Creating new habits can be very rewarding and also quite challenging if we attempt to do too much too fast.

You may have heard of some of the benefits of journaling as a habit but I’d like to remind you of them and encourage you to re-think making this a part of your daily routine if you’re not doing so already.

There is no right or wrong way to journal. It’s a personal process for YOU and will benefit you no matter how you do it.

You can keep your journal for future reference or you can write whatever you’re thinking about or feeling and never look at it again.

It’s the process of writing down your thoughts each day that helps to create change.

Some of the ways you can benefit from journaling include:

1. Appreciation and Gratitude for the good happening in your life. Every day there are many wonderful things that happen in our lives. Taking time to think about the good and writing it down daily will help you to focus on the positive aspects of your life.

2. Thinking about positive creates more positive. Have you ever noticed when you’re in a good mood that everything around you seems to be good? This is true whether we give our attention to happy or unhappy thoughts. Energetically we will experience more of whatever we’re focussed on so why not focus on the good?

3. Creating a record of our growth over time. Whether we chose to keep our journals to look back on later or not, journaling creates a record of what’s happening in our lives at any given point. It allows us to see our maturity and growth over time.

4. Keeps things in perspective. When we take the time to write things, we’re literally slowing our processing down because we can’t write nearly as fast as we can think or speak. This allows us a bit of perspective on whatever we may be ruminating about and can help us see that it’s not such a big deal.

5. Helps us to process and let go of our negative thoughts and emotions. There will definitely be times when life presents you with frustrating situations and challenges. Writing down your thoughts and feelings related to these events can help you to process these feelings and let them go more easily, rather than re-running the events repeatedly in your head.

6. Reminds us that everything is temporary. Whether we are going through a good time or a bad time, it is temporary, but it’s easy to forget this when we’re wrapped up in the individual moments of our lives. Journaling can help you to experience the happiness or negativity of each day and then let it go.

Action Step:

If you’ve ever had a desire to journal but haven’t gotten into the habit of doing so, I’d like to encourage you to start with a 1 minute journaling habit every day. Yes I did say only 1 minute.

I know it sounds slightly ridiculous and you may be thinking,, “Surely I can do more than 1 minute.” or “What could I possibly write about in just 1 minute?” but trust me on this one and set a timer for 1 minute each day to journal.

If you want to write more after than minute it’s fine, but you’re only committed to that minute every day.

You may be quite surprised by what you can accomplish 1 minute at a time!