coping mechanisms over lockdown, these are just some of the terms you may have heard over the last year or so.
‘Journaling’ has become a bit of a buzzword, and without a real understanding, the idea can come off as a novel or even a child-like venture. But unlike some trends and wellness fads, this one can really benefit the practitioner, in many ways, as some of our users are already starting to find out.
What is it?
There are several methods you can use for different purposes and outcomes, but generally speaking, daily journaling is the action of habitually taking the time, once a day or more, to document your thoughts and feelings, typically in a diary; but who needs that when you have an Iternal timeline?
It’s purpose, in short, is to ‘de-clutter’ your minds. As human beings, we think an awful lot and have a tendency to keep much of what goes on in our perpetually-working brains where it is. This can lead people to become disorganised, demotivated and can even be a contributing factor to depression.
Achieve More With Daily Journaling
Making time for journaling in your daily routine, if only for 10 minutes, can give your mind the space it needs to make sense of the many things that are seemingly happening at once. These are just a few of the ways you may benefit from journaling:
- Help set and achieve goals
- Bring clarity to your thoughts
- Make sense of emotions and trauma
- Express gratitude and count blessings
- Ground creative ideas in reality
- Reduce feelings of anxiety and stress
- Evaluate past decisions to influence the future
- Improve your communication skills
- Sharpen your memory
- Improve your quality of sleep
How You Can Start Daily Journaling
What’s important to remember when you start your journaling journey is that this is for you and only you. You don’t have to be the best writer; you don’t need to know what it is exactly you want to write about; you just have to be willing to write.
Choosing a time (or even creating a schedule) to record every day is the best practise for building the habit when you’re first starting out; consistency is key here and that’s when you’ll start seeing the real results.
Next, find a place you feel comfortable. Somewhere quiet and spacious is a good place to start; you want your thoughts to flow through you as directly as possible. In short, the less distraction and external input you have, the better.
Perhaps most importantly, hold no bars. I mean, seriously; especially if you’re writing to try and decipher thoughts and feelings. You write whatever comes to mind and keep writing, even if it doesn’t make sense at first. By getting it all out, you allow yourself a chance to review your thoughts from an almost removed perspective.
This Is Just The Beginning
We’ve touched on the subject in previous blog posts, but consider this your introduction to journaling; there’s loads more we can delve into and we’re going to bring it all to you – in due time. In the meantime, why don’t you try it out for yourself? You don’t even need to have a journal; why not use your Iternal timeline?! With our new (Android) app, it can be accessed anywhere, any time, with ease. Download here to take your first steps today, and see how you could impact your tomorrow.