entry 007 | why YOU should start JOURNALING! 📔

hellloo to all the beautiful, gorgeous people reading this!

i absolutely LOVE journaling. i always tell everyone around me to journal for SO SO many reasons, so let me get into it.

1.) self-care

self care is self love, and self care is journaling. journaling about the fun moments you had, the laughter, the happiness. keeping track of the positive moments helps you build a stronger, more optimistic mindset and outlook on your life.

2.) self-confidence

tying into the one from before, confidence stems from love. when you realize that the environment around you is beautiful and is filled with positive energy, it allows you to feel more safe and comfortable to try out new things.

3.) self-discovery

sometimes, you might be completely lost about yourself. who you want to be, what you want to do, all those deep questions. by journaling, you can do a lot of personal self-reflection and understand yourself. of course, starting by yourself can be really difficult, so you can always search up self reflection questions on google to write about!

4.) personal goals

journaling can really help you set SMART goals. SMART goals are goals that follow 5 criteria; specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. you can keep these goals and track of your progress by journaling!

5.) creativity

everyone creates some kind of content, writing, photos, videos, songs, etc. and i think that makes everyone a creator of some sort. it’s so easy to slip into a creative block, completely hindering your progress on projects and passions. by journaling, even when you are absolutely tired, it’s like the rock trying to create a singular spark, to bring back that creative streak.

6.) memory retention

the forgetting curve, a diagram famous in psychology, hypothesizes that your memory retention declines when there is no attempt to relook at it. you end up forgetting information, because new information takes the place of that short-term information. by journaling and writing down the new information you gain, as it comes in, you can always reread entries and remember them!

7.) better health

by journaling, you get the feelings out. when you keep the feelings and raw emotions in, this causes more stress, anxiety, and panic. when you’re in these states for a continuous, prolonged time period, they become a much bigger problem. with journaling, you’re able to process your feelings in a more manageable method.

8.) better communication

through journaling, you sometimes find better words. rather than approaching a situation with raw feelings, processing your emotions by writing it down can help you recognize what you are really trying to convey. it helps you not say things that you really don’t mean!

9.) find inspiration

writing everything down, through journaling, can really help you find inspiration. i have a friend who’s a teen author and she writes everything she experiences down. she tells me she does this because sometimes she’ll have to bridge the gaps between some characters, and even the mediocre things sometimes become the major parts in your work.

10.) limitless options

journaling could be for ANYTHING. you can keep a dream, food, fitness, gratitude, sketching, and more types of journals! i’m currently actually keeping a food journal, updating what i have for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. this actually also helps me meal plan, making sure i’m not having too much of one thing, and make sure i have a balanced diet.

and those are my reasons! if you’re just starting out, this might be intimidating. don’t worry! you can comment on this post if you want to be added to my email list. from my email list, you can get daily/weekly journal prompts :)

thank you so much for reading & i’ll see you in the next one!

sincerely, studybutterfly 🦋