Six benefits of making journaling a habit …

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The average person rarely purposely makes time just to sit and think. Because of that we’re:

    • Grossly lacking in self-awareness.
    • Lacking even more in “other awareness.”
    • More consistently think irrationally and more likely to develop patterns of cognitive distortions.
    • Are more reactionary than we are likely to respond thoughtfully.

All of those weaknesses can be addressed just by adding into our lives a consistent practice of “think time” (check out my blog post, “5 reasons for adding a daily ‘think time’ to your life …” by clicking here). But we can go even further by developing a habit of journaling on a consistent (daily or weekly) basis. Some valuable benefits of making journaling a habit include:

1. Fosters self-awareness. In order to write, you have to think. That process of gathering your thoughts so you can capture them in writing directly fosters a greater self-awareness by forcing you to examine what it is that you think and feel.

2. Sharpens insights and generate ideas. As you gather your thoughts to write them, you’ll naturally be more inclined to examine and explore your thoughts and emotions. This results in sharpening your own insights about what you’re thinking, and prompts the creation of new ideas.

3. Reveals irrationalities. It can be easy to miss the irrationalities in the flurry of thoughts we have, but when we start writing down what it is we’re thinking, often the irrationalities in our thinking stand out to us in our writing. Writing our thoughts makes it easier to see distortions in our thinking.

4. Uncovers needs. The more we see the irrationality in our thinking, the easier it is to better see what our real needs are, beyond just our wants and desires.

5. Identifies action steps. As we learn what we (and others) need, we can better understand what action we need to take to achieve meeting those needs.

6. Improves problem-solving. All of the above improves our capacity for solving problems, especially as we gather our thoughts, write them out, see any patterns of distortions, gain a better understanding of our real needs, and see what we need to do to meet those needs. Defining your problems in writing helps you to better identify what your options are and weigh them for the best possible results.

If you haven’t yet developed a habit of journaling consistently, let me encourage you to at least try it for the next three to six months and see if you experience some of these (and possibly other) valuable potential benefits.

Scotty