I’m exactly two months into daily journaling. It’s going well! Only once did I completely forget to write an entry and have to rake my brain to put anything down for that day. When I’m too tired to write at night, I put the journal on top of my keyboard so that I’ll write the entry first thing in the morning while the previous day is still fresh in my mind. I write about a paragraph, focusing on the thoughts and happenings that were meaningful on a personal level.
I’m glad I committed to journaling this year. I am a student of psychology—or maybe more of a backyard psychologist—so I had read about the power of journaling. I had to try it for myself. I can say from experience now that it’s no joke. Putting your thoughts into words helps you let go of them. The thought goes from being a storm in your mind to a sentence on the page. It’s confined and specific. You can face it and all the emotions attached to it. Journaling helps you—No, it forces you to work through your emotions and clarify your perceptions. It’s not fun on the bad days. Facing painful emotions and heavy thoughts does not feel good in the moment, but the clarity is worth it. It burns because it’s working.
Have you stuck with your New Year’s Resolutions so far? If you have, keep it up! If you haven’t, don’t be too hard on yourself. Stick around to learn how to make better resolutions. I have a new article coming out next week: “Why Resolutions Fail.”
