When people ask me about why I enjoy journaling so much, I can feel the rush of excitement as I begin to explain everything that I love about it and how it continues to help me in so many ways. By journaling, I am talking about specifically bullet journaling, but this can be applied to any forms of writing or planning. For those who do not know what bullet journaling is, it is essentially a of organizing your thoughts, ideas, agenda, and to-do lists all in a single notebook. This allows full creative control over how you decide to organize everything. Evert page is a blank canvas that you can decide how to layout depending on what you believe organization means.
What people are usually surprised to hear about is the positive impacts that journaling can have on someone’s life and mental health. I started journaling during a time when I felt a lot of stress due to school and keeping track of all the work I had to complete. Writing down your thoughts, whether that be through keeping a diary, a bullet journal or an agenda can be useful in organizing your thoughts, feelings, and worries. Being able to have creative control over planning out my days really helped relieve a lot of the pressure I carry because I was able to visually see what I needed to complete. It also made me more realistic about how much I can complete within a certain time frame, so now I’m not as hard on myself if I don’t complete everything. There have been multiple studies done to show the positive impacts journaling can have on mental health including anxiety and depression. It can help identify any negative thoughts, habits, or stressors that are making you more stressed or anxious so that you are aware of them, and can think of ways to help minimize or resolve them. Additionally, it can help you stay on track of healthy habits such as exercising regularly, eating a balanced diet, and keeping track of your goals and resolutions.
Although journaling can be a time commitment in itself, it’s important to know that it does not have to be intricate and detailed at all times, and can be done in any way that works best for you. If that means just including simple to-do lists for the day, or including habit trackers and writing out your thoughts, anything can be helpful in the long-run.
What are you waiting for? All you need is a pen and a notebook.