It’s true: daily journaling can help you reconnect and restore your healthy sense of Self.

Shouldn’t we all be looking for different ways to improve our mental health, preserve our life balance, and nurture our inner peace?  

With all the uncertainty and isolation happening in the world, it’s super important that we take good care of ourselves and strive to live our lives the way we want to live.

From boosting self-confidence to reducing stress to strengthening your sense of self, there’s an activity you can start doing right away. 

What is it? 

Daily journaling.

One of the best ways to maintain mental health and overall well-being is to practice daily journaling. 

Journalling positively influences your daily motivation and bold decision-making. It’s all about writing about:  

• how you feel in your body and mind, 
• what you’re thinking about, 
• what you want in life, and
• what’s keeping you from living life to its fullest. 

Here Are 9 Ways Daily Journaling Improves Your Life

1. Organize Your Thoughts

The first and simplest benefit of writing in a journal is the ability to put your thoughts into writing. This helps you organize them and take a look at them from a different perspective. If your thoughts aren’t organized, you might start feeling:

• confused,
• tense,
• uncomfortable,
• unsure, and
• nervous.

Journaling is great for helping yourself make order in your mind.  Dozens of ideas, problems, or dilemmas might be going through your mind every day. But, if you write them down, you’ll find it easy to face them, solve them, and prioritize them. 

2. Share Your Secrets

We all need that one person we can trust completely and share our deepest secrets and desires with. But not everybody has this friend, and those who do, don’t always want to tell them everything.

Journaling can create a sense of talking to a loyal friend, even though that person is you. You’ll be able to:

• forget about shame or insecurity, 
• open up completely, and
• relax.

You can write down things you didn’t even know you felt, and you’ll pour your heart out to that paper.  It’s the best way to remember what you want in life, discover new things about yourself, and get to the bottom of some problems you were trying to solve for a while.

3. Reduce Stress and Anxiety

When you’re stressed out or anxious, you need to find a way to deal with it, right? Not everyone can do it by doing breathing exercises or thinking positively. Journaling can be an excellent tool for calming your nervous system.  

Writing down how you feel in your journal will: 

• help you recognize your triggers,
• help you define your problem, and
• allow you to analyze your episode.

Once you finish writing, you’ll feel relieved and almost like you left those problems on the paper. It’s a good way to relieve stress and work on reducing it completely.

4. Positive Self-Talk

Self-confidence is one of the preconditions for a balanced, harmonic life. This is why practicing positive self-talk in your journal is a good idea.

Try the following:

• write down all the things you love about yourself,
• write all your favorite things and activities from childhood,
• write encouraging letters to yourself from your future self, and
• write affirmations that motivate and inspire you.  

Positive self-talk journaling is another great way to strengthening your sense of  Self.

If you need to start believing in yourself more, positive self-talk will help you get there by encouraging you to be fearless, take more action, and believe in yourself as you move closer to your goals and dreams.

5. Set and Achieve Goals

Another great thing you should do through journaling is to set goals and work on achieving them. Goals are great for giving purpose to every new day ahead of us, which is why it improves our mood and helps us stay positive.

In your journal do this:

• write down your new goals,
• list the skills you need to learn,
• write down a timeline for taking action,
• track your progress each day/week, 
• acknowledge your small wins along the way, and
• celebrate your success.

When you write it all down, it becomes more real, and you’ll be more ready to work hard on it. That’s the magic of journaling.

6. Learn More About Yourself

Nobody knows exactly who we are, how we feel, and what we’re thinking. Often, we don’t even know ourselves.

But, learning about yourself is very important for your mental health and can have a positive impact on your self-confidence.

Luckily, daily journaling is a great way to:

• record your thoughts, ideas, and emotions,
• keep track of them over time, and
• learn about your progress.

You can take your journal and go through the old pages. You’ll see how far you’ve come and how much stronger you’ve become.

This retrospective into your own mental health and well-being teaches you more about yourself and helps you make better choices for your life, what you do, and the way you want to be in the future.

7. Focus on the Creative Aspects of Yourself

Journaling is writing, and writing is an art form. Naturally, nobody expects you to be the next Virginia Woolf, but still, you can learn to be creative as you work on your skills and crafts. 

Creativity is nourishment for the soul, so try expressing your true Self through journaling. It gives you the chance to:

• figure out your creative talents;
• try out different writing styles; and
• practice your writing in a liberating way.

Over time, you may choose to nurture and polish your unique writing style. This could potentially lead to a memoir, short story, or book of poetry! Creativity is an awesome way to learn more about yourself and how you want to live. 

8. Solve Problems 

Have you noticed that when faced with a problem or obstacle your emotions flare up and run rampant? Whether it’s fear, worry, anger, or confusion, our feelings are amplified. 

And, all the emotions can make it harder for us to look at things with a sharp mind and solve problems faster. Daily journaling makes it possible for you to:

• write about problems,
• analyze the problem and dissolve it into pieces,
• focus on finding the right solution, and
• plan how to execute the solution.

Solving problems is easier with a plan, and journaling will help you create an effective one.

9. Improve Communication Skills

Communicating effectively and compassionately with other people is challenging for most of us. We sometimes feel insecure, or we’re afraid that we won’t be able to clearly express our ideas.

Luckily, daily journaling gives you a chance to practice better communication. The practice helps you:

• organize your ideas,
• express your thoughts and opinions.
• control your emotions, and
• calmly respond with compassion.

Self-reflection via a journal teaches you how to adequately express yourself and say exactly what you want to say.  Once you learn it on paper, you’ll be able to apply it in real-life situations.  And your communication with others will drastically improve and be much more effective and enjoyable.

Daily journaling is one of the best methods for strengthening your sense of Self and boosting your self-confidence. It provides the space for self-expression, self-reflection, self-motivation, and creativity.

Ready to start your daily journaling practice? Check out the Guided Journal to a Healthy Sense of Self in the Sense of Self bookstore.

 

 

 

AUTHOR: Healthy Sense of Self Guest Blogger Dorian Martin is a freelance writer with many years of experience. He mainly focuses on psychology topics and provides practical advice to his readers. He currently works as an editor for a writing service, giving essay help online.