My head often hurts with the number of thoughts I have, plans, goals, dreams, things I need to do, things I want to write about, lists I want to update (I’m a list addict)!
I’m not sure if this is normal, maybe you have the same problem, maybe you don’t?
Even after clearing my schedule by leaving my day job and reducing my commitments significantly, I still have a very overactive mind.
During challenging times, this goes into overdrive.
There are lots of things I do to quieten my mind, writing, reading, journalling, exercise, meditation, watching Netflix, the list goes on.
Five years ago I started a new habit that quietens my mind by moving my thoughts out of my head onto paper.
This habit is daily journalling.
As mentioned in my previous blog post The Art of Journalling, I’ve been journaling for over 4 decades. I have always wanted to journal daily yet it was something that always eluded me, I just couldn’t stick to it consistently.
Here’s the thing, I was using the wrong tool, I was trying to daily journal in my regular journal. There doesn’t seem much wrong with that, a journal is a journal right?
Apparently not!
To daily journal we need the right tool, a daily journal.
It sounds so obvious now!
For Christmas 2020, I received the most beautiful Paulo Coelho daily journal from a dear friend of mine. I didn’t know it then, yet receiving this beautiful gift was to be the start of five years (and counting) of consistent daily journaling. For Christmas 2021 I received yet another beautiful daily journal (my favourite Moleskine) from another dear friend of mine which helped me further embed my daily journalling habit ❤️
This practice of daily journalling has taken my journaling and my life to another level.
Daily journaling takes discipline, it’s not an easy habit to create yet it is absolutely worth the effort.
Here’s some things to consider if you want to move to daily journalling,
✅ 1. Get the right tool which is a daily journal.
This can be a fancy journal or just a daily diary. It doesn’t really matter what you use from once it has space for each day to write in. I prefer the page a day journals and my favourite type of journal is Moleskine.
✅ 2. Explore why you want to daily journal and what you hope to achieve from it.
I knew daily journalling could help me clear my busy mind and give me a greater understanding of my life.
It has done exactly that, my busy mind gets cleared by transferring thoughts to paper and the more I daily journal, the more I understand my life and myself.
✅ 3. Decide on the best time of the day for you to journal and take this time for yourself.
Setting time aside to think, reflect and journal is critical to embed the daily habit. I prefer to journal in the evening when the day is over, I find this time to be the best for reflection. Daily journalling is a lovely way to end the day, no matter what type of day you’ve had, it’s a positive way to close the day out
✅ 4. Decide what you will journal about.
This is something that will evolve over time as you deepen your daily journaling practice.
Having a starting point is really helpful yet I find when you create the time and space to write, what’s meant to be written presents itself naturally.
✅ 5. Enjoy the process.
Journaling and daily journaling is a process, it’s two steps forward and one step back, a learning curve at all times. Like any journey, enjoyment is more important that the habit itself.
Enjoy the time you give to yourself, enjoy everything you learn about your life, enjoy the clarity journalling brings you, enjoy the art of writing, enjoy the process of building a new habit., enjoy clearing and quietening your mind.
As you build the habit of daily journalling, write down all the benefits you are noticing and also the challenges of building this habit.
✍️ Do you daily journal?
✍️ Could daily journaling support you to clear your busy mind?
✍️ Could daily journaling support you during challenging times?
✍️ Could daily journaling highlight the joyful moments you live every day?
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Thanks for reading,
Siobhain
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