Unlike some well-being boosters, journaling can be done when you’re feeling too self-conscious or depleted of energy to do other things. Journaling can be done from bed, can draw focus from frazzling, and can help you better understand yourself. That latter perk is perhaps a slow burner, but also profoundly helpful.

For these reasons and more, journaling can be a great self-help tool all around. For anxiety, it can be particularly beneficial. This article discusses some of the reasons why, as well as reasons journaling can be great for your well-being generally.

Journaling for anxiety

Journaling can be a great tool to deal with anxiety.

Journaling doesn’t require great effort or any sum of money beyond that of a notebook and pen. You simply write what’s on your mind and gain relief, comfort, and other therapeutic benefits. It’s as simple as that.

Whether you’ve had a bad day at work, a good evening with friends, or a falling out with a relative, you can always confide in a journal. Unwind the tensions of your mind by giving the restless thoughts somewhere else to be.

Otherwise, they rattle around in your head, unfocused and ignored but not expressed. This can result in varying forms of stress or distress.

Studies show the impact of journaling for anxiety

Studies on journaling as a self-help tool have demonstrated its value. From the workplace to hospital patients, journaling appears to reduce stress and improve resilience and well-being.

Here are just a couple of examples of how journaling has helped.

Journaling helps you deal with negative emotions

Anxiety, like all mental health issues, can leave sufferers feeling overwhelmed. The emotions can weigh heavy on you and – over time – can eventually become too much to bear.

Talking to loved ones, friends or therapists can help alleviate some of the pressure that is otherwise purely internalized and perpetuated.

The benefit of journaling for anxiety is that it can in some ways achieve this without having to talk to someone. You still express your concerns and emotions, thereby letting them go.

One study notes that journaling has even been found to have clinical benefits with patients suffering a range of conditions, from irritable bowel syndrome to lupus. It has also been found to have beneficial effects on blood pressure.

Talking therapy is in some ways superior, especially with the right mental health professional, but journaling has its own advantages:

• Journaling does not require public vulnerability.
• Journaling is available at any time and as often as you need.
• Journalers may feel more comfortable being completely honest and raw, thereby offloading in a more cathartic manner.
• Journaling is practically free.
• Journaling comes without external pressures or restrictions.
• Journaling is discreet and easy.
• Those who suffer from anxiety in particular might find it easier to journal than to talk to someone.

Journaling helps to identify your triggers

Participants in this study on journaling and reducing anxiety found that it enabled them to better identify their triggers. By recounting situations in detail, participants could better see the minor triggers and coping strategies that took place.

Without journaling, these finer points may get lost or forgotten. It’s good to draw attention to them to better navigate similar situations in the future.

For example, if you note that having water with you in an anxious situation or a backup plan ahead of time helped reduce stress, you can consciously repeat these things another time. Conversely, if not having the right equipment for a task worsened the anxiety of the situation, journaling helps you know better to be prepared for next time.

By recounting and visualizing situations when writing them down in a journal, you can see these things more clearly and learn from them. It’s otherwise all too easy to forget and move on, pegging it as a bad experience but not learning from the details.

By the way: Do you find it hard to be happy and in control of your life? It may not be your fault. To help you feel better, we’ve condensed the information of 100’s of articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet to help you be more in control.

Don’t Miss Out On Happiness

Find happiness with this 10-step mental health cheat sheet.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

5 ways journaling helps with anxiety

There are many reasons journaling can help you better deal with your anxiety. Here are five big ones.

1. Journaling allows you to focus when anxious

I have found journaling personally useful during periods of high anxiety. In large part that’s due to the focus required to do it. Instead of ruminating and perpetuating anxiety, journaling requires a degree of presence and focus.

In a way, it’s almost a form of mindfulness. It draws you out of your haze of garbled worries and into the real world a little more.

In order to write you need to order your thoughts into a coherent narrative so that you can jot them down. This dissipates the haze of passive anxiety and background noise somewhat. Narrowing attention down to a quieter, single line of thought.

When writing your thoughts out, one by one, they take form in the present moment and no longer feel overwhelming. You can see them in the here and now rather than in the clouds of your mind.

2. Journaling helps you remember practical information

When you journal, you might write down things you come across that help you get past the anxiety.

The more you do this the better you remember them – A) because it’s like revision, cementing the idea deeper into your brain through more active cognition and repetition, and B ) because you have literally documented the idea and can revisit it later.

I often find pieces of information about something that eased anxiety that day. It helps me to feel uplifted, but more importantly, it is of practical use.

It’s not advisable to overindulge your entries if they tend to be penned during negative times. But it can be helpful to come across tips you’ve written for yourself that you otherwise had forgotten. Just remember to take negative narratives with a pinch of salt, and revisit such entries when you are in a more balanced and resilient frame of mind.

Tip: In order to create a more uplifting journal to revisit, among other great benefits, practice gratitude in your journal. Write about things that have made you happy or that you are grateful for, either that day or in general.

This could be anything from a magnificent animal you saw to an act of kindness from a friend. When you put things like that routinely into your journal it can really brighten its tone – and as a result, yours!

3. Journaling can relieve you of worry

Journaling can work kind of like a shopping list. It works well with anxiety because once you write your anxieties down, you may no longer feel the need to keep dwelling on them.

You write a shopping list for fear of forgetting things. Well, anxiety is our brain’s way of constantly reminding us about things we ‘need’ to worry about.

Juggling an entire list of worry items in your mind is stressful. Delegate them safely into a journal and see if it doesn’t relieve you of some mental strain.

4. Journaling can give you hope

Journaling can help nullify some concerns that may crop up in an anxious mind frame.

For example, I often thought that the anxious sensations I experienced were new and therefore more frightening in their unknownness. On more than one occasion, I have leafed back in my journal to compare these sensations with other times of high anxiety. What I found would console me significantly – I had written down all the exact same fears and concerns during those periods too, evidently coming out the other side sooner or later to find them unfounded.

Rediscovering these truths, that you have gone through things before and survived them, can be greatly sobering for a mind with existential fears.

5. Journaling is like consistently having someone to talk to

Anxiety can make you feel alone and isolated. It can prevent you from reaching out to friends, family members, or professionals. We are social creatures by nature and in trying times our need to talk, whether about the problems we’re facing or about something completely different, is even greater. To be isolated at such a point can drive you up the wall.

Having a journal to open up to is a great way to still have those conversations. To feel heard and held, like someone is there to catch your cascading thoughts and feelings.

To have this reliable, safe space to mull things over at any time is a great comfort. It can feel particularly important to have that familiar security when things otherwise feel chaotic, confusing, and scary.

By the way: If you want to start feeling better and more productive, I’ve condensed the information of 100’s of our articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet here.

This Cheat Sheet Will Help You Be Happier and More Productive

Thrive under stress and crush your goals with these 10 unique tips for your mental health.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

Wrapping up

For anxiety, being able to reap the benefits of journaling can be invaluable. You can take a journal to the office or confide in it late at night when you can’t sleep. You can get a form of therapy without exposing yourself to someone. Journaling may not be the holy grail that will end all of your anxiety, but no one thing ever is. But since it’s practically free, why not give it a try?

How have you used your journal to help you deal with anxiety? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!

Henry Collard Author

Mental health blogger with a passion for learning ways to improve wellbeing. I also love to write fantasy, learn about history and play video games. Which I suppose makes me an all-round nerd.

The post 5 Reasons Why Journaling Helps Relief Anxiety (With Examples) appeared first on Tracking Happiness.

Future self journaling is not just a fun thing to do. It turns out that there are actual benefits that come with future self journaling. Some of the benefits of future self journaling are that it can help you be accountable, it can increase your self-awareness, and it can help you overcome your fears and conquer your goals. But above all, it can also be a lot of fun!

This article is about the benefits of future self journaling. I will show you examples of studies and how I used this tactic myself in order to steer my life in a better direction. Let’s get started!

What is future self journaling exactly?

Future self journaling is the act of communicating with your future self in a conversational style. This can be done via journaling on paper, but also by recording a video of yourself or by recording voice messages.

For example, some people – like me – practice future self journaling by writing letters to the future. For example, these letters can be read 5 years later by yourself. For most people, the goal of future self journaling is to trigger your future self in a way that you might expect to gain from it in the future.

For example, some future self journaling methods are aimed at amusing yourself in the future. Another example to practice future self journaling is to hold your future self accountable for things that you currently desire, like personal goals.

Here’s an example that shows how fun future self journaling can be:

Later on in this article, I’ll share a personal example of how I’ve used future self journaling to keep me from repeating mistakes.

My simple process to do future self journaling

Here’s a really simple way to practice future self journaling:

1. Open up a journal, a notepad, or even a blank text file on your computer. Fun tip: you can even send your future self an email by delaying the delivery of an email in Gmail.
2. Write yourself a letter about something funny you want to remember, ask yourself about things that are currently bothering you, or remind your future self about why you are currently doing some things that another person might not understand.
3. Explain to your future self why you are writing this in the first place.
4. Don’t forget to date your letter, journal entry, or email and create a reminder in your calendar for when you need to open this message or journal again.

That’s it. I personally do this about once a month.

By the way: Do you find it hard to be happy and in control of your life? It may not be your fault. To help you feel better, we’ve condensed the information of 100’s of articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet to help you be more in control.

Don’t Miss Out On Happiness

Find happiness with this 10-step mental health cheat sheet.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

Examples of future self journaling

So what do I do when I journal for my “future self”?

I send my future self an email with some questions that are currently occupying my mind. I then set a trigger for a specific time in the future when I want to receive those emails. When do I want to receive this email?

For example, these are some questions that I’ve asked myself from the past and in the future:

• “Are you still happy with your job? When you started working at your job, you liked the fact that you could work on interesting and complex engineering matters, but do these topics still give you the energy and motivation to continue working on it?”

I received this question from my past self at the end of 2019, and the answer was probably not what I would’ve expected when I initially wrote this email (the answer was no). This challenging question helped me realize that I wasn’t happy in my career anymore.

• “Are you still running marathons?“

This is one that I’ll be reminded of once I am 40 years old. I wrote this email to myself a couple of years ago, when running was arguably my biggest happiness factor. I was curious if my future self would still be such a fanatic runner, mostly for fun and laughs.

• “Looking back at the past year, have you been happy?“

This is one I ask myself at the end of every year, as a trigger to consider my life and to take a moment to look at the bigger picture. I write yearly personal recaps because of this.

Here’s an example of how I’ve included future self journaling in my regular journal. I wrote the following in my journal on the 13th of February 2015. At the time, I had just started my career and was working on a project in Kuwait. Throughout this journal entry, I talked about how much I hated my work on this project.

This is what that journal entry turned into:

This is not what I want. I don’t want to waste away in some foreign country, working >80 hours a week. This makes me curious…

Dear Hugo, what does my life look like in 5 years? Am I still working at the same company? Am I good at what I do? Do I have what I want? Am I happy? Are you happy, Hugo?

