Writing is a lovely art. It allows thoughts to be put on paper and to be made sense of. It means that instead of having conversations about what’s happening, we can write it down, digest it and then articulate it in the best possible way rather than blurting it out to the people around us.
Talk is cheap, they say. I don’t actually agree. Talk is good for the mind and can be a great ground for venting and sharing the latest and greatest thoughts to those around us. It’s important for mental health and talk therapy can change lives.
Writing, though?
Quite often, for the introverted folk like myself, writing content on some form of paper can be extremely therapeutic. We’d rather digest rather digress. Our thoughts on paper means we can read back over it and allow this to guide us in our decision-making, support us in our troubles and accelerate our dreams. Yes yes, it has many benefits and is certainly becoming a returning art.
Last Summer, while in a tough spell, my sister ordered me an Inner-Queen Journal. It was an opportunity to record my daily affirmations, set my goals and plan my days. More than anything though, it was a chance to build in a structure, routine and daily habit that would carry me right through to this point (8 months later).
You see, it takes 21 days to form a habit and the longer that habit is followed consistently, the greater the impact it has on our self-esteem as it shows us – we can do this. Couple that habit with the movement of oneself out of a life rut and well, it gets even better as it can help to shift an entire mindset.
The benefits I’ve gotten from journaling have been multiple. Here are the main ones which have supported me through the Pandemic:
- Experiencing a tough time at the start of last Summer on a personal level, having a habit I could turn to allowed me to build a stronger mindset. This is for the reasons listed above and for the fact that having something positive to focus on outside of pain enables healthy processing. In this case, writing my goals, affirmations and gratitude lists down helped my mind ALOT.
- Writing down a goal increases its chances of being achieved by 40%. In this case, writing down my plans for the day, week and month has certainly helped to accelerate those goals towards their next stage and given an opportunity to see those milestones.
- Moving out of a tricky time is always lovely. Looking back on old journals to when you felt lower and more challenged is certainly a satisfying feeling. Quite often we focus on final outcomes however the greatest triumph is in the doing and the process.
- When at our optimum, we are powerful in that we can inspire others and ourselves to build a healthy mindset. Journaling isn’t just for when something is going wrong – it’s a habit to maintain a healthy mindset & reflect on specific moments.
- Venting is helpful sometimes. As I mentioned earlier, please do talk when you need to. Remember though that quite often, journaling has the benefit of allowing you to reflect on your own scenarios without getting advice from others. Advice is great however your own intuition is your best friend & guidance and writing will allow you to flex that muscle more and more.
Resource-wise, the Inner-Queen journal has been the best for me. Other options have been to get an empty notebook and start writing down what you’re thinking. I do this quite often when I need to get out of my head and it works a treat. Journal prompts are a strong place to start and so, I’ll do a post on this in the coming days. Feel free to reach out if I can add further support.