Carrie Baker – The Growth Collective

I know I talk a lot about keeping a journal, and I’m passionate about it, because there are just so many benefits. In last week’s blog post, I talked about The Power of The Written Word, and at the end of it, I spoke about how your journal can help you shape the future version of you.

Let me tell you why I journal.

There are a few reasons why I journal, and the main reason isn’t to write about my feelings.

I write to capture creativity, my thoughts and ideas for writing. I write about things that have inspired me, any podcasts or blogposts that have spoken to me, it all goes into the journal.

I write about any major life events so I can remember the experience. When I need to get things clear in my mind, I write it all out and always see it better when I do.

I find there is so much freedom in writing absolutely anything I want to, on the pages of my journal. I am able to liberate negative thoughts and feelings from being trapped on a loop in my brain, and being released onto the lines. Once those thoughts are out, I can have a little distance from them, I can better understand them and my head space feels less cluttered by their presence.

Of course I write about my feelings, it helps to me to be able to get them out, but journaling for me is so much more than that.

My journal is a place for me to set goals, track their progress and work out what my next steps need to be. Since I began consistently keeping a journal, I’ve been much more focused, productive and able to achieve things I never thought I would.

I feel like I am more present in my own life, because as I write and fill the pages, I am paying attention to what has happened in my day, where I am going, what made me happy or not. By paying attention I can enjoy it more, I can go back and reread the highlights any time I want to, and remember it in more detail.

One of my favourite things to do in my journal, is to answer the questions I ask myself. I wrote about this in a blog post not too long ago, about how to Find Focus and Clarity With These Questions, go and have a read of it.

I’ve committed to writing in my journal for a few minutes at the end of everyday (or more than a few if I feel like it), and I ask myself 3 questions.

Let me share what I have learned from asking myself 3 questions everyday for the last five weeks:

1. What excited me today? What made me come alive? What did I love about today?

2. What did I dread today? What drained me?

3. What did I learn about myself today?

Do you want to know some of my answers? Yes you do, you’re nosy just like everyone else!

Here are just a few of them from the last five weeks:

1. What excited me today?/ What made me come alive?/ What did I love about today?

Connecting with and loving the families I work with./ Writing and creating content. / Reaching targets I set for myself. / Sharing my passion for writing and talking about my dream with a friend. / Coffee and chats with a good friend. / Sorting my desk space and bringing fresh inspiration to where I write. / Walking with a friend, talking about future things and adventuring together.

It’s interesting to me that a lot of these answers for what I loved about the day (as well as the ones I didn’t add – because there are too many!) are to do with people and feel that I am accomplishing tasks or goals that I set out achieve.

2. What did I dread? / What depleted me?

Feeling unwell while being at work. / Not knowing what to write. / Deadlines. / Doing things for the first time and feeling anxious about it. / Possibility of not finishing my blog post. / Having to give away time when I’m busy. / Dreading a busy week at work. / Not having enough time to get things done.

A lot of what I dreaded didn’t actually eventuate to anything that I needed to worry about. Most of the things that drained me, was the anticipation of something difficult, like a big week, a meeting etc. Most of that dreading was just a pointless waste of energy! Learn from me, do less dreading in your life, of things that most likely won’t ever happen.

3. What did I learn about myself today?

Needing to be occasionally encouraged, and getting feedback. / Doubting myself. / I write best when I take time to read, research, rest and give myself time to mull over thoughts. / Suddenly finding I can do things that would have seemed beyond my capabilities, not so long ago. / I really love working at a tidy desk space that speaks to my creativity (candles, houseplants, everything within reach, etc). / I soak up other people’s joy and feel it as my own. / The thing that I was dreading, actually ended up being the thing that I loved about my day.

Having read back over the all the answers to this question, I found some really surprised me. Like this last answer for number 3!

By answering these questions, (also note that I like to have variations on the questions) I take time reflect on my day, but also think about what it taught me about myself.

I can see where the same themes keep coming up in the deplete / dread department (sometimes it wasn’t anything to be dreaded at all), and try to minimise those situations where I can. The things that excite me, I can try to do more of those, and adjust life accordingly. Doing this has helped me to understand myself, moderate my feelings, untangle thoughts, know what I think, or even understand what I need in a situation. In a word, my journal gives my life clarity.

Keeping a journal can be such a powerful tool for your life in so many ways.

What science says about journaling.

Journaling benefits your mental health.

A study was conducted on college students who confessed to being chronically anxious. In an article written about this, Hans Schroder from Michigan State University and other collaborators, are quoted saying; “Worrying takes up cognitive resources; it’s kind of like people who struggle with worry are constantly multitasking—they are doing one task and trying to monitor and suppress their worries at the same time. Our findings show that if you get these worries out of your head through expressive writing, those cognitive resources are freed up to work toward the task you’re completing and you become more efficient.”

This is great news for those who can relate to worrying and feeling anxious! Expressive writing, which is a scholarly way to say journaling, can help quiet your mind, which can be likened to having too many programs running at the same time. Writing down your worries and getting them out onto paper, frees up your mind to work more efficiently.

Journaling reduces stress.

Journaling is a brilliant way of releasing pressure you feel when you are overwhelmed by a situation or even your life. There are so many articles on this I couldn’t choose one! Writing out what you are feeling helps you to outwardly process the things that are weighing your mind down and causing you stress. Similar to how it feels when you talk to to a friend about how you’re feeling, your journal works in much the same way, expelling those thoughts and feelings from your mind. Once you have released them you often feel calmer, in control and able to be present in your life.