You have no excuses. There’s no reason to answer that question with no. I’m healthy, educated, young and smart. Why should I be unhappy? I’m only 21 years old! Future Hugo, if you’re reading this and you’re unhappy, please take control. Fulfill your ambitions and don’t limit yourself.

Funnily enough, it’s almost exactly 5 years later now, and I’m still working at the same company, I’ve wasted quite some time working >80-hour weeks in foreign countries, and I’m not that happy at my work…

Edit: scrap that, I quit my job in 2020 and have not regretted it ever since!

My point here is that future self journaling is really simple. Just start writing down questions to your future self, and you’ll automatically trigger yourself – both in the now and the future – to become a little more self-aware of your actions.

Studies on future self journaling

Let’s talk about the things we know about future self journaling. Are there any studies that can tell us how future self journaling influences our lives?

The truth is that there are no studies that directly cover the topic of future self journaling, even though some other articles may claim otherwise. We can only look at studies that share some overlap with the topic of future self journaling, which I’ll try to summarize here.

Humans are bad at predicting future emotions

We are not robots. This means that we are influenced by cognitive biases that sometimes keep us from making rational decisions or predictions. This sometimes results in rather funny human flaws, that unconsciously have a negative influence on our lives.

One of these flaws is our ability to predict our future emotions.

The ability to accurately predict our future emotional states is called affective forecasting and it turns out that humans are pretty bad at it. We make consistently bad predictions about how we’ll feel:

• When a relationship ends.
• When we do well in sports.
• When we get a good grade.
• When we graduate from college.
• When we get a promotion.

And just about anything else.

Thinking about your future self is correlated to caring more about the future

This study is one of the most quoted studies on the subject of a future self. It discusses how people who are triggered to consider the future are more inclined to make decisions that favor long-term benefits. The idea is that humans normally find it more difficult to delay rewards.

A famous example of this is the Stanford marshmallow experiment, in which children were offered the choice between one marshmallow right now, or two marshmallows at a later time. A lot of children rather pick an immediate reward, even though it is smaller and less of a reward.

This study showed that people who are more aware of their future selves are more likely to make better long-term decisions. Therefore, it can be said that people who practice future self journaling are better able to focus on future, sustainable, and long-term happiness.

From my personal experience, I can definitely support this statement, as I will show you later on.

4 benefits of future self journaling

As you might expect from the studies mentioned above, there are many possible benefits to future self journaling. I’ll discuss some of the most significant benefits here, but I highly advise you to just try it out yourself!

1. Future self journaling can keep you from repeating mistakes

Do you ever catch yourself romanticizing some parts of your life?

I do, and when I do, I sometimes realize that I’m conveniently neglecting negative experiences. This is most apparent when talking about past experiences with my friends because I focus on sharing cool experiences with others in order to leave a positive impression.

For example, in August 2019, I had to work on a project in Russia for about 3 weeks. It was the most stressful period of my life and I absolutely hated it there. But even then, I still recently caught myself romanticizing it when I shared my experience with another colleague.

He asked me how it went, and I told him it was “interesting” and “challenging” and “that I had learned a lot”. The hard truth was that I hated my job, I could care less, and I’d rather be fired than to ever go back to such a project again.

This is what I wrote in my journal one day during that stressful time:

The manager of the project and I discussed the planning for the future, and he told me that we’d be working on this project for much longer if it continued like this. That is, if he doesn’t have a heart attack before then. He told me that I was put on the planning to come back after my leave for another tour. SAY WHAT NOW? Haha, there is NO WAY in hell that I’ll go back to this project.

Dear Hugo, if you’re reading this in a couple of weeks, romanticizing this f!#%!#ing period on the project, and if you’re actually considering going back: DON’T!

Let me tell you right now: just quit your job. You’re way too young to be “forced” into situations like these. You’re too young to feel these amounts of stress. You’re too young to experience black flashes in your vision. You’re too young to be this unhappy.

Just quit.

I re-read this journal entry every now and then to remind me of exactly how much I disliked this period. This keeps me from:

• Romanticizing the past.
• Putting myself into a similar situation ever again.
• Making the same mistake twice.

For me, personally, these are the biggest benefits of future self journaling.

2. It’s simply fun

Future self journaling is one of the most fun ways to journal for self-improvement.

Re-reading (or rewatching) your own messages to yourself can be very awkward, confronting, and weird. But above all, it’s really funny in a way, to have a conversation with yourself, albeit a slightly different version.

When I re-read my own past messages to myself, I can’t help but chuckle. Reading my own words – sometimes from 5 years ago – puts a smile on my face, especially since my life has changed in ways that I couldn’t even comprehend when I initially wrote the message.

Future self journaling is one of the most fun ways to learn more about yourself!

3. It increases your self-awareness

Re-reading my own messages to myself is not only funny, but it also triggers me to think about my own development.

The truth is, future self journaling triggers me to consider my personal development in ways that I won’t find anywhere else. When rereading my message from 5 years ago, I can’t help but notice how much I’ve developed as a person since then. This really increases my self-awareness.

Future self journaling forces me to think back on my emotions in the past, and how those emotions have transformed me into the person that I currently am.

This added sense of self-awareness is beneficial in my daily life, as I can better understand how my personality might change over time. Nothing is certain in life. Being self-aware of the fact that your personal opinions, emotions, and morals can change is a really good skill to have.

4. It can reduce disappointment when you’ve not reached your goals

We published this article how happiness is a journey. The following paragraph is taken from this article:

The ability to accurately predict our future emotional states is called affective forecasting and it turns out that humans are pretty bad at it.

The more people equate goal-achievement with happiness, the more they’re likely to be miserable when they fail to achieve that goal. If there’s a lesson to be learned from poor affective forecasting, it’s that you shouldn’t count on specific events to make you happy.

By practicing future self journaling, you are better able to reflect on what made you set your goals in the first place, instead of just focusing on the results.

For example, on October 28, 2015, I signed up for my second marathon. It was the Rotterdam marathon and I’d be running the entire 42.2 kilometers on the 11th of April 2016. When I signed up, my goal was to finish in 4 hours.

On the day of the marathon, I tried everything I could and gave it my all, but it wasn’t enough. I finished the damn race in 4 hours and 5 minutes.

Did I feel bad? No, because I had made a message to my future self when I signed up. It was an email to myself, which I wrote on the day I signed up, and which I would only receive on the day that I ran the marathon. It read:

Dear Hugo, today is the day that you’ll (hopefully) have finished the Rotterdam marathon. If so, then that’s AWESOME. If you managed to finish within 4 hours, BRAVO. But even if you didn’t finish it at all, just remember why you signed up in the first place: to challenge yourself, both physically and mentally.

Just know that you really challenged yourself and did your best, so you should feel proud either way!

You see what I mean, right?

Future-self journaling prevents your human brain from equating your happiness with the achievement of a particular goal. I remembered that I should be happy for even trying to run the marathon, instead of focusing too much of my energy on some imaginary goal.

It all comes down to this: Happiness = Expectations minus reality. Future self journaling helps you keep your expectations in check.

By the way: If you want to start feeling better and more productive, I’ve condensed the information of 100’s of our articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet here.

This Cheat Sheet Will Help You Be Happier and More Productive

Thrive under stress and crush your goals with these 10 unique tips for your mental health.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

Wrapping up

Future self journaling is one of the most fun methods of journaling and can be very beneficial for your (future) happiness. I hope the studies and benefits listed in this article have convinced you to try it out sometime!

If there’s anything I missed, please let me know. Do you have a personal example of future self journaling that you would like to share? Or maybe you don’t agree with some of the points made? I’d love to know in the comments below!

Hugo Huijer Author

Founder of Tracking Happiness, with over 100 interviews and a focus on practical advice, our content extends beyond happiness tracking. Hailing from the Netherlands, I’m a skateboarding enthusiast, marathon runner, and a dedicated data junkie, tracking my happiness for over a decade.

The post 4 Benefits of Future Self Journaling (and How to Get Started) appeared first on Tracking Happiness.

Even though there aren’t any rules in journaling, you don’t want to mess it up either. You don’t want to fill an entire journal with thousands of words, only to later find out that you’d rather have written about something else. If you don’t know what to write in your journal, I’ll show you some of the things that have helped most people get started.

By writing these things in your journal, I guarantee that you’ll never regret any of your hard work. Here are 7 ideas to write in your journal that are fun, meaningful, and make use of the many benefits of journaling.

Why it’s hard to think of what to write in your journal

As I said in the intro, there are no rules when it comes to journaling.

But I totally understand why it might feel difficult to actually write down that first word. After all, there’s no going back once the ink hits the paper.

However, here are two statements that might help you get started:

• Good is better than perfect.
• Done is better than perfect.

I use this advice in other aspects of my life as well (it helps me deal with perfectionism), but it’s super applicable to journaling as well.

You can’t reap all the benefits of journaling without allowing your pen to touch the paper. And in the end, a couple of sentences that look like gibberish won’t completely ruin your journal.

What to do if you don’t know what to write in your journal

One of my favorite types of books to read is to read someone else’s published journal. I’ve read a couple of great journals, like:

• Theft By Finding by David Sedaris.
• The Heroin Diaries by Nikki Sixx (from rock band Mötley Crüe).
• The Diary Of A Young Girl by Anne Frank.

By reading these journals, I’ve gotten some great ideas about what to write in my own journal.

But what stuck with me most was a passage from David Sedaris’ diary (Theft By Finding).

It might look like my average diary entry amounts to no more than seven sentences, but in fact I spend an inordinate amount of time writing about my day – around forty-five minutes, usually.

If nothing big happened, I’ll reflect on a newspaper article or a report I heard on the radio. I’m not big on weather writing but have no policy against it. Thus when life gets really dull, I’ll just look out the window and describe the color of the sky. That will lead to something else, most often: a bird being mean to another bird or the noise a plane makes.

Theft By Finding by David Sedaris

I’ve used this advice many times since I first started journaling in 2013. If I don’t know what to write about, I’ll look around and write about something that piques my interest.

While this may not directly produce the most insightful journal entry, it does help get my brain moving. Oftentimes, it’s much easier to write down something worthwhile when you already started with something insignificant.

By the way: Do you find it hard to be happy and in control of your life? It may not be your fault. To help you feel better, we’ve condensed the information of 100’s of articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet to help you be more in control.

Don’t Miss Out On Happiness

Find happiness with this 10-step mental health cheat sheet.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

7 journaling ideas to get started

If you’re ready to start writing, here are 7 journaling ideas that will help you get started. You obviously don’t have to pick all of them. Instead, try one of these whenever you feel like you don’t know what to write in your journal.

