Exactly what I asked myself a few years ago, What is this journaling thing about? Well, I’ve come to the conclusion there is no one specific answer that everyone agrees on. Only your answer of what you decide it is, for you.
Huh? That doesn’t make any sense whatsoever, right? I’ve actually stopped trying to find the answer. This question, I thought would be an easy straight forward one to find the answer. Nope, no where near close. I just kept finding more different questions to ask and also many different responses. There comes a point where you have to say enough is enough. Journaling is whatever the individual who uses it decides what it is for them.
Life Changing
I apologise if you were hoping to find a specific answer. I can only share with you what a life changing tool I have found journaling to be. Hey, at least I am being completely honest with you, right?
Is it a Collection?
What I’ve decided is that a journal is a collection of something. Usually information on paper format. Like a science journal or a medical journal. A newspaper is also seen as a journal, like the Wall Street Journal and The Stock Journal. These being collections of articles, studies and recent current events.
The type of Journal that I am referring to more about is not about collecting information and statistics on things that are being reported and happening around the world. Here we are more interested in individual journals. How someone uses a journal to collect information like their thoughts, emotions, actions and events. And how journaling is helping and becoming an activity that is highly valuable for well-being and daily happiness.
On this area of journaling, there is also a huge variation of different types. The list below is just some:
- Gratitude
- Health
- Fitness
- Travel
- Work
- Business
- Prayer
- Finance
- Art
- Family
- Dream
- Habit
- Meditation
- Life
- Study
I did warn you that I just found I kept coming up with more questions and that’s just a list of things to journal about. I haven’t even mentioned all the different types of notebooks, pencils, pens, video, audio and digital formats of how you can journal. And don’t even get me started on the different apps available online.
Short Answer
The short answer that I have discovered is, it’s not what you use that is important. The most important part of journaling is your intention for journaling in the first place.
What is it you want to gain from your journaling?
Intention
This is where I think journaling comes into being a highly valuable tool for well-being and daily happiness. This is where my journal journey has taken me.
My initial intention when I started journaling, was just to gain a better relationship with myself. I did not even have a clue that it would take me on such an amazing journey not only of self-discovery, ok, self-discovery is a much bigger topic than I expected, but it has taken me on a journey of self-creation.
Creation
Yes, creation. That’s where the journaling magic happens. I know that the majority what is written about journaling is to write about your thoughts and feelings of what happened. Yes, that’s all well and good to express and get out of your head and body but the real journey is when you start to design, create and actualise what you want and desire and set about making it happen. Start making it a reality.
Reality
What is real? Are your thoughts real? Are your emotions real? Did you create them? Wow, what else can you create?
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