Getting to know yourself Part II: Journaling

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A few months ago I introduced “Getting to know yourself” where I discussed the issues with having to reidentify yourself throughout your life.

We have already taken this first step: recognizing that how you identify yourself changes and the need to have a system in place to help us through life changes and to better understand our changing selves.

The next step we’re going to take is to start journaling. Forget all the preconceived notions you have about journaling. This doesn’t have to take up a ton of time, you don’t even have to be that creative. All you need to do is once a day write something down. That’s it. If you do a quick google or Pinterest search of journaling you will get thousands of hits and inspirations. There are so many different types of journals and there have to be some ideas that suit you and your lifestyle.

Journaling has been known to increase intelligence, help achieve mindfulness and improve your communication skills. There’s no reason not to try it!  

Here are some ideas to get your brain going

Daily events journal 

At the end of the day write about the events that transpired and how you felt about them. Make sure to capture the positive and the negative and any emotions you had. You don’t need to explain yourself or go into too much detail just get what’s in your head down on paper. Keeping a daily journal will help you track your moods and triggers through possible trends.

Gratitude Journal

A gratitude journal is an easy way to get started with journaling especially if you’re not sure you can commit to a full page or so of writing. With a gratitude journal you write down around 3 things that you are grateful for each day. This type of journal will feel cheesy at first but it helps you to recognize the things in your life that are going well and helps you to focus on the positive.  

Life Lessons

I keep this in addition to a regular journal, every time you learn something about yourself or about life. It’s fun to go back and read these as well. Apparently, my life lessons revolve around alcohol and food. I’m not surprised …

Bullet Journal

 Trust me you’ll want to Pinterest this one because these can be so beautiful. Bullet journals are for those who are more artistic and creative and not as good with words. Bullet journals can encompass almost anything from the aforementioned gratitude journal or daily moods or You can write a few points on your day. It is really up to you how you want to use your creativity to express events, feelings, and emotions

Work journal

At the end of each work day before you pack up to go home.take a few minutes to write about your day, any challenges or successes you might have had and what you need to do next. This will help you transition from work to home and it will help you when it comes time for your annual review you can easily go back in your journal and use that to outline your improvements and major wins.

 

Journaling is a private solitary activity and technically you can keep as many different types as you wish or even combine them. The point though is to get started. Everyone has at least one empty notebook sitting around that was gifted or picked up from a conference. Open it up and just start writing. Or open a new word document and start typing. Either way, just get started and keep at it. Aim to do it every day and see how you start feeling at the end of the week.

Good Luck! Comment below if there are other types of journals that you find help you the most!

 

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