1. Journal about things that you’re grateful for in your life

I know, I know. Everybody in the world – and their granny – is talking about gratitude. Practicing gratitude is supposed to be this life hack that instantaneously puts a smile on your face. Or at least, that’s what all these articles about gratitude will have you believe.

Here are some things you should know about gratitude:

• It isn’t a life hack, and it certainly won’t fix all your problems.
• It does however increase your odds of finding peace in your current state of mind.
• The most powerful aspect of practicing gratitude is that it’s something you can control entirely.

Practicing gratitude has been linked to a direct increase in happiness of 10%, as found by studies. We’ve covered those in this article about the powerful relationship between gratitude and happiness.

10% may not seem like much, and I somewhat agree, as a 10% increase won’t fix all the problems in your life. However, the main benefit here is that you can “be grateful” whenever you set your mind to it.

And a journal just so happens to be the perfect place to express gratitude.

How can you do so? It’s super simple, actually. Just ask yourself what you are thankful for, and write it down. By spending just 5 minutes a day doing this simple exercise, you’ll be experiencing the full benefits of practicing gratitude.

It’s not as if you’ll directly notice your increased mood. Practicing gratitude won’t stop your car from breaking down, and neither will it stop you from experiencing stress at work. But by focusing on what you’re grateful for, you can focus on positivity rather than negativity.

If you need more examples of gratitude, here you go!

2. Write down all the things that have kept you down today

If you’re having a shitty day, journaling about what’s keeping you down is the perfect remedy. Since I started journaling in 2013, I’ve written dozens of pages filled with rants, curses, irritating thoughts, and crushed dreams.

While it may sound counterintuitive, writing about all the negative things you’re dealing with can actually lift your spirits.

Have you ever experienced stressful moments where you can’t get a grip on your mind? No matter what you do, you keep worrying about dozens of problems at once.

By actually writing these down in your journal, you’ll notice that your brain starts to relax. By giving these negative thoughts a place to go wild, you’ll stop them from turning your mind into a chaotic mess.

One of our readers said it more elegantly:

I found that writing about my emotional state and describing issues in detail forces me to confront them and take the time to deconstruct them. This usually allows me to understand the issue, and that calms the chaos in my head. You can think of this as clearing the RAM in your system.

Sanjay (one of our readers)

Not only will this journaling tip help you sleep at night, but it will also give you some interesting journal entries to look back at in a few years.

I experienced this firsthand when I re-read some of my older journal entries to find them filled with rants. And I mean, pages upon pages of annoying rants.

It helps me realize that I’m just human, and makes me appreciate how much I’ve grown over the years.

3. Rate your happiness on a scale from 1 to 100

Something I do – and have done every single day since 2013 – is answer this question:

On a scale from 1 to 100, how would you rate your happiness?

If you don’t know what to write in a journal, I highly recommend you try this method. It will help you think about how your day actually went. Are you feeling happy today, and if so, why exactly? This will help you turn your thoughts into words.

There’s another big benefit to this method. By rating your happiness every day, you’ll become much more self-aware of how your mental health is impacted by the things that happen to you.

If you’re a nerd like me, it will also allow you to find trends and correlations in your data. Are you happier on weekends? Are you more frustrated when you have to work late?

If you want to read more about tracking happiness, here’s a better description of the method.

We’ve also written an entire article about how to journal for self-awareness here.

4. Write down your goals

I know a lot of people use their journals to keep track of their goals. No matter how big or small they are, a journal can help you stay accountable to yourself.

So if you like to write your journal in the morning, you might want to try to list a couple of goals that you want to reach that day. For example, your goals can be:

• Go for a run.
• Finish 10 pages of a report at work.
• Make the bed.
• Do groceries for the week.

If you’re like me and prefer to journal before going to bed, you can list your goals for the next day.

Setting smaller goals is a good way to make sure that you’re working towards something and not just coasting through your days on autopilot. 

You can set goals in whatever area of life you like and they can be short-term or long-term. But remember, good goals are always specific and measurable. 

A goal without a plan is a daydream.

Rick Conlow

By using your journal to track your goals, you’ll also be more inclined to be successful in the things you want to accomplish. We’ve published an article specifically about journaling for success here!

5. Journal about a random memory of your youth

Whenever I don’t know what to write in my journal, I do something that I call “filling in the blanks”.

This means that I try to write about a personal memory from years ago, way before I started to keep a journal. For example, I’ve written about the following memories in my journal:

• When my mom first showed me the 9/11 attacks on the Dutch national news, back when I was 8 years old, and how weird I thought it all was.
• How I was too shy to talk to a girl in school, even though I had a crush on her and she actually sent me a Valentine’s card (it took a while before I forgave myself for that one).
• Or when my dad took me with him to his job as a civil engineer, for a large bridge construction project.

These are all memories that I hold dear to my heart. By writing them down in my journal, I’m filling in the blank pages of my life. By doing so, I get to “immortalize” my memories, while also practicing gratitude for all the good things I have in my life.

If you want to know more about this journaling idea, here’s an article I wrote about how I remember my memories in a journal.

6. Write a letter to your future self

Here’s another creative way to write in your journal when you don’t know what to write about.

This one is called future self journaling, and it means writing a letter to your future self. This can be either extremely funny or confrontational.

For example, I wrote myself a journal entry that I had to read on October 11, 2015.

Dear Hugo, today is the day that you’ll (hopefully) have finished the Eindhoven marathon. If so, then that’s AWESOME. If you managed to finish within 4 hours, BRAVO. But even if you didn’t finish it at all, just remember why you signed up in the first place: to challenge yourself, both physically and mentally.

Just know that you really challenged yourself and did your best, so you should be great either way!

Letter to my future self

This one was extremely funny to re-read. It was my first ever marathon, and I had made the rookie mistake to have extremely high expectations. I finished in 4 hours and 22 minutes, but I finished nonetheless! This letter to my future self helped me appreciate what I accomplished and made me proud of myself.

How can you use this in your own journal?

1. Write yourself a letter about something funny you want to remember, ask yourself about things that are currently bothering you, or remind your future self about why you are currently doing some things that another person might not understand.
2. Explain to your future self why you are writing this in the first place.
3. Don’t forget to date your letter, journal entry, or email, and create a reminder in your calendar for when you need to open this message or journal again.

So if you don’t know what to write in your journal, why not try this simple idea?

7. Start by answering a journal prompt

The last journaling idea on this list is perhaps the easiest of all. If you don’t know what to write in a journal, use a simple journal prompt and go from there.

A journal prompt is a simple statement designed to inspire you or offer you an idea of what to write about. Following a journal prompt might help you release some of your creativity, even if you’re not big on writing.

Here are some examples of journal prompts:

• Talk about your best happiness factor for today.
• Talk about something that made you laugh today.
• Explain how today could have possibly been a better day.
• Talk about something that bothered you today.
• Explain how today could have gone much worse.
• Talk about something that you’re proud of doing today.

My advice is to start your journal entry by simply copying one of these prompts at the top of the page. Start answering the prompt, and you’ll probably find it easier to continue writing, even if it diverges from the initial prompt that got you started.

One final tip: resist the urge to edit

There are ultimately many more journal ideas that will help you when you don’t know what to write about. I tried to give you the most creative and meaningful methods to help you become more self-aware.

One final tip that I want to give you is to resist the urge to edit whatever you wrote down.

Journaling is about writing freely. So, don’t worry about grammatically incorrect phrases, run-on sentences, or incorrect spelling.

This is not a graded essay. You won’t receive likes or comments the way you do in your diary-like status on Facebook. This is for your eyes only, so don’t be too conscious about what you’re writing and how you’re writing it.

As long as you understand what you wrote and you can reread your journal whenever you need to, then that’s good enough!

By the way: If you want to start feeling better and more productive, I’ve condensed the information of 100’s of our articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet here.

This Cheat Sheet Will Help You Be Happier and More Productive

Thrive under stress and crush your goals with these 10 unique tips for your mental health.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

Wrapping up

I hope these journal ideas will help you when you don’t know what to write next time you open your diary. By using one of these tips, you’ll turn your thoughts into meaningful journal entries that will help you become more self-aware and happy.

Do you want to share one of your favorite journal ideas? Was there anything I missed? Or do you disagree with something I said? Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Hugo Huijer Author

Founder of Tracking Happiness, with over 100 interviews and a focus on practical advice, our content extends beyond happiness tracking. Hailing from the Netherlands, I’m a skateboarding enthusiast, marathon runner, and a dedicated data junkie, tracking my happiness for over a decade.

The post 7 Things to Write in Your Journal (For Positivity and Growth) appeared first on Tracking Happiness.

To anyone who has not tried either, I would always recommend considering both. The truth is, it’s all relative and we all have struggles. Sometimes the smaller and ‘unimportant’ they seem, the more likely we are to keep them to ourselves. Despite the ongoing, niggling effect they might have on our happiness.

For some, journaling might seem preferable to therapy, and not without reason. But in a choice between the two, can you responsibly replace therapy with journaling?

Journaling vs therapy

As mentioned, journaling and therapy are invaluable tools for self-reflection.

They can lead us to a greater understanding of ourselves and resultant positive changes. But even in the immediate term, journaling and therapy can provide relief from bottled-up emotions, by allowing them a voice through which to vent. This, even in the short term, significantly reduces stress.

Countless studies have shown the positive effects of both journaling and therapy, respectively.

How effective is journaling?

A study on medical patients who were exhibiting symptoms of anxiety found that through months of ‘positive affect journaling’, patients showed reduced anxiety and depressive symptoms, and increased resilience.

How effective is therapy?

Therapy, as with journaling, can take many different forms and has even more studies on its efficacy in relation to well-being.

For example, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to be an effective treatment for depression, psychotic disorders, and anxiety disorders.

Other talking therapies, such as psychotherapy and counseling, have been shown to improve well-being and patient satisfaction. Some might dismiss counseling and even specialized psychotherapy as simply sitting and talking to another person, which one might believe they could do with anyone.

The research suggests, however, that due to the nature of patient-therapist relationships, the result is quite different.

This is not hard to conceive. The benefits of both therapy and journaling are that one can disclose information regularly in an open and honest way. Something they might not be able to do in other aspects of their life.

By the way: Do you find it hard to be happy and in control of your life? It may not be your fault. To help you feel better, we’ve condensed the information of 100’s of articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet to help you be more in control.

Don’t Miss Out On Happiness

Find happiness with this 10-step mental health cheat sheet.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

Differences between journaling and therapy

The differences between the two are numerous, and some are obvious.

For instance, therapy involves not just another person’s input but one who’s specially trained. This rather pronounced distinction unveils advantages and disadvantages on either side.

On one hand, journaling can provide a limitless and cheap outlet for expression and reflection.

Almost anyone can afford a pad and paper. Furthermore, journalers might find they can discuss issues more candidly and openly on paper, alone. These are thoughts that nobody has to know, so it’s easier to put difficult truths under the microscope.

