When we’re younger, journalling is totally normal — celebrated even.
One of the greatest focuses of the first decade or so of our life is to put what we’re feeling or experiencing into words. Before anything else, we are trained to describe what’s happening around us and what we think about it.
All of a sudden though, when we reach a certain age, journalling becomes “weird” — something that is frowned upon, something we don’t want people to know we do. This shift happens sometime around puberty when our awareness of how we’re perceived heightens and we all want to be the most desirable, most liked and least outcast person. Keeping a diary or a journal is not something we want to admit we do — it would ostracize us socially, ultimately achieving the opposite of what we want it to: relief.
So, we stop journalling if we ever started in the first place.
Ironically though, the phase where we’re just entering young adulthood is probably the period of life where it would be most beneficial to keep a journal. We are changing so rapidly, becoming more emotional, more insecure, more concerned about the opinions of others and less sure of who we are. But instead of releasing all that in a healthy, controlled way through journalling — independently, privately, on our own terms — we develop the habit of trying to flesh out our feelings with others before we understand them ourselves. This is our first mistake in trying to get clarity on what we’re experiencing because no one knows us better than we know ourselves.
Thus, due to this societal question mark placed on journalling, we ultimately dismiss it until we realize that it is a habit which can make us stronger, clearer, calmer, more confident, and more in control.
Journalling doesn’t have to be a dramatic production with a warm cup of tea steaming in our hand as the aroma of a scented candle fills our room and we dip a fountain pen in ink to begin writing our life story. It can be as simple as starting a new note on your notes app, spending five minutes translating what’s going on in your head into words on the screen, reading it over and taking a sigh of relief as you begin to understand what’s going on in your head. Journalling does not have to be the traditional writing in a physical notebook method if that doesn’t appeal to you — typing works great as well (as long as you can avoid digital distractions, most easily done by turning off wifi or data).
Finding a way to journal what you enjoy will make it easier for you to stick with the habit. While there is a multitude of ways we can benefit from journaling, these are the top 5 reasons it is worthwhile — and not weird — to do so.
1. Clarity on your thoughts
When you notice a swirl of thoughts building in your head and you begin feeling overwhelmed, stressed or mentally low — that’s your cue to write down what you’re thinking. Simply organizing your thoughts by writing them out forces you to consider them one at a time as you translate them into words on paper or a screen. This process is cathartic enough to take some of the initial anxiousness away when the chaos of our mind begins to take over. By facing the thoughts directly, they lose the power they have over you.
Getting clarity allows you to recognize patterns in your thoughts. Each time you journal, you’re better equipped for the next time your thoughts run wild.
Writing out what you’re thinking helps you discover what is actually bothering you, whether it is in your control or not, what can be done to resolve it and how you can let go and move on. It is also a place where there is no judgement, where you can say anything you want and don’t have to feel bad about it — because no one is reading it except you. It’s a safe space for you to clear out your head, and get clarity on what you’re thinking.
2. You’ll stop feeling the need to ‘vent’
When it comes to venting, there are 3 simple steps we should all follow, but rarely do:
- Get clarity on what you’re thinking (ideally through journalling)
- Talk to a friend if you feel you need to.
- Don’t skip step 1. Going into a conversation with a friend where you’re seeking advice or a new perspective can be dangerous if you aren’t yet clear on how you feel about the matter. You may be easily triggered, offended or irritated by what they say because you’re not ready to internalize advice when you don’t yet know what you think about the matter. Once you’ve gotten clear on your thoughts, you may not feel a pressing need to word-vomit what’s in your head out to the next person who you feel comfortable opening up to. Venting to a friend can be extremely helpful, but being dependent on others to help you sort through what you’re thinking will not benefit you in the long run. It is always in our best interests to be training the habit of independently processing our thoughts and responding to them in a rational, thoughtful way.
Journalling gives you an outlet for your thoughts which will lighten your dependency on friends and reduce the frequency with which you need to hear someone else’s perspective before you develop your own.
So, remember: first get clarity, then talk to a friend if you feel you need to.
3. You’re forced to look at things more rationally
Our perception of things is often significantly different than reality. This can be hard to see when our thoughts are just swimming around in our head. By putting things on paper (or on-screen), you’re forced to dissect what your imagination is cooking up and determine whether those perceptions are true or not. Once you’ve written out your thoughts and read through them again, you can debug them by looking for the stories you’re telling yourself based in perception instead of reality, and separate these perceptions from the facts. This will help you see how much of what you’re telling yourself is truly in your head — you can take comfort in seeing things more rationally, and as a result, you can choose which thoughts to keep, and which ones dispose of.
4. Memories
Journalling about something that has just happened (i.e. a trip, an event or a catch-up with a friend) makes those memories so much more vibrant and fun to look back on. Have you ever reminisced about a trip but struggled to remember the specific details which made the trip so fun and memorable? Journalling preserves memories like no other form of memory-capture. You can’t forget something you’ve journaled about intentionally, because you have to recount the events by putting them into writing, and then any time you want to look back on something, you’ll be able to fully re-experience it through your journal entries.
Think about where all of our earliest history documents came from: people writing down what was happening around them. Journalling has been around forever, and it is the best way to keep memories in a time capsule and never forget them.
5. Save a snapshot of your brain to look back on
It’s easy to forget how much we’ve grown when it comes to our emotional maturity and intelligence. We may look back on a memory and think: how could I have done that? What kind of place was I in mentally? And without a window into what was going on for us at the time, that question will stand unanswered.
However, when you start journaling and you’ve done so consistently for a long enough time, you can look back on previous journal entries and think wow, I can’t believe how far I’ve come. You’ll have the entire journey documented and you can track how you got out of that mental rut or how you got to that state of mental euphoria, and you can follow the same steps you did before if necessary. We don’t need to learn the same lessons over and over, and journaling helps us ensure that we only need to learn something once if we document it well.
You can try to remember what you were feeling at a certain time and give yourself a pat on the back for getting through it, but nothing compares to reading what you felt in that moment from your first-person voice.
Saving a snapshot of our brain at various points in our emotional cycles helps provide perspective and reminds us of the rewards consistent reflection yields.
Ultimately, there are more benefits to reap from journalling than just these five, but they’re a few well-tested reasons to start now. In five years, you most certainly will not regret having documented more of your experiences and thoughts than you did in the last five. Finding your own way to get into a journalling groove — whether that be through typing, buying a new notebook dedicated just for your thoughts, or whatever else it maybe — is one of the most effective ways you can ensure that the habit does not die out. It is also worth noting that some of these benefits also do take some time to materialize, and as with any habit, the more consistent and diligent you are with doing it, the more rewards you’ll get for it down the line.
Hopefully, you’re about to close your computer or turn off your wifi and begin writing out a much-needed brain spill to get clarity on anything that’s been weighing on you. Good luck.