On a day-to-day, week-to-week, and month-to-month basis, it can often be difficult to see the forest for the trees. A couple of years ago, I was stuck in what felt like a major rut. Each week seemed to follow the same cycle where I’d self-sabotage, which produced guilt, which produced shame, which would impact my self-belief, and I’d do the same thing the following week. I wasn’t seeing any progress, which made me beat myself up, which we know only makes things worse.
Then one little trick caused a huge shift – I went back through the daily journal I’d been keeping since 2014 and had a read of the entire thing. What I read made me laugh, and put where I was at in a completely different perspective. Where I was in 2014, 2015, 2016, compared to where I’d gotten myself to were worlds apart. I gave myself credit for the progress I’d made, and moved forward with the knowledge that progress is gradual, and never linear.
Research shows that people who journal have lower stress levels, and are less likely to experience highly anxious or depressive states (URMC, 2022; Newman, 2020). One study showed that people with high anxiety who wrote for 15 minutes a day, three days a week, had greater levels of well-being and reduced depressive states after just one month (Brennan, 2021). In addition to this, journaling has a world of positive psychology benefits. It helps people clarify and attain goals, build self-awareness, elevate happiness, regulate emotions, monitor progress, and act as a buffer against the self-criticism masquerading as “thinking” that we all engage in (Feldman, 2020).
On top of this, journaling is just an awesome way to look back over your life and see how far you’ve come. You will be surprised at the number of exciting, pivotal and incredible events that happen that leave you thinking “there’s no way I’ll forget about this”, only to revisit it years later and realise “wow, I’d completely forgotten about that!”. Similarly, you’ll be surprised at how many seemingly insignificant things and details happen that you don’t expect will be of any interest, only to look back years later and have these small moments bring a huge smile to your face.
So how do you do it, and how do you get the most out of it? There are as many ways to journal as there are people doing it, but there are a few things I’ve found to be really helpful.
1. Keep it short
Any new habit should just take a few minutes to begin (Clear, 2018), and writing is no different. If you’re going to be writing each day, you want to keep it short at the beginning to get into the habit. A few sentences on the previous 24 hours will do – what you did, what you felt, who you were with. You might notice on some days you might want to write a paragraph or two, other days not so much.
2. Keep it consistent
Make a consistent time each day you do it – first thing in the morning, last thing before you turn your computer off, first thing after your mid-morning coffee, whenever it is. Anchor it to another daily habit and you’ll find it becomes second nature.
3. Focus on the wins
Research from Harvard shows that of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation and perception during a workday, the most important is making progress in meaningful work (Amabile & Kramer, 2011). It’s easy to focus on the things we’ve haven’t achieved, but if that’s where our mind lives constantly, we’re in trouble. I like to list three wins I had the day before. It doesn’t matter how big or small these are, you can always find three.
4. Focus on gratitude
Evidence shows that people who practice gratitude on a regular basis actually change the wiring of their brain after as little as one month (Seligman, 2002). Writing down three things each day you are grateful for can go a long way to changing your entire perspective. To mix it up and keep it from getting stale, try writing down a reason why you are grateful for each thing.
5. Keep it balanced
Gratitude, self-love and celebration are great, but they also need to be tempered by humility and reflection. Daniel Amen has shown that people with really low levels of anxiety are constantly late, more likely to end up in prison, and they die sooner (Amen, 1998, p. 138). Reflecting on what might not have gone so well, how you can learn from it, and how you can act differently next time is a great way to keep yourself grounded and growing.
These are just a few evidence-based strategies that have worked wonders for me – I’m keen to hear about your own experiences with journaling. Drop a comment below!
References
Amabile, T.M. & Kramer, S.J. (2011). The power of small wins. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2011/05/the-power-of-small-wins
Amen, D. (2015). Change your brain, change your life: The breakthrough program for conquering anxiety, depression, obsessiveness, lack of focus, anger and memory problems. Harmony Publishing.
Brennan, D. (2021). Mental health benefits of journaling. WebMD. 25th October. https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/mental-health-benefits-of-journaling
Feldman, D.B. (2020). The power of journaling. Psychology Today. 20th September. https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/supersurvivors/202009/the-power-journaling
Newman, K.M. (2020). How journaling can help you in hard times. Greater Good Magazine. Berkeley University. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_journaling_can_help_you_in_hard_times
Seligman, M. (2002). Authentic Happiness: Using the new positive psychology to your potential to lasting fulfilment. Random House.
University of Rochester Medical Centre. Journaling for mental health. Health Encyclopedia. https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentID=4552&ContentTypeID=1 Accessed 18th June 2022.
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