For some, even entering a therapist’s room can be incredibly daunting, let alone discussing personal issues with a stranger.

On the other hand, writing your thoughts and feelings down without direction can in some circumstances be harmful. For example, monitoring only negative thoughts and feelings, and doing so excessively, can simply build a more negative mind frame.

And without direction, it’s possible to work ourselves into a distorted view of our situation without a light of hope. This is something a therapist will always be helping us to work against.

The pros and cons of therapy

As someone who has tried many forms of therapy and journaling over the last ten years, I have experienced the benefits and negatives of both.

To see if journaling could replace therapy would require a breakdown of the pros and cons of each, and then weighing up the different factors and how they affect you personally.

So can journaling replace therapy? I would encourage anyone considering the query to do their own assessment.

For me, the pros of therapy are:

• A professional third-party perspective helps to avoid circulatory. introspection, and see things we can’t on our own.
• Nudging in a constructive direction.
• A real-world relationship and actively comforting company.
• Structured, periodic support.

And the cons of therapy are:

• It can be hard to express verbally to an audience of any kind.
• Can be hard to find a therapist that suits you.
• It’s time-restricted.
• Is usually a significant ongoing cost.

The pros and cons of journaling

On the other hand, the pros of journaling are:

• The easiest way of giving form to feelings and venting them, whilst maintaining the deepest honesty.
• Leads to a greater understanding and connection with ourselves.
• Limitless use.
• Meditative/mindful practice.
• Practically free.

And the cons of journaling are:

• Can be unstructured and as a result, reinforce cyclic and negative thinking.
• Purely insular; not benefitting from fresh, outside perspectives.
• Lacks expertise and unbiased analyses.

Ultimately, when weighing up the positive and negative factors, it depends on what your purpose is.

If someone was generally looking for a journey of self-awareness, in order to manage well-being, a journal could suffice. Particularly if they couldn’t afford therapy or even stomach walking into the consultation room.

However, if the person weighing up the two was looking to overcome mental health disorders, journaling on their own without expertise is unlikely to do the job. For this, they would need to look into cognitive-behavioral therapy or other talking therapies and therapeutic treatments.

Even within the journaling and therapy worlds, there are various forms to consider. So, it’s a matter of refining your goal, doing the research, and finding the most appropriate outlet for you.

Personally, I would always choose to do both journaling and therapy (if I can afford the therapy), as there is no reason not to do them in conjunction with each other, reaping the benefits of both. Overcoming the drawbacks of one that might not be found in the other. Covering all your bases, as it were.

Examples of therapeutic approaches to consider

It’s easy to learn about countless types of therapy and journaling. A quick couple of Google searches can help to find what may be relevant to your situation or tastes. Below I’ve listed just a few types of journaling and therapy, and what they entail.

1. CBT

Cognitive-behavioral therapy is widely regarded as an effective shorter-term treatment for various mental health issues. The idea is to change the way you think through practice.

With intrusive, unwanted, or negative thoughts, it teaches us to note and challenge such thoughts rationally. For anxiety disorders, it may include gradual exposure therapy to the things that make patients anxious, in smaller manageable steps.

2. Psychotherapy

Unlike CBT, psychotherapy is supposed to be a longer-term but longer-lasting form of therapy.

Patients learn to explore themselves on deeper levels over time, their patterns and behaviors, and their causes of them. This deeper understanding has lasting, long-term effects with patients less likely to relapse, but can take years (and as a result be much more expensive).

3. Counseling

Counseling is generally less expensive than psychotherapy, and often the two can come hand in hand.

After all, counseling is a personal talking therapy, not so practical and pragmatic as CBT, that can reap many of the same benefits as psychotherapy.

The difference is the level of training and more specified approaches psychotherapists have. Psychotherapists go through many more years of training to be accredited and often focus on a particular approach.

4. Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy is quite different from the rest. It relies on putting the patient into a more susceptible state to work directly with the subconscious.

The subconscious is, after all, where our emotions and inner truths are often bottled up.

Other forms of therapy have to work with our conscious, often guarded and deflecting mind, before they can start to access what’s under the surface.

Examples of journaling techniques to consider

1. Standard journaling

This is the simplest thing on the list to do. Simply writing your thoughts and feelings, whatever they might be, down on paper. You don’t need to think about what you’re writing or why, only express what you want on paper.

I often write about stresses and worries, ranting to my heart’s content until I feel that I’ve let off some steam. Other times, however, I might merely write my views on something I heard that day or a list of things I want to do in the future.

The beauty of this type of journaling is its freedom, which I believe is the easiest way to continually express what you might otherwise be keeping inside.

2. Gratitude journaling

Gratitude is a powerful way of changing the way you think and feel for the better. Unlike standard journaling, its focus is on things you might be grateful for and appreciate.

Doing so as a practice, and especially when feeling less than happy, keeps us anchored to a more rounded and positive view.

Our emotional subconscious mind believes whatever narrative our conscious mind feeds it.

This is why incessant worrying can make us feel so bad emotionally. It’s also why changing that narrative with gratitude journaling can make us feel better.

3. Self-parenting and inner dialogue

Self-parenting and inner dialogue journaling is where we have actual conversations with ourselves. Like with hypnotherapy, the idea is to gain direct access to our emotions and issues.

It’s all too easy to believe everything we tell ourselves in our head but rarely do we stop and check in with how we really feel. Rarely do we try and understand and unpick these feelings by directly discussing them with ourselves. It may sound far-fetched to some, but this is a powerful and therapeutic process for greater self-awareness, without therapy.

Of course, there are many other styles and approaches out there for both therapy and journaling, like future-self journaling.

The key is finding one (or multiple as long as they don’t clash) that resonates with you, your situation, and what you want out of it.

Can we really substitute therapy with journaling?

It would be irresponsible to suggest that someone could replace professional help with journaling. Especially with regard to clinical disorders.

However, as a form of expression and self-awareness, a case can be made for journaling in some circumstances for some people, over therapy. It could never replace therapy exactly, but it can afford us many of the same therapeutic benefits without some of the hurdles.

In the end, the main thing is to explore the options of each against our purposes and means. But if we have the means of doing both, it’s preferable to do so.

By the way: If you want to start feeling better and more productive, I’ve condensed the information of 100’s of our articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet here.

This Cheat Sheet Will Help You Be Happier and More Productive

Thrive under stress and crush your goals with these 10 unique tips for your mental health.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

Wrapping up

I hope by now you have a good sense of whether or not journaling can replace therapy. There is a lot to consider here. This article should give you a good idea to get started.

What did I miss? Was there anything you disagreed with in this article? Or do you want to share your own experiences with journaling vs. therapy? I’d love to hear in the comments below!

Henry Collard Author

Mental health blogger with a passion for learning ways to improve wellbeing. I also love to write fantasy, learn about history and play video games. Which I suppose makes me an all-round nerd.

The post Can Journaling Replace Therapy? (and 10 Tips to Help You Pick) appeared first on Tracking Happiness.

Journaling is one of the best ways to increase self-awareness. This is supported by anecdotes, personal examples, and peer-reviewed studies. But how can you form the habit of maintaining a journal for self-awareness? How do you even begin?

This article covers how you can start a self-awareness journal yourself, with reasons why it’s such a good way to become more self-aware.

How to journal for self-awareness?

Gaining self-awareness is inherent to journaling. But there are some specific things you can do while journaling that can further stimulate your self-awareness.

I will cover a couple of tips that you can use when writing in your self-awareness journal.

1. Take time to write down the things that bother you

Self-awareness is defined as follows:

Conscious knowledge of one’s own character and feelings.

If you’re looking to increase your self-awareness via journaling, you’re going to have to write about the bad things that happen to you as well. You cannot be completely self-aware if you’re only an expert in the good things that happen to you.

You need to learn how you cope with bad things as well.

The best way to do this is to just write about the things that bother you on a daily basis. For me, this can mean the following:

• How I’m stressed by certain deadlines at work.
• That I’m annoyed at certain actions of my family, friends, or girlfriend.
• Or how the bad weather is making me feel slightly depressed.

Whatever it is that bothers you, you’ll be able to get a better understanding of these things when you write about them.

By the way: Do you find it hard to be happy and in control of your life? It may not be your fault. To help you feel better, we’ve condensed the information of 100’s of articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet to help you be more in control.

Don’t Miss Out On Happiness

Find happiness with this 10-step mental health cheat sheet.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

2. Keep track of your emotions, happiness, energy levels, etc.

Another thing you can do within your journal is to keep a daily log of certain parts of your mental health.

This doesn’t have to be sophisticated at all. Whenever you start writing, just write down the date and take some time to rate certain aspects of how you’re feeling.

For example, you can rate your:

• Happiness/mood (how happy am I?)
• Energy levels (how energetic am I feeling today?)
• Productivity (how much did I get done today?)
• Tiredness (how well-rested are you?)

When I first started journaling, I rated my happiness on a scale from 1 to 10 each day. My pages looked quite messy, but that didn’t matter, because I only cared about the actual thought process that was going on inside my head.

I wasn’t worried about the looks of my journal, as you can see in the image below:

Those numbers you see there are my happiness ratings. I made a conscious effort to reflect on my happiness whenever I was writing in my journal. This had a tremendous effect on my self-awareness, and it’s something you can include in your own journal as well!

3. Reflect on how you reacted to certain events

One of the keys to self-awareness is to be able to recognize the way you react to certain events and then alter your reactions for a better outcome.

It’s simple, you just have to write about certain events, how you reacted to those events, and how you could have reacted in order to reach a better outcome.

This ties back to the first tip of this article. When you write down the things that bothered you, it’s a great idea to think about how you should have reacted in order to reach a better outcome. 

Using the same examples as before, here’s what I may write down:

• If I notice that I’m stressed by deadlines at work, I’ll write about how they’re not my final responsibility. I’m just an employee, and all I can do is work hard and if that’s not enough, then I don’t carry the full responsibility for it. Does this solve the issue? No, but it does help me deal with the stress and not worry about things that are not within my control anyway.
• If certain actions of others annoyed me, I will write about how everyone is probably fighting their own battle, and that almost everybody has good intentions. Instead of staying angry, it’s probably better to just talk about it.
• If I’m depressed because of the bad weather, then it’s again good to write about how the weather is not within my control anyway. Maybe I can influence other aspects of my life that will make it better despite the bad weather.

Writing about these things really helps you train your sense of self-awareness. Keep this up and before you know it, you’ll use this self-awareness during the day when you can actually steer your life in a better direction!

Additional benefits of journaling besides self-awareness

In addition to helping you gain more self-awareness, journaling is good for other aspects of your mental health, and we have the scientific evidence to prove it.

