7 Powerful Reasons Why You Should Journal
“Journal writing, when it becomes a ritual for transformation, is not only life-changing but life-expanding” – Jen Williamson
Today’s article is a follow up on last week’s post. Sit back with your cup of orange juice as you read through 😋
A quote from my favourite book in whole world say “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it” – Habakkuk 2:2. This is such a powerful statement as it begins with an action word, write.
Did you know that you are about 42% more likely to achieve your goals, when you write them down on a regular basis? This actually has to do with how our brain works. When you write, you are activating both part of your brain, the imaginative right hemisphere and the logic-based left hemisphere. This is research based.
Here are 7 powerful reasons why you should journal
“Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to split open” – Natalie Goldberg
1. Journaling helps you declutter. While working on your laptop, have you ever noticed that there are times when you have several tabs/windows opened on your browser that would end up slowing down the speed of your laptop, and until you close the opened tabs before the normal speed of the laptop is restored. Have you? Aha, that exactly happens to our mind.
You have one thousand and one thoughts running through your mind about the same time and you feel your brain is about to explode. Stop! Breathe! You are overwhelmed already. Transfer those thoughts to your journal, it can take it, every single one of them and then begin to treat them one after the other from your journal. This act brings soothing relief.
2. Journaling helps you clarify your plans, goals and intentions. Sometimes, in your head, you think you have figured out what you want to do but when you put what’s in your head to paper, you find that they appear vague. For instance, in your head your goal is to write a book this year. How do you want to achieve that from your daily/weekly activities? You won’t understand it until to write out specific action steps to help you achieve that, joo get?
3. Journaling helps you track your progress. As you write daily, you keep records of what you’ve done previously and the things you have thought about and when you compare them with your current thoughts and actions, you’re able to identify your strengths and weaknesses and where to get better at.
4. Journaling helps you recognize and process your emotions. The world is really fast paced and there’s busyness all around. Sometimes, we are always in motion and this can lead to an increased level of stress if there’s no time pause and reflect. In fact, according to the American Medical Association, stress is the basic cause of more than 60% of all human illness and disease. Fortunately, writing things down is one way to help significantly reduce all of that. Because you are forced to write your emotions down, you can process your thoughts (positive or negative) and how you feel by deeply thinking about them. This is therapeutic, guys.
5. Journaling enables a higher level of thinking. Writing things down helps you know what to prioritize and lacer your focus on things that really matter to you.
“Keeping a journal of what’s going on in your life is a good way to help you distill what’s important and what’s not” – Martina Navratilova
6. Journaling helps keep you motivated. From the opening quote, the instructions was for all, write the vision down. Regardless of how strong and great our goals are, we still need to write them down and make them visible as a constant reminder for us to be able to achieve them.
7. Journaling helps us develop a deep sense gratitude. Looking back on all that you have written and where you currently are, it provokes a sense of gratitude to God for your growth process.
“Writing in a journal each day allows you to direct your focus to what you accomplished, what you’re grateful for and what you’re committed to doing better tomorrow. This you are more deeply to enjoy each day” – Hal Elrod
To think that I have been journaling for about 7 years (consciously and unconsciously 😂) now, wow! I’m proud of myself. Writing things down is one easy and effective way to stay productive and manage being overwhelmed.
Did you find this article helpful? Do let me know by commenting and share this.
With all my love,
#gleaningwithgrace
Great article! Well-done Grace.
Thank you for the feedback, Stanley.
Gleaned a lot from this. Blessings!
I’m glad you got value, Meshach.
Thank you for reading through.
I can’t believe you Grace! At your age? This is superb! Keep it up .I give you a thumbs up!
Thank you so much ma.