How to Journal effectively
Do you journal regularly?
I am sure you have heard about journaling.
But, do you journal regularly?
Before you read this blog, I'm dividing this blog into two parts: why to journal and how to journal.
Why should you journal?
Life is happening quite fast these days, and you and your brain are going through a lot. You're meeting new people, learning new things, and feeling a lot of emotions. It can be quite a roller coaster. Some days, it's fun, but other days it can feel overwhelming because when your brain is going through a lot of things, especially emotions, it cannot think very clearly. You may find it difficult to plan ahead, you may get that feeling that you are overthinking, and some of you may have felt what is called brain fog.
The Prefrontal Cortex and the Limbic System
There is a reason for this. In your brain, there's a part called the prefrontal cortex (PFC) which is responsible for logic, rational thinking, and planning ahead. This is also the part that does the talking and the writing. So when you have something to say to someone, your prefrontal cortex helps you find the right words. But there is another part called the limbic system, which is the old, primitive part of the brain. This is the part that feels emotions like anger and sadness, but also happiness and excitement. Whenever the limbic system is very active, the PFC can't do its job. This is why whenever you are emotional, you can't think very well.
You must have seen someone when they are angry, how they're not able to speak properly. They may use the same words again and again or just use insults. They can't use complex sentences, or even understand complex sentences. People in relationships may have experienced this. If your partner is very angry with you and you say something smart and complicated, they will feel even more angry. This is because at this time they are in a limbic phase. So it's like you are talking in a foreign language that they can't understand, which is very annoying. But as they calm down, they are able to use more and more words.
The Calming Effect of Words
Now here is the trick that you need to know: if you use more words, you also calm down. This is because, as I mentioned before, using words means you are using more of your prefrontal cortex, and the more PFC you use, the calmer you get. And that is why journaling helps. When you sit down and write about your emotions, your brain is gradually shifting from a limbic to a prefrontal stage, and in this process, you get more clarity about life.
Documenting Your Life
The second reason to journal is to document. Life is speeding up and you are consuming a lot of content, a lot of information, which also means that you're forgetting a lot of information. The more you forget, the less you learn. When you are living so fast, it is easy to get lost, to lose track of where you are and where you're planning to go. It's very easy to get distracted these days. Journaling is a way to keep track of where you are, where you're going, and how far you have come. When you look at your previous journal entries from a year ago or even a month ago, you realize how much things have changed, how much you have changed, and how much you have grown.
Self-Awareness
Because our memories are not always good and we have biases about ourselves, it's easy to ignore our own growth, think negatively about ourselves, or even lie about our own faults and mistakes. Journaling helps us catch those things, making us more self-aware. Additionally, someday you might be famous, and someone might want to write a book about your life. You won't remember all the fun stuff if you don't document it. :)
How to Journal
Before discussing how to journal, —-
Where to Journal
First, let's talk about where to journal. Should you write in a book, some fancy diary, or a Word document? Should you buy an expensive app? The short answer is you should write in whichever place is the easiest for you to write. Where you write is not as important as whether you write at all. However, let me tell you where I journal and my reasons for it.
I journal online in a website called Notion. I like it because I can access it across all of my devices, and there's also a nice app that is easy to use. There is a widget that I can put on my home screen for easy access. Within the journal, I can also add tags, making searching really easy. My personal issue with journaling in a book is that I travel a lot, and sometimes if I forget to carry that book, I don't want to miss out on my writing. But I know many people who journal in notebooks, and it works very well for them.
How to Journal
There are two ways to journal: structured and unstructured.
Structured Journaling
Structured journaling is when you have a pre-existing framework and you just fit in your answers according to that framework, like a question and answer section. These questions could be:
What are you most grateful for today?
What did you do today that made you scared?
What are three things you did today that you are proud of?
Such frameworks are useful because they allow you to organize your thoughts and make journaling easier. There are many physical and online journals available that already have such pre-existing frameworks, or you can create your own framework personalized for you. As you keep growing, you can change this framework to suit your needs better. Structured journaling is a great place to start, especially if you haven't journaled before.
Unstructured Journaling
Unstructured journaling is when you don't follow any fixed framework but just write what's on your mind. This might seem challenging at first, but after some time, it can become more comfortable, natural, and even freeing.
Practical Problems and Solutions
Forgetting Important Details
When too many things happen in a day, you can sometimes forget important things like a realization or a good discussion. You might forget it by the time you start journaling at the end of the day or the next morning.
Haphazard Entries
In unstructured journaling, things may seem very haphazard because you're not really editing your thoughts. If you want to go back and find something specific, you might not be able to do that easily, especially if you're writing in a physical book.
The 3C Method: Collect, Consolidate, Connect
Level One: Collect
Collect your thoughts at the time when you have them. Don't wait until the end of the day or the next day. This is like rough work; it doesn't have to be clean. It can be done anywhere: on a piece of paper, in your notes app, or the most practical solution for me was to WhatsApp it to myself. Just type a quick message or leave a voice note so that you can remember what happened. At the end of the day, when you sit down to journal, you already have a list of things to work with.
Level Two: Consolidate
Take everything you've collected, add more things you remember, and put it all in one place. Add your own thoughts, tags, and even photographs if you want. This makes your journaling experience more exciting, interesting, and fun for you to read later on.
Level Three: Connect
Spend time with what you've written and learn from it. It helps to do this after some time has passed, so you can see it without the strong effect of limbic emotion. Maybe after a week, when your PFC is working fine, go back to what you've written and try to spot patterns in your behavior and way of thinking. Think about why you did what you did. Spot similar patterns in previous entries. As you zoom out and see more of your life, more patterns will emerge. This is how you see more of yourself, which is what self-awareness is all about.
Once you've done this with yourself, it's easier to do this with other people and understand them better. As you keep getting better at this, you will learn more lessons faster and more efficiently than you otherwise would have. These are lessons that would have otherwise taken you months or years to learn, or maybe you would have never learned them. That is the true power of journaling.
Try it out. Let me know how it goes.
All the best to all of you.
Cheers.
📽️ My Latest Video
How to stop overthinking?: In this video I have shared three ways you can stop Overthinking. Overthinking is when your thoughts and worries circle in an endless loop. Instead of preparing you for next steps, overthinking usually leads to inaction because it causes you to become overwhelmed by fear. Overthinking can be an early indicator or symptom of depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions.
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