For example, a 2013 study conducted at the University of Michigan showed that among people with major depression, expressive journaling for 20 minutes a day lowered their depression scores significantly.

According to another study, visual journaling can help decrease stress, anxiety, and negative affect levels in medical students, a demographic known for being more prone to stress and burnout.

Finally, journaling can also help with self-efficacy: according to a 2008 study, the self-efficacy of undergraduate college students was improved after weekly journal assignments. This one is especially related to self-awareness.

With improved self-efficacy results in more confidence and a better understanding of what you are capable of. These traits go hand in hand with self-awareness.

By the way: If you want to start feeling better and more productive, I’ve condensed the information of 100’s of our articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet here.

This Cheat Sheet Will Help You Be Happier and More Productive

Thrive under stress and crush your goals with these 10 unique tips for your mental health.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

Wrapping up

Journaling remains one of the best ways to grow self-awareness. This is supported by science, examples, and personal experience. By using your journal to reflect on your thoughts, actions, and emotions, you’ll be better able to react positively to the world around you.

Now I want to hear from you! Have you incorporated some of these tips to improve self-awareness through journaling? Are you already keeping a self-awareness journal? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!

Hugo Huijer Author

Founder of Tracking Happiness, with over 100 interviews and a focus on practical advice, our content extends beyond happiness tracking. Hailing from the Netherlands, I’m a skateboarding enthusiast, marathon runner, and a dedicated data junkie, tracking my happiness for over a decade.

The post 3 Tips to Journal for Self-Awareness (and How it Works) appeared first on Tracking Happiness.

But how do you actually start journaling? When you are not a born introspective person, it can feel weird and unnatural to sit down and write down your thoughts in a journal.

This article will show you how to get started with journaling so that you can enjoy its many benefits right away!

A long time ago, when I was 17, I started my first-ever journal. It wasn’t a nice journal, it wasn’t pretty, my handwriting sucked, and it had water stains all over it (I hadn’t started drinking coffee yet, or else they’d be coffee stains).

I eventually lost that journal when I left my backpack on a bus.

It really stings to write about this. There’s a lot I would like to know about the 17-year-old version of me.

That ugly little notebook contained things that I’ve already forgotten by now:

• Thoughts about family members.
• Events that happened at school.
• What went through my mind as I choose to study Civil Engineering at uni (WHYYY?)
• How I could barely run 5k.
• How I was a little chubby back then.
• So much more.

I have almost no recollection of that time, and it sucks. If only I had not lost that stupid journal.

This brings me to the first step of starting a journal.

1. Start writing!

This quote is one of my favorite quotes in the world.

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

Chinese proverb

And it applies to journaling as well.

The act of journaling becomes more and more powerful over time. You will find the biggest benefits of journaling once it has turned into a habit.

What to write in your journal?

You just took a big step in the right direction. But what do you write about?

That fresh blank page can be daunting. As humans, we assign a lot of importance to beginnings, so you may not be quite sure how to start.

But since this is your first journal entry, we’re not going to worry about any of that.

Here’s a phrase that might help you get started:

• Done is better than perfect.

This is your first entry, and you can write about whatever you want.

If you don’t know how to start writing, my advice is to look around you and write about whatever piques your interest.

While this may not directly produce the most insightful journal entry, it does help get my brain moving.

Oftentimes, it’s much easier to write down something worthwhile when you already started with something insignificant.

Remember, the best time to start journaling is right now.

If you’re looking for more tips, here’s our article that goes into things you can write in your journal.

By the way: Do you find it hard to be happy and in control of your life? It may not be your fault. To help you feel better, we’ve condensed the information of 100’s of articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet to help you be more in control.

Don’t Miss Out On Happiness

Find happiness with this 10-step mental health cheat sheet.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

2. Know where to hide your journal

Here’s a tip that not many others talk about, but it’s really important!

The number one thing that keeps people from journaling is the fear that people will find their journal and use it against them.

It’s one of the biggest reasons why journaling can actually be harmful sometimes.

If you want to turn journaling into a habit, you should not be afraid of writing down your thoughts and feelings. Therefore, it’s important to know where to hide your journal.

Here are some tips to help you keep your journal safe.

1. Be assertive to those who know where to find your journal and make it clear that this is your personal journal.

It took a long time before I personally told my girlfriend where I hid my journal, and when I did, I tried to make it very clear that this journal was not supposed to be read by others.

I told her that my journal is just that and that it shows me at my best and worst. In other words, some parts can be interpreted as hurtful and as such can be emotionally damaging.

Be assertive and set clear boundaries with those you trust. And if you don’t trust anyone at all, simply don’t tell anyone that you keep a journal in the first place!

Here’s a guide we wrote about how to be assertive if that helps.

2. Only tell the people you trust

I told my girlfriend about my journal because I fully trust her not to dig around whenever she’s bored. She knows where I store my journals, and I feel no anxiety about it.

To be fair, though, when I started journaling, I was extremely scared that someone would stumble upon my journals. That brings me to the next tip:

3. Hide your journals and don’t tell anyone about them

When I started journaling (link), I hid my journals inside the casing of my computer. One of the side panels was movable, so I crammed in my journal every time I was done writing. I’m 100% sure that nobody ever found it there.

While not the ideal solution, this can prevent others from reading your journal while still enjoying the many benefits of emptying your mind on paper.

4. Use an app that requires a password

This solution is unfortunately not applicable to actual hard-copy journals, but there are journaling apps out there that are protected by password or fingerprint unlocking. I’ve tested Diaro myself, and know that this one allows the option to protect your journal against insecure intruders!

3. Turn journaling into a habit

Turning your journaling practice into a habit is arguably the most important step. The value of your journal increases with every written entry, so if you stop after your first entry, you won’t experience many benefits.

Luckily, there are some proven methods that will make it easier for you to turn something into a habit. So how do you turn journaling into a habit?

1. Start small

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

This is an ancient Chinese proverb that is undoubtedly true for journaling.

The key to turning an activity into a habit is to start small.

You don’t need to fill out pages each time you write in your journal. You don’t even need to fill one page. Journaling is about self-expression; if you don’t have much to say, don’t say much. It’s as easy as that.

2. Make it so easy that you can’t say no

I’ve been journaling for years now. So for me, journaling has become part of my bedtime ritual.

But at first, when I started, I often forgot to write. This often happened when I was too occupied, physically or mentally, to simply open up my journal and write down my thoughts.

A crucial tip for habit forming is to make your habit so easy that you can’t say no.

By doing so, you don’t have to rely on willpower or motivation. Both willpower and motivation are energy sources that are not always readily available.

The solution to this problem is to make your journaling habit as easy as possible.

Here are some examples of how you can do so:

If you journal in an actual hard-copy book, make sure it’s always located in the same place, where you can reach it with ease.

It also helps to place your journal in a place where you’re more likely to be in the proper mindset. For example, don’t keep your journal in your home office if you’re only ever there when you’re busy at work.

If you’re a digital journaler (like me!), it’s a good idea to be able to access your journal from multiple devices. I can access my journal from my smartphone, personal laptop, and work laptop.

My devices are already logged-in, so I can simply take my device, open the app, and start writing.

3. Make it fun!

Turning journaling into a habit doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, according to a 2009 study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, it takes 18 to 254 days for a person to form a new habit.

So if you’re not having fun journaling, chances are you’re going to quit before it has turned into a habit.

So to make journaling as much fun as possible, you need to know what kind of journaling style fits you best.

If you hate dwelling on your thought processes of the day, then simply don’t.

If you hate goal-setting in your journal, then simply don’t.

If you don’t have the time to write down all your thoughts, then simply don’t and write down keywords instead (or just write down your happiness rating).

Sure, there are some benefits of journaling that you’ll only get when you journal in a specific way. But any type of journaling is better than no journaling at all.

In order to turn journaling into a habit, make it as fun and easy as possible for yourself!

4. Be patient

Learning to be patient is a crucial skill for habit forming. You can make incredible progress if you are consistent and patient.

For example, if you want to do pushups every day and want to turn it into a habit, you shouldn’t expect yourself to do 200 pushups on your first day.

You need to set your targets realistically and realize that the journey to a lifelong habit is not a sprint, it’s a marathon.

It’s the same for journaling.

This way, you’re more likely to have better expectations, which reduces your odds of being disappointed.

Do things in a way you can easily sustain.

If you go too fast, your new habit will soon start to feel like work instead of easy and fun. And that’s when you’ll burn out and quit.

Instead, keep it light and easy, be patient, and stay consistent.

New habits should feel easy, especially in the beginning. If you stay consistent and continue increasing your habit it will get hard enough, fast enough. It always does.

Reasons to start journaling

Over the years, I’ve heard of many different reasons why people start journaling.

Here’s an interesting reason to start journaling:

I guess I just use my journals as proof of my existence. No one will remember my husband and I after we pass… At least if there are physical journals someone will know my name. I don’t know what to do with them when I’m dead though.

Here’s another one:

I grew up with parents who undermined my memories. I was told I said things I hadn’t said (or hadn’t said things that I had said), did things I didn’t do (or didn’t do things I had done), and it really fucked with me.

Journaling helped me realize that things did actually happen the way I remembered them, and that was my first step in recovering from their abuse. I am not as regular in my journaling as I used to be, but it is still an important part of my therapy.

By the way: If you want to start feeling better and more productive, I’ve condensed the information of 100’s of our articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet here.

This Cheat Sheet Will Help You Be Happier and More Productive

Thrive under stress and crush your goals with these 10 unique tips for your mental health.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

Wrapping up

What’s your favorite tip to get started with journaling? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!

Hugo Huijer Author

Founder of Tracking Happiness, with over 100 interviews and a focus on practical advice, our content extends beyond happiness tracking. Hailing from the Netherlands, I’m a skateboarding enthusiast, marathon runner, and a dedicated data junkie, tracking my happiness for over a decade.

Hugo Huijer Author

Founder of Tracking Happiness, with over 100 interviews and a focus on practical advice, our content extends beyond happiness tracking. Hailing from the Netherlands, I’m a skateboarding enthusiast, marathon runner, and a dedicated data junkie, tracking my happiness for over a decade.

The post 3 Simple Steps to Start Journaling Today (and Become Good at It!) appeared first on Tracking Happiness.

The evidence says yes. Journaling has many positive effects on your mental health and functioning, including improved memory. Of course, just writing things down does not make you a memory champion, but there are definitely some benefits to reap if you know how to journal.

In this article, I will take a look at the ways journaling can improve your memory, and share some tips on how to journal for maximum benefits.

How your memory works

Of all the important cognitive processes used for normal everyday functioning, memory is probably one of the most important ones.

Take a moment to imagine what it would be like if you were to lose your memories. Frightening, right?

Human memory is a very complex thing. In fact, it’s not a singular process, but rather a system consisting of different memory types and processes. A short primer into human memory is therefore useful before we look at what science says about journaling and memory.

