What I Learned from Ninety Days of Personal Journaling

Why bother with journaling?

• Writing about stressful experiences on symptom reduction in Asthma or Rheumatoid Arthritis patients. Study source opens in a new tab
• Emotional and physical health benefits of expressive writing. Study source opens in a new tab
• Expressive writing may lead to faster recovery from injury. Study source opens in a new tab
• Manage anxiety.
• Cope with depression.
• Prioritize problems, fears, and concerns.
• You are tracking any symptoms day-to-day so that you can recognize triggers and learn ways to control them better.
• We are providing an opportunity for positive self-talk and identifying negative thoughts and behaviors.
• It can improve your problem-solving skills. Study source opens in a new tab
• It can help you recover from traumatic experiences. Source opens in a new tab

Methods of journaling

I use both physical and digital journals. Writing by hand slows me down; the app makes entries searchable and easy to revisit.

Physical journaling:

Grab a Leuchtturm 1917 opens in a new tab notebook A5 size with LAMY swift opens in a new tab rollerball pen or any fountain pen.

Carry this method with you everywhere and every time in your bag.

There is a technique called morning pages which Julia Cameron wrote the book “The Artist’s Way opens in a new tab.”

And it is about you write three pages first thing you do in the morning of whatever comes to mind, anything, feeling, idea, thinking, something you are working on.

It doesn’t matter if it is all absolute garbage; the point is that you write for three pages.

It kind of unclogs your brain, and your thoughts become flowing.

Digital journaling:

Use the app Notion opens in a new tab or DayOne opens in a new tab

With your journaling experience being synced to your calendar, and your devices, you can insert photos, videos, and emojis into it, making it a tremendous and gamified experience.

And then use the same drill “write whatever comes to your mind.”

You can have all your journals archived so that you can check your older self every once in a while and see how different you are from your present.

You can scan whatever you journaled in your physical method to the app then it can all be exported to pdf or JSON files.

Benefits I’ve gotten from journaling

• Creative unblocks and better creative ideas.
• Processing thoughts and loads of stuff in the business required decision-making.
• The processing of emotions were discovered by professor James Pennebaker who specializes in social psychology at the University of Texas. He has spent years looking at how writing down our feelings may boost immune functioning, and he discovered that “men tend to find greater benefits of journaling than women do, women tend to be more open about talking their feelings out and vocalizing them to their friends for example.” Source opens in a new tab. When journaling, i always ask myself, “How am i feeling right now?” and when i journal about this question, then i ask myself again, “Why am i feeling like that?” and when i journal about this question, i ask myself again, “Is this something that i want to be feeling?”, and continue with CBTing with my emotions and acknowledge them through journaling, which is like my own therapist.
• Journaling about big decisions that i am making in my life then makes me aware of what is going on and having clear ideas about what i am encountering. I might get feedback from friends, mentors, or couches about those decisions, then i write up my findings and conclusions of those decisions, then assess, “am i on the right page?” Or “am i missing something.”

Top tips for getting started

• A good technique of sticking to any habit in life we anchor journaling habits to the habit that we already have, like the habit of drinking a cup of coffee every morning.
• Instead of defaulting to checking our mobile phones on the train, taxi, or cafe, why do we not default to journaling?
• Lower the bar for the habit. Do not demand a perfect entry; write something small enough to repeat consistently.
• Journaling can be done anytime and anywhere.
• Make it an elaborate ritual with your journaling method, whether physical or digital, coffee, pen, chair, and an excellent place for the journal.
• Do it first thing in the morning.
• Prompts can sometimes be helpful; sometimes, am having no idea what to journal about, so i use one of these prompts to write questions about how I am feeling, what I should do with this situation? and where i see myself in the next five years. Am i satisfied with what i am doing in my life? Etc.