How Journaling Has Changed My Life For The Better
We all ruminate over the issues revolving around our lives and dwell on them. We all are familiar with the endless cycles of checking our Facebook notifications, returning back to work and finally becoming aware of our short attention spans when we catch ourselves thirty posts down someone’s Instagram feed. We all have those considerably and seriously massive goals, but we mostly snooze through them and contribute almost nothing towards them daily.
“As there are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen to write.” — William Makepeace Thackeray
A lot of us have our deepest visions and goals as nothing but mere mental notes. Moreover, we bottle up our emotions and clog our mental cisterns with these unhealthy thoughts everyday of our lives. I am not ashamed to admit the fact that even I was that person a while back.
So for once, I, a natural cynic, finally ‘thought’ of putting all the previously read productivity articles and books to test. I thought of keeping a journal, and trust me, that has made all the difference(We simply cannot escape from Robert Frost, can we?).
The Approach
At first, my human instincts kicked in and I thought of procrastinating over the task of journaling altogether. This is where I tried to flip things a bit: I fought back and wrote about procrastination as the first topic in my journal.
As I went about writing, a few lines changed to a few paragraphs and a few paragraphs to a few pages and afterwards, I looked back and realised that I experienced some wonderful epiphanies about my vicious procrastination patterns. While writing, things were transferred from my unconscious to my conscious without the realisation of the transition.
Not only did I alter my own perspective by just letting things out on paper, I also accomplished the rather difficult task of putting my perpetual internal monologue to rest. Let’s face it: we all filter out and deny emotions, thoughts and feelings all throughout the day. As I talked about these repressed emotions earlier, catharsis of these same feelings and thoughts should be your first priority, as they are the ones which are pushed into your unconscious and are responsible for all the internal demolition.
Chris Paley points out in his book Unthink that it is the unconscious which does most of what we do and why we do the things we do. The conscious is present just to provide reason to the unconscious. And if your unconscious is all congested, your ability to function well drastically plummets without you realising it. If self-growth really matters to you, then picking up a journal and starting to write will provide you with a myriad of benefits, which I will talk about as this article progresses.
Thus began my journaling journey, and let me tell you that I have been amazed at the results. I started out by doing the following:
Mind-mapping
As the name suggests, I literally mapped my mind on paper. This included breaking down everything in various forms, from lists to micro-tasks to doodles to long term goals to ideas and to keeping track of university assignment deadlines.
Tips for Mind-Mapping
1. Dr. James Pennebaker, an American social psychologist, says that journaling as a habit can be optimised by:
· Ignoring grammar and spelling;
· Writing in cursive for fluid thinking and faster writing; and
· Being completely honest about the content that you write.
Don’t worry about articulation and coherence. These are things that you acquire as you write more (Yes, you will soon be structuring whole paragraphs and pages on flight mode).
2. You may sometimes feel blank about writing. You could try commenting, improving and reflecting upon your previous entries and mind-maps or maybe talk about your current state of mind and feelings.
3. As you become more adept at the art of journaling, you would be noticeably more aware of tasks and thoughts that need more processing. Tony Fahkry very rightly says that writing your thoughts essentially downloads them on paper and liberates you of the need to process them any more than you actually need to, thereby putting a full-stop to overthinking.
Although I journaled everyday religiously, I soon discerned that I could not see any substantial amount of change in my life. I gave up temporarily. For a few weeks, my journal was lodged into the dusty side of my cupboard. Soon afterwards, I realised the missing ingredient, and it was time for something to return from its unpleasant vacation back to work.
Reflections
Mind mapping exclusively did not skyrocket my productivity. After all, where was all the success and the chill of life that those books and articles guaranteed me?
After a few mindful sessions of contemplation, I formulated something: Journaling is the first part in what I called a two-part cycle, The Reflection and Action Cycle.
Thomas Oppong states,”Journaling alone won’t boost your productivity. Only when you combine action with reflection is when you’ll take better actions over time.”
Hence, combining reflection with appropriate, relevant and timely action is key. Reflection, essentially, is the launch-pad for further action. And by this time, I reckon you have figured out that effective mind-mapping is one of the prerequisites for a good and fulfilling period of reflection.
The Real Change
Below, I list down a few out of the many improvements that this life-changing art has brought to my life:-
1. Gaining better knowledge of myself as an individual, be it intellectually, emotionally or spiritually;
2. Heightening creative potential and leading to insights and aberrantly new perspectives;
3. Dealing with troubling emotions and anxiety;
4. Creating a springboard for ideas, visions and goals;
5. Bootstrapping my internal self to external events and situations; and
6. Adding value to life rather than just snoozing through it everyday.
Although it may seem like the whole act is contributing little to your life for a while, journaling is one of the habits that compound over time.
Do keep in mind that journaling alone doesn’t necessarily create change, but it provides a structure to the potentially good habits that can table you towards change. And positive change almost always leads to success.
Darren Hardy, in his book The Compound Effect, quite fittingly says ,” Merely becoming conscious of your actions begins to change them.”