3 types of memory

Humans have three types of memory:

• Sensory memory.
• Short-term or working memory.
• Long-term memory.

When we talk about memory, we usually talk about long-term memory.

American psychologist Nelson Cowan describes long-term memory thus:

Long-term memory is a vast store of knowledge and a record of prior events, and it exists according to all theoretical views; it would be difficult to deny that each normal person has at his or her command a rich, although not flawless or complete, set of long-term memories.

Nelson Cowan

Long-term memory is generally thought to be limitless in capacity, but our memories are never 100% accurate.

Over time, we tend to lose details from our memories, even the most cherished ones, and we usually forget information that we don’t use for a long time (although some things seem to stick around). For example, I have forgotten most formulas from my high school math classes, but for some reason, I can recite the Pythagorean theorem in my sleep.

Sensory memory doesn’t seem like memory at all, since it lasts less than a second.

Its purpose is to provide a representation of a sensory experience (for example, the sight of a person) from which short-term memory can extract relevant pieces of information (for example, recognizing the person as a friend).

Short-term memory is also sometimes referred to as working memory, although some researchers think that they are distinct, but related concepts.

Working memory is used to plan and carry out behavior. For example, as we recognize our friend, we must decide on a behavior. Should we wave at them? Perhaps we aren’t feeling like talking at the moment, so we try to pass by without them noticing.

In the article linked above, Cowan writes:

One relies on working memory to retain the partial results while solving an arithmetic problem without paper, to combine the premises in a lengthy rhetorical argument, or to bake a cake without making the unfortunate mistake of adding the same ingredient twice.

Nelson Cowan

Just like most people can’t imagine a life without long-term memories, we can’t function without working memory.

By the way: Do you find it hard to be happy and in control of your life? It may not be your fault. To help you feel better, we’ve condensed the information of 100’s of articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet to help you be more in control.

Don’t Miss Out On Happiness

Find happiness with this 10-step mental health cheat sheet.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

The effects of journaling on memory

Journaling has many benefits, from boosting your happiness to improving your mental health.

And as we’ll see, it turns out that it can improve your memory, too.

Journaling can make your memories more specific

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first. Writing something down means that you don’t have to rely only on your memory when recalling the information.

While this doesn’t improve your memory in the strictest sense, it keeps the information more accurate than your memory does.

The simplest example of this is a shopping or to-do list, but it works for more personal memories, too. Want to make sure you don’t forget to buy milk? Write it down. Want to make sure you’ll never forget how spending 6 months in quarantine felt? Write it down.

I am not always the most consistent journaler, but I do reach for a pen when I am going through hard times. While dealing with a breakup or the loss of a loved one is something most people would rather forget, I find myself reading through old journal entries to find inspiration in hard times.

They help me remember that I have been through tough times before and what helped me to get through.

In addition to being a literal extension of your memory, journaling can also help to make your memories more specific.

Studies on the effect of journaling on your memory

In a 2012 study, college students were asked to write either about an emotionally disturbing event in detail; their feelings regarding a disturbing event, or describe their day for 20 minutes on 3 consecutive days.

The results showed that students who wrote about emotional events or their feelings demonstrated significantly greater autobiographical memory specificity 6 months after the writing sessions.

Although our memories will never be entirely accurate, having more specific memories about your own life can be beneficial. For example, when faced with difficult situations, individuals who are not able to access specific memories may be at a disadvantage as they are only able to generate a limited number of solutions to their problems.

In addition, there is evidence that a lack of memories can make it hard to imagine the future, because we don’t have any memories of specific past experiences to use as a basis for future goals or predictions.

Journaling improves working memory

In their 2001 study, researchers Klein and Boals asked 35 college undergraduates to write about their thoughts and feelings about coming to college, and 36 students to write about time management.

They found that students who wrote about their deepest thoughts and feelings exhibited working memory improvement 7 weeks after the experiment, while the control group did not.

Similar results were found in a Japanese study from 2008, where undergraduates were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: writing about a traumatic experience, their best possible future selves, or a trivial topic for 20 minutes.

The results showed that compared to other groups, the students writing about a traumatic experience exhibited an increase in working memory capacity 5 weeks after the writing sessions.

Although the mechanism isn’t entirely clear, these improvements in working memory are probably due to the fact that writing expressively about a stressful experience, such as coming to college, helps to create a coherent narrative of the experience, which in turn frees up precious cognitive resources.

In other words, when we experience stress or worry, a part of our mind is always occupied with it. For example, if you have to work during a global crisis, the worry over the crisis stops you from giving 100% at work. You simply don’t have the brainpower for it, so to speak.

But if you take time to examine the feelings of worry and stress and what they mean to you, and create a narrative of the experience, everything will become much clearer. As a result, a smaller part of your processing power is spent on worrying.

Tips for journaling to improve memory

If you’d like to improve your memory by journaling, here are a few things to keep in mind.

1. Be expressive

Go deep into your feelings and use emotional language. Don’t just recount the story – describe and analyze it in as much detail as you can.

Remember how your high school English teacher cautioned you about using too many adjectives? This is the time to use all of the adjectives you couldn’t use in your essays. This is your memory. Write whatever you can and want in order to properly express it!

2. Pick the right time

While the journaling session should be fairly short – 20 or 30 minutes is enough – you should pick the time carefully. Make sure you won’t be interrupted and set aside your phone while writing. Really concentrate on the task at hand.

If you’re really going deep into your feelings, journaling during a lunch break at work or right before going out with your friends might not be the best idea. Give yourself time to get away from your journal (emotionally) after taking your thoughts apart.

3. Be patient

A word of caution: when you start journaling about difficult feelings, it can get worse before it gets better. Writing about a negative experience can immediately bring up uncomfortable feelings and thoughts, while clarity and acceptance come later.

This applies to working memory benefits, too: in both studies cited earlier, working memory capacity decreased immediately after the intervention, but improved several weeks after.

By the way: If you want to start feeling better and more productive, I’ve condensed the information of 100’s of our articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet here.

This Cheat Sheet Will Help You Be Happier and More Productive

Thrive under stress and crush your goals with these 10 unique tips for your mental health.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

Wrapping up

Journaling is a beneficial tool in many ways and it can support your memory, too. In addition to being a literal extension of your memory, writing things in your journal can help to create more specific memories and boost working memory capacity. Not all journaling is equal, though – to reap maximum benefits, you really have to dig deep in your thoughts and feelings, but it will be worth it.

Now I want to hear from you! Do you use journaling to improve your memory? Have you noticed any of the benefits discussed in this article? Let me know in the comments below!

Maili Tirel Author

School psychologist, teacher and internet counselor from Estonia. Passionate about coffee, reading, dancing, and singing in the shower, much to the neighbors’ dismay. Counseling catchphrase: “It’s okay!“

The post 3 Ways Writing a Journal Helps With Your Memory (With Examples) appeared first on Tracking Happiness.

One of the best ways to practice self-care is by journaling. By putting our thoughts and feelings into writing, we’re able to address our worries, pour our emotions out, and clear our minds. A self-care journal is like a safe space for us where we can unravel whatever’s entangled inside of us without feeling misunderstood or judged.

Journaling has scientifically proven benefits for our mental wellbeing. Here, I’ll be talking more about why journaling is an effective self-care tool and how you can incorporate it into your daily routine.

Benefits of self-care journaling

When we were kids, keeping a diary used to be just a fun way to record our carefree days. But, as we’ve gotten older, taking notes about our day, as one may realize, can actually be a therapeutic medium. In the practice of psychology, it has been found that journaling can relieve stress and anxiety.

In this study, college students were investigated on how they use personal writing to reduce stress and anxiety, and it has been concluded that journaling is the go-to writing medium when processing emotional hardships.

Another study has found that expressive writing, especially for those who have undergone traumatic events, has both psychological and physical benefits. Participants were asked to write about either emotional events or neutral topics. And those who wrote about events that had an impact on them had significantly better outcomes in terms of their physical and psychological findings.

This further strengthens the therapeutic effects of journaling, especially for survivors of trauma and other psychiatric patients.

The meaning of self-care journaling

“Self-care” has become a trendy buzzword lately. On the surface, self-care may mean having bubble baths and getting massages. But, if we dig deeper into the real essence of taking care of ourselves, it’s more about understanding what our inner selves need and then addressing those needs.

More often than not, what our inner selves are struggling with are the emotions that we fail to process. Sometimes, we don’t know why we’re in a bad mood or why we’re suddenly lashing out at someone that we care about. It’s because we haven’t properly acknowledged what we’re truly feeling inside.

Journaling is one of the best tools that can help with this. Personally, writing my thoughts and feelings down is like finding a friend in me.

Most of the things that I struggle with are usually something that I can’t easily share with other people, even my best friends. And so, creating a safe space with just me, a pen, and a paper helps me release the emotional tensions that are burdening me without the fear of being judged or not listened to.

By the way: Do you find it hard to be happy and in control of your life? It may not be your fault. To help you feel better, we’ve condensed the information of 100’s of articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet to help you be more in control.

Don’t Miss Out On Happiness

Find happiness with this 10-step mental health cheat sheet.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

Clearing the mind through journaling

Our feelings become less overwhelming or scary when we talk about them.

But, as I have mentioned, we don’t always have it in us to discuss our hardships with someone else. This is where self-care journaling comes in.

Just like talking to a therapist or a friend, writing your feelings down can alleviate the weight on your shoulders. For me, once I’ve written my feelings down, it’s like I’ve separated myself from these stressful thoughts and emotions.

Journaling reminds me that I am not my thoughts, and my thoughts don’t define me. Whenever I feel overwhelmed, I realize that removing the turbulence within me can be easily done by simply releasing it through pen and paper.

Once I’ve done this, I begin to have a clearer vision of how I can approach my struggles and move forward.

Keeping up with your journal

To be completely honest with you, I also struggle with incorporating journaling into my regular routine. And, because of this very reason, I have found the importance of keeping track of your moods and how you’ve dealt with them.

Whenever I have anxious moments, I make sure to describe my experience through writing and keep track of how I’ve managed it – whether it’s through tangible steps such as scheduling a therapy session or through affirmations that I’ve told myself to help me cope.

I’m grateful for the times that I’ve written about events that had an emotional impact on me because I can go back to them whenever I face a similar situation.

It’s like a guidebook that I’ve written for myself to help me through the tough times.

6 ideas for self-care journaling

Now that we’ve established the (many) benefits of journaling, it’s time to try it out with these easy steps to strengthen your self-care practice!

1. Stick to a self-care ritual

Carve out 10 to 20 minutes of your day to do some journaling. It can be something that you do to start your day or to end it. You can also use this time as a break in your daily grind especially if you’re working long hours.

Aside from allotting time for it, you can also make your journal routine much more relaxing to add to its self-care quality.