Journaling makes your emotional responses less intense.

In a research article titled; Putting Feelings Into Words’ Matthew D. Lieberman, UCLA, along with others, writes “Putting feelings into words has long been thought to be one of the best ways to manage negative emotional experiences. Talk therapies have been formally practiced for more than a century and, although varying in structure and content, are commonly based on the assumption that talking about one’s feelings and problems is an effective method for minimising the impact of negative emotional events on current experience. More recently, psychologists have discovered that merely putting pen to paper to express one’s emotional ailments has benefits for mental and physical health.”

Journaling improves your immune system and overall wellbeing

Our mind and bodies are so closely interlinked that often, one will affect the other. If journaling improves your stress levels, helps to regulate your emotions, and frees up your mind from the ‘multitasking’ the brain does when you are anxious, then it would be true to say that journaling has a positive affect on your health and overall well-being.

By reducing any stress on your mind, which affects the body, it will greatly improve your body’s ability to recover from illness or even prevent illness by aiding your immune system.

Why you should journal.

Writing in a journal helps you to improve your ability to communicate your feelings and thoughts to yourself, but also to others. In relationships you often need to tell those you are close to, how you’re feeling, and when you are struggling. If you weren’t raised in a home where this was a healthy part of life, you may not have the vocabulary to speak about those inner feelings.

Keeping a journal is a safe place for this to happen, but to also give a voice to your inner self that may not get much of an opportunity to speak. Journaling about tough times you’re going through will help you to learn how to better communicate it with those in your life. This will benefit your relationships enormously.

A journal helps you to know yourself.

Do you sometimes feel as though you don’t know what you want in life?Do you think you know yourself completely? Journaling is a great way to do a deep dive into your inner self. How often do you ask yourself questions? If you read my previous blog post on Finding Focus and Clarity With These Questions, you will know that I ask myself a variety of questions.

Since doing this, I’ve begun to know myself; who I really am, what makes me tick, what I’m passionate about, and what fulfils me. This practice has enabled me to be more authentic, knowing what I want to do with my life, and just really enjoy it.

You can make positive steps towards goals.

If you are new around here, I love to set goals, achieve them and grow as a person. Before I started journaling, I didn’t set many goals and I definitely didn’t achieve any.

Your journal will help you to work out where in life you want to go. Then you can decide what you need to do to get there by setting goals. Once you set your goals and begin to reach them, your journal will track your progress, record your achievements, enable you to work out next steps and bigger dreams.

Are you convinced to keep a journal yet? Let me give you some pointers I wish I knew years ago, to help get you started.

Tips for journaling:

You journal can be whatever you need it to be. It doesn’t have to be neat and tidy, or look good. It is a tool and an incredible outlet for your thoughts, plans, dreams, feelings, challenges and achievements. A way to improve your stress, anxiety and overall wellbeing.

(If they were meant to be tidy and look beautiful, then I’d never be able to do it, my hand writing is terrible!)

Your journal is an expression of you, so it can look however you need it to. You can use your device, or an app, but for me, my notebook and pen work best. I like being able to flick through the pages, I like that my angry writing looks different to my normal penmanship. Also I like that it’s one less thing I do on a screen.

Whatever it is that you use, make sure it is comfortable to use, and easy to access, or you just won’t be bothered to do it. It took me a while to find the right notebook, it needed the right amount of space on the page, and to open flat when I used it.

Set a regular time each day, to help you remember to do it and so it becomes a regular routine. I find writing in my journal at the end of my day, as part of my bedtime routine, works well. Some love to do it first thing in the morning, or you could do it in your lunch break.

If you don’t even know what to write in your journal, you can Google some questions for yourself, but here are some prompts to get you going:

• What are the things I am struggling with?

• What am I grateful for right now?

• What are three things I hope to happen in my future?

Start small, spend 5-10 minutes writing in your journal, and see how you get on. Starting anything new may feel uncomfortable, and that’s ok. Give yourself time for this new habit to feel comfortable – I promise you, it will be so worth it!

To recap this mammoth post:

• Daily journaling gives my life so much clarity.
• Science says: t benefits your mental health.
• It reduces stress.
• You have less intense emotional responses.
• It improves your immune system and overall well-being.
• It helps you to communicate your thoughts and feelings to yourself and others, and benefits your relationships.
• It helps you to know yourself.
• It helps you to make steps towards achieving goals.
• Your journal can be whatever, and look however it needs to. It’s an expression of you.
• Make sure that whatever you use to journal is comfortable to use and easily accessible.
• Make a regular time in your day to journal.
• Journal prompts are a great way to get starting with writing.
• Start small, spend 5 – 10 minutes and build that time as you want to.

What are you waiting for? Go get started and live your best life!

If you enjoyed this post, I would love to hear about it, why not leave me a like and a comment below. While you’re at it, go and give it a share for me!

As always, the heart behind my writing is for you to be the fullest, happiest version of you, that you can be. I hope this post has helped and inspired you.

You can find all the places I hang out here.

I am here, to champion your personal growth, encourage your goals, and cheer you on as your reach for your dreams. You can do this

Sending you love, friend,

Carrie xxx

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Photo Credit :: Annie Spratt / Unsplash / Wordswag