IN THIS LESSON

Growing up my mom always encouraged me to journal. To document my life but I never got into it. I would journal for a day but then I wouldn't open it back up for another month. I never knew what to write about, how to express my problems, or talk about my emotions even though no one would be reading it. 

Flash forward to my junior year of college. I got into my first relationship, I was experiencing a lot of new emotions that I didn't know how to process, so I decided to start journaling. This time however I changed my outlook on it. I decided to keep a digital journal. I found that it helped me to actually write everything rather than worrying about my hand getting sore and deciding not to continue writing or cut the journal entry short because I was thinking faster than I could write. I decided that I didn’t need to journal everyday or else it wouldn’t help me. Instead I would journal whenever I started to feel overwhelmed. By journaling I was able to talk about how I was feeling without actually having to tell someone. I was able to reread my entries and think about my thoughts and emotions. I could understand my feelings, how I was going to process it, and how I was going to look for solutions. It took away any anxiety I was experiencing, it reduced my stress, and looking back on my entries I can see all the growth I have experienced. 

Reframe Your Thinking: 

Learn about yourself even if you think you know yourself


How It Helps:

  • Helps to clear out “metal clutter” just thoughts that you are overthinking or are taking up too much space that you need to express. 

  • Reduces stress

  • Helps process emotions

Barriers:

  • “I don’t have time”

  • “I’m not a good writer”

  • “I don’t have problems important enough to write about”

Okay guys we have now gone over some of the barriers you may have been facing, definitely some that I faced. Now it's time to push past them. Journaling isn’t for everyone but hopefully you are able to reframe your thinking around it, push past your barriers and make the effort to start building this habit. 

Lets Build a Habit:

Step 1: Set Intentions:

Why do you want to start journaling? Is it to reduce some of that stress? To get your ideas down on paper? To process your emotions? Whatever the reasoning, try to understand your why and get a better feel for what is going to keep you motivated. 

Step 2: Start Small:

Some people think that you need to journal everyday or only write about important things but this is far from the truth. Start off by taking 3-5 minutes and just writing whatever comes to mind. It can be as simple as what you are going to do today. If you don’t know what to write about look up prompts or follow one I will provide for you 

Prompt: Where do you see yourself in a few years from now?

Or

Prompt: Have I been staying on track lately, and if not what factors do you think have been contributing to that? 

The more you write the more you will become comfortable with it and the easier it will be to start writing about what you need to, what applies to the intention you set.

Step 3: Create a Routine:

Manage journaling into your already established routine. Whether you journal better online or in a notebook now that you have been dedicating a few minutes to journaling, let's start implementing it when it counts. Continue to journal intuitively but now add it into the routine. As you start to feel overwhelmed, okay then you know that tonight during your nighttime routine you should add in journaling. Having a hard time falling asleep maybe you should journal.