Perhaps, you can have a cup of coffee, listen to a calming playlist, and write next to a window. Whichever way you do it, make sure that it’s a ritual that’s as enjoyable as it is cathartic for you.

2. Release your feelings

The whole point of journaling is letting those bottled feelings out.

So, when you write, be sure to be honest with yourself. No one will read it anyway!

Don’t judge whatever you’re feeling or thinking. It’s okay to just release your thoughts as if you’re spilling the tea to your best friend.

When I write, I allow myself to pour out even the ugly things that I’m feeling that, sometimes, I’m even afraid to admit to myself. Being true to where I’m currently at emotionally and mentally is key to successful journaling.

If you’re not sure how to begin, think of an event that has affected you recently and describe your feelings about it. Whether it’s positive, negative, or even neutral, just write your heart out. It doesn’t have to be creative, poetic, and even grammatically correct or structured.

Just release your feelings and let your guard down!

3. Take time to process

The next step to freeing is processing. As I’ve mentioned earlier, journaling helps me to step away from my thoughts and feelings and see them as something that happened or is happening to me rather than as something that’s a part of me.

When you write a journal, make sure that it allows you to discover what you’re capable of and how you can manage your situation. For me, I ask myself questions that help me find a solution.

Some examples are:

• Where is this feeling coming from?
• Is there a real threat or is it just anxiety talking?
• How should I respond in a way that won’t hurt me further?
• What can I do to move forward?

Processing our feelings will help us clear our minds and see a more open path ahead of us. It will help us turn something negative into something positive. Use journaling as a tool not just to acknowledge your feelings but also to address how you can move forward.

4. Try guided journaling ideas or resources

If you want to go beyond the “Dear diary” aspect of journaling, try searching for guided resources, prompts, or journal notebooks that already have a daily structure in them. If you do the research, you’ll find something out there that speaks to your personality and what you’re going through.

You also don’t have to stick to pen and paper.

For the tech-savvy, you can use your laptop or mobile phone to type your feelings down especially if you’re on the go. You can download journaling apps, too, if you want to go beyond the notes app that you already have.

5. Be grateful

Aside from recording how you feel and how you want to move forward, journaling is also a great way to allow gratitude into our daily lives. Having a gratitude list can make a huge impact especially if you’re navigating through some rough patches.

If you find that journaling about your emotions can be heavy, pointing out what you’re grateful for can make this practice much lighter. This is also a great daily ritual because you get to realize how blessed your life is no matter what you’re going through.

Each day, write down one thing that you’re thankful for, and you’ll definitely thank me as well later!

6. Don’t edit

Journaling is about writing freely. So, don’t worry about grammatically incorrect phrases, run-on sentences, or incorrect spelling.

This is not a graded essay. You won’t receive likes or comments the way you do in your diary-like status on Facebook. This is for your eyes only, so don’t be too conscious about what you’re writing and how you’re writing it.

As long as you understand what you wrote and you can reread your journal whenever you need to, then that’s good enough!

By the way: If you want to start feeling better and more productive, I’ve condensed the information of 100’s of our articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet here.

This Cheat Sheet Will Help You Be Happier and More Productive

Thrive under stress and crush your goals with these 10 unique tips for your mental health.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

Wrapping up

Journaling can be a delightfully cathartic journey. It allows you to unpack your feelings without judgment and get to know yourself in the safest environment. If you’re looking to nurture your self-care practice, then finding solace in writing might just be what you need.

Writing doesn’t have to be poetic to be a beautiful experience. As long as it connects you to your inner self, then it has served its true purpose.

What do you think? Are you ready to start your self-care journal? Have you learned something new from this article? I’d love to hear in the comments below!

Madel Asuncion Author

Writer and advocate for young people’s mental health. Firm believer of validating one’s feelings, prioritizing the inner-self, and finding happiness in a plate of chicken curry.

The post 6 Ideas for Self-Care Journaling (How to Journal for Self-Care) appeared first on Tracking Happiness.

Journaling allows you to put down on paper your myriad, often scattered daily thoughts, so you can better organize different aspects of your life. Most people already have the skills they need to bring about change, but need help staying focused. Daily journaling can do this, and it starts with building a new habit, maintaining it, and fully appreciating the beneficial changes in your life.

In this article, we’ll look at the real benefits, backed by science, plus how to get started, and how to keep things going. Daily journaling helps you take charge of your happiness, and we’ll show you how.

Why you should journal every day

It sounds like a big commitment, doesn’t it? Well, it is and it isn’t.

It does require some investment in the beginning, both in time and energy. But the secret to doing anything on a daily basis is to build a habit out of it.

Journaling for self-improvement

Self-improvement can take all kinds of different forms.

You may want to have more patience, deal with stress better, or to be more confident. You’re not the only one, and studies show that journaling can help.

Self-Efficacy, confidence, and control

Studies have shown that journaling can help improve one’s self-efficacy and locus of control.

Self-efficacy refers to one’s belief in their ability to succeed in a given task. High self-efficacy means feeling confident in your ability to deal with daily hurdles.

Locus-of-control is a related psychological term, which refers to the belief that you, rather than external forces, are in control of your life.

Increased self-efficacy and locus of control have been linked to greater happiness.

One study found that “Internal LOC is related to high self-esteem… [which] is a powerful and important psychological factor in mental health and well-being.”

And this study by van Zyl and Dhurup concluded that increased self-efficacy “seems to facilitate both satisfaction with life and happiness in general.”

Learning new skills

Studies have shown that self-improvement techniques are most useful for learning new skills – like assertiveness, problem-solving, and even being tidier.

Studies have shown that journaling mediates learning new skills by helping people to draw more connections, better understand others’ perspectives, and develop critical thinking.

Journaling for self-awareness

Self-awareness can be defined as the “conscious knowledge of one’s own character and feelings.” Being more self-aware can contribute to your happiness in a number of ways.

It means being better prepared for difficult situations, by having more control over your emotions, and better understanding the emotions of other people. You’ll be better able to deal with things out of your control, and anticipate how they’ll affect you.

Basically, greater self-awareness means understanding how your mind works, which puts you back in control. As the authors of one study put it:

Journaling enhances the self-discovery process, which increases self-awareness.

Their study included journaling as part of a three-tiered approach to improving self-awareness and self-care.

Journaling to deal with trauma

Journaling has long been a tool used by therapists to help people deal with trauma. And for good reason.

One review of “focused expressive writing” (journaling) found that it relates to “improvements in health and well‐being, across a wide array of outcomes and participant characteristics.” Another study found that “writing related to a distressing event [was] associated with … statistically significant decreases in distress and perceived burden.”

In fact, journaling can help you to flip the tables, and find benefits in events you once considered damaging or destructive.

A study in the Annals of Behavioural Medicine found that “Writers focusing on cognitions and emotions developed a greater awareness of the positive benefits of the stressful event … [which was] mediated by greater cognitive processing during writing.”

Journaling to remember positive life events

Your journal is your own personal time machine. You can go back to any page, any date or time from the moment you started (which is a great reason to start right now), and see what made you happy, or how you dealt with negative life events.

This does two things.

First of all, it helps you to put things in perspective. The ability to predict how good or bad events will impact your happiness in the future is called affective forecasting.

And it turns out that humans are truly terrible at it. We consistently blow things out of proportion and think those good events will make us happy for far longer than they do, and that a bad event will make us far more miserable than is actually the case.

By looking back in your journal, you’ll be able to recall how you felt when confronted with these situations and chuckle at how life-altering it seemed at the time. This is another kind of self-awareness and will help you to be a more emotionally stable person in the long run.

Second, it will allow you to recall positive life events. “Remembering the good times”, as it were, is actually an effective way to reinforce your emotional state and protect your mental health and happiness.

How to get started with daily journaling

Hopefully, you’re convinced of the many benefits of daily journaling. So what are the best ways to get started with daily journaling?

1. Form a new habit

Like any daily activity, it will be easier if you make a habit of it. A habit is “a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.” When you start to realize all the benefits of daily journaling, you won’t want to stop.

Author of Atomic Habits, James Clear, has written a great guide for building new habits. You can find it here.

2. Start small

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

This is an ancient Chinese proverb that is certainly true of journaling. You don’t need to fill out pages on your first day. You don’t even need to fill one page.

Journaling is about self-expression; if you don’t have much to say, don’t say much. It’s as easy as that.

There are lots of ways to go about journaling. You can describe your day chronologically; lots of people find this easier. Or, just start with the part of your day you remember best, and go from there.

3. Ask yourself leading questions

Ask yourself lots of leading questions.

• Why was it memorable?
• How did you feel at that moment?
• What were you thinking?
• What did it remind you of?
• Have you had other situations like that?
• How did you deal with those?

Step into the shoes of a therapist or interested friend for a moment.

This is the power of journaling – getting to step back from your thought process and write critical questions about it. Imagine a close friend is telling you the same story and looking for help figuring out what it means. What kinds of questions would you ask them?

4. Write about things that are important to you

Your habit will be easier to keep up if it’s important to you – so write about things you care about. Once you’ve done your first few entries, start focusing more on things that made a difference to your day, or that you’re currently dealing with.

Ask yourself the same kinds of questions, but ask some harder ones too.

• Did I deal with it properly?
• How else could I have reacted?
• What precipitated the event?
• Why is it important to me?
• Why is it important to others?
• Did I do the right thing?

These are the kinds of things you should be evaluating every day. You’ll be more self-aware, and come to realize what is and isn’t in your control. That means increased self-efficacy and locus of control.

And remember, journaling isn’t just about your problems. Journaling is a way to celebrate your achievements, remember your happiest moments, and immortalize your victories. It’s a place to try and practice a positive mindset.

5. Try not to miss a day…

Once you’ve started, try to keep it going. On days when you really don’t feel like it, write something small. Write just a few words. Once you get started, you may find that the day’s pressures, fatigue, and stress flow out of you and onto the page.

Seriously, if we haven’t said it enough before: journaling is seriously therapeutic. But if you get through a few words and just can’t or don’t want to go any further, don’t stress.

Journaling isn’t about forcing yourself. At the very least, it should be useful, and hopefully, enjoyable. But it certainly shouldn’t make you feel miserable. The most important thing is to keep up the habit by writing what you can.

We’ve spoken before about minimum viable effort, and some days, that’s all you can manage. That’s fine. You did what was needed to keep the habit going, and that’s all you can ask of yourself.

One good way to keep things up when you don’t feel much like writing is to read through past journal entries. This may inspire you to write about your day today, or it may not. But journaling isn’t just about writing. It’s also about reading your words and reflecting on them. Then write down your reflections, and reflect on them. And so on.

But if you aren’t able to write more than a few words, try to read a page or two. That counts as journaling too.

6. … but if you do skip a day of journaling, then don’t panic

Whoops.

