Journaling, simply put is writing down about what is happening in your life. A properly written journal is a walk down the memory lane. This simple thing has been done by many famous people and some have even published it.
It gives us the opportunity to get new insight out of old experiences. It is like living the life a second time. With time our reaction to incidents changes. When we are young we are more arrogant and so our reaction is of a certain type, when we are older we will react to the same incident in a different way. So when we go through the journal again we get a new perspective to our reaction to an incident. May be we now regret doing something or not doing something at that point of time.
Journaling sharpens our memory. It gives the answer to the what, why, how, when in our life, which often gets blurred in our memory. Not only this, but it also tells you what type of person you were at a particular point of time. Though we generally have high opinion about ourselves but when we revisit our past then we find cases where we actually behaved like an idiot. When you see an old picture of yours it reminds you about how you looked but a written record can tell you what you thought.
Journaling can make you do well. When you know that at the end of the day you will be writing about this day and if you have not done anything to write then it may motivate you to do something good. It also gives you the proof of progress you are making in a particular goal you are following. This will also help you decide later where you went wrong and where you were right in spite of the odds against you.
Though the idea of making a journal is a good habit but most of us fail to stick to it. We leave it mid way.
How to develop the habit
Although it looks easy, you just need a pen and a diary, but it is not so easy. In our busy life we now hardly find time to write a journal. Our engagements are such that we are more often than not always busy. Also we cannot put it off for a few days and make it up. So the easiest way is to write 1 sentence daily. Now nothing can be as simple as writing a sentence summarising the day.
You can make prompts like if you want to focus on a particular thing. Such prompts can be:
• did something good happened today
• am I grateful for anything today
• what is the most important task I have today
• how is my mood today
These heading will prompt you to focus on a particular aspect and when at the end of the month if you review it then you will be surprised.
This way it will not feel like a burden and annoyance, because when those feelings will come then you are bound to drop it mid way. Journaling is also not about writing flowery language and making it look like a novel. It is the simple reflection of your thought and life. So don’t think about making it as an art. Some people think that nothing special happens in my daily life, it is just the same daily routine so there is nothing to write about. Though this is true for most of us but only in our daily physical routine, our mind plays on a different level and we can always jot down the thoughts. Ultimately that is the purpose of a journal, jotting down our thoughts about the activities of the day.
When I was little I loved to write a diary. His mother still takes care of him today, so from time to time we walk around him to remember the beautiful moments. This article is wonderful.