Okay, it happens. Nobody’s perfect (that’s what we’re here for, right?). You missed a day. Or two. Or a week.

It happens to everybody. You’re not a loser, you’re not a failure, you’re not “bad at journaling.”

Nobody, ever, in the whole history of journaling, since the beginning of time, has ever written every single day of their entire life since the day they first put pen to paper. Guaranteed. So relax. You’re in the same camp as Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Mark Twain, Charles Darwin, and Frida Kahlo — all famous journalers who definitely missed a day or two.

You can get right back up on the horse. Today. It’s seriously never too late. Don’t let a few days turn into a month and a lost habit. Go grab your journal, and write a few sentences, right now. Even if it’s just about the fact that you stopped journaling.

Okay, so how about some leading questions. Why did you stop? Any reason in particular? Too tired? Stressed? Not feeling it? Not getting out of journaling what you wanted? Great, let’s break that down (in your journal)!

Identify and resolve the issue that prompted you to stop journaling. Use those leading questions to identify what made you miss your writing habit. Now, develop strategies for how you’ll deal with it next time. Write those down. Next time you miss a day, go back to that entry – you’ll have already given yourself the answer.

By the way: If you want to start feeling better and more productive, I’ve condensed the information of 100’s of our articles into a 10-step mental health cheat sheet here.

This Cheat Sheet Will Help You Be Happier and More Productive

Thrive under stress and crush your goals with these 10 unique tips for your mental health.

Download The Free Cheat Sheet

Wrapping up

Daily journaling can help you to organize your thoughts, overcome your hurdles, and increase your happiness. There are many different reasons why you should start journaling, lots of ways to go start, and simple methods for staying on track. So start your daily journal today, and see how it can make you happier.

Do you want to share your own experiences with daily journaling? Did I miss an awesome tip that you used to find happiness in your journal? I’d love to hear in the comments below!

Christian Rigg Author

Academic researcher and writer with a passion for statistical analysis, neuropsychology and mental health.

The post 6 Daily Journaling Tips to Create a Journaling Routine appeared first on Tracking Happiness.

There are three steps to journaling for self-improvement and self-growth. It starts with defining your goals and then understanding what’s keeping you from reaching those goals. Finally, you can implement journaling strategies that will help you overcome your challenges to reach your goals. By following these simple steps consistently, you can achieve your self-improvement goals.

We’ll discuss these steps with detailed examples. We’ll start by looking at some general tips on journaling for self-improvement, and how to get started. Then, we’ll go through each of the main steps in detail. Finally, I’ll show you how journaling for self-improvement has helped me to achieve one of my goals recently.

Journaling for self-improvement

Journaling for self-improvement doesn’t have to be complicated, and it doesn’t have to be time-consuming either. Journaling is a bit like meditation: it helps you stay focused, and gives you the tools you need for self-improvement. It also helps keep you accountable.

Getting started with journaling can be a bit daunting, but it’s something everybody can do well.

The great thing about journaling is that it’s personal – there’s no right way to do it! If you already keep a journal or track your happiness, that’s great – you may want to go straight to our guidelines on journaling for self-improvement. If not, take the time to read through this section on how to start your journal successfully.

Writing your first words

So you’ve decided to start journaling for self-improvement. Awesome! You just took a big step in the right direction. But what do you write about?

That fresh blank page can be daunting. As humans, we assign a lot of importance to beginnings, so you may not be quite sure how to start. One of the best ways is to simply describe your day. As the words get down on the page, you’ll remember thoughts and feelings you had in different situations, and have new ones about them.

Try writing about your day chronologically. Start with when you got up, and describe your day. How did you feel when you woke up? What were you thinking about? Were you excited about your day? Anxious?

Move from the start of the day to the end, and let your thoughts flow freely as you relive each experience. Some of them won’t be too interesting, others may get you thinking.

That’s how essayist and author David Sedaris approaches journaling:

If nothing big happened, I’ll reflect on a newspaper article or a report I heard on the radio. … When life gets really dull, I’ll just look out the window and describe the color of the sky. That will [always] lead to something else…

How much should you write?

In A Beginner’s Guide to Keeping a Journal, writer Kristin Wong talks about the theory of Minimum Viable Effort. This is the amount of effort needed to maintain a new habit. As it turns out, it’s not that much.

James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, explains Minimum Viable Effort like this:

The idea is to make your habits as easy as possible to start. Anyone can meditate for one minute, read one page, or put one item of clothing away… Once you’ve started doing the right thing, it is much easier to continue doing it. What you want is a ‘gateway habit’ that naturally leads you down a more productive path.

When you start journaling for the first time, try writing only a few sentences. The most important thing about journaling for self-improvement is consistency. So start with a small effort: the very minimum possible effort. Once that’s done, all you have to do next time is the same or a little bit more.

Try to write at least a few times a week and work your way up to every day. When you don’t feel like it, stick to the Minimum Viable Effort to get a few sentences on the page. This “gateway habit” will become a powerful tool for self-improvement.

3 steps to journal for self-improvement and self-growth

There are lots of different ways to journal for self-improvement, but it can be helpful to have a series of steps to follow that keep you on track.

The following three steps can be used on a daily basis, or at the end of each week, to help you reflect on your self-improvement journey.

1. Define your goals

The first step is to determine exactly how you’d like to improve. There are no rules here. Your goals can be emotional, intellectual or physical. Emotional goals include things like being more outgoing, being kinder to strangers, more patient with your partner, or learning to love yourself more.

Some examples of intellectual goals are learning a new language, doing better in school, or trying to read more. Finally, physical goals include things like getting in shape, running a marathon, or hiking a mountain.

You’ll notice that many of your goals have an emotional, intellectual and physical component. That’s because humans approach most tasks in more than one way. Climbing a mountain may be a physical task, but you’ll probably experience some strong emotions along the way, and you will need to plan your route and make decisions as you go.

As you think about what you’d like to achieve, try to explore all three aspects of your goals.

2. Understand your blockers

Blockers are things that keep you from achieving your goals. These can be big or small and will take different amounts of time and effort to overcome. Don’t worry – journaling will help you figure out what they are and how to deal with them.

Blockers can be internal and external. Internal blockers are those which come from within: fear of starting, rejection or failure, lack of motivation, and indecision are all common internal blockers.

For each of your goals, try to think of what internal blockers you might encounter along the way, or that you’ve already dealt with.

Most people have a few internal blockers that come up repeatedly. Journaling for self-improvement will help you better understand these recurring blockers.

External blockers are those which come from the outside world. They might include time constraints because of your busy schedule or physical distance from an important resource.

3. Implement daily strategies

This is where journaling for self-improvement will be a real game-changer. For each of your blockers, try to think of different ways to cope with them.

Two things are true of external blockers: they’re often used as an excuse, and they usually relate to some internal blockers. These might take some tough self-love to really understand.

If your goal is to get in shape, an external blocker might be: “No gyms around me.”

But there are lots of other ways to get in shape. What’s really going on is probably a lack of motivation or fear of failure. External blockers may take some creative thinking, but they’re usually not what really keeps you from achieving your goals.

Internal blockers are what keep most of us from accomplishing our self-improvement goals. It’s totally normal if you don’t have the answers right away for dealing with your internal blockers.

Luckily, there are lots of resources out there to help you. Many of your internal blockers can be remedied by building your mental resilience, overcoming your fears, being more self-aware, and learning to accept yourself.

Putting it all together

Once you’ve defined strategies for dealing with your blockers, start implementing them in your daily life. When you encounter a blocker, recall your strategy and put it into place. Then, write about it in your journal. This is where the real breakthrough moments come from. When you write about your experiences, you’ll be able to revisit them from a new perspective.

Journaling is important to the self-improvement process because it allows us to evaluate our progress and hold ourselves accountable. Think critically about your strategy — did it work well? How could it be improved? What would you do differently next time?

By journaling about your self-growth journey, you’ll be able to hone in on what strategies work best.

A personal example of journaling for self-improvement

One of my goals this year was to be more mindful through meditation. I’ve never been a big meditator. But I saw the benefits of it all around me, as friends and family members started to meditate more and reap the benefits.

I decided to use the above method to start working this goal into my journal.

1. What is my goal?

There are many ways to define your goals. SMART goals are one great way. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Resourceful and Timed.

“Meditate more” or “Be more mindful” isn’t very specific. It’s hard to measure, it might take a lifetime to achieve and it doesn’t point to any specific resources.

A better goal for me was: “Meditate for 15 minutes each day this month using a mindfulness exercise.”

2. What are my blockers? 

I started thinking about what has stopped me from achieving my goals in the past. Motivation is one. As I said, I’ve never been big on meditation – In the past, I’d often miss a session, then a week, and then I’d stop. This time, I wanted the habit to stick.

Time is another one. As a freelance writer, I sometimes work with very tight deadlines. Even if I wanted to meditate, it can feel like 15 minutes is a big chunk out of my day, especially if I’m at the end of a major project with a time crunch.

3. What are my strategies?

To overcome these blockers, I needed two strategies. First of all, I needed to make sure that I had the time necessary to achieve my goal of self-improvement.

Overhauling my whole work schedule for 15 minutes of meditation seemed like overkill. That would have to be another project. Instead, I needed a quick-fix; something I could do daily, right now. I decided to overlap my meditation with another daily activity: eating breakfast.

You don’t have to sit lotus-style in silence chanting “Ohmmmmmmm” to be more mindful.

As for my motivation, I decided that each day in my journal, I’d remind myself about the reasons why I wanted to be more mindful. Inner peace, mental resilience, calmness in the face of difficulty, these are all goals for self-improvement that I knew I could achieve through meditation.

By reminding myself about why I started, it would be easier to stay on track.

Over the next 30 days, I journaled about my experience. At first, trying to be mindful while eating wasn’t easy. I journaled about different things I could try to be mindful while eating and looked up ideas on the internet. I realized that sometimes I skip breakfast without even noticing, so I had to be sure to keep up my morning routine.

On days when I had trouble focusing or finding time, I’d write about it in my journal, and find new strategies or solutions to implement the next day. By the end of 30 days, I could already start feeling the benefits of meditating on a daily basis.

My journal helped me to track the progress I was making, note the difficulties I had, and reflect on my strategies to overcome them. While setting goals, defining blockers, and establishing strategies are all key parts, it was in my journal that everything came together.

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Wrapping up

There are a lot of different reasons to journal, but journaling for self-improvement can help you to achieve your goals. By using a journal, you can easily follow your progress and see how journaling for self-improvement has an effect on your mood.

Let us know in the comments below what some of your goals, blockers, and strategies are, and how journaling has helped you on your journey to self-improvement!

Christian Rigg Author

Academic researcher and writer with a passion for statistical analysis, neuropsychology and mental health.

The post 3 Steps to Journal for Self-Improvement (and Self-Growth) appeared first on Tracking Happiness.