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The power of personal writing
Of course you want more joy in your life. Who wouldn't?
Joy and gratitude are very much interconnected. In her book, The Gifts of Imperfection, Brené Brown notes: "Without exception, every person I interviewed who described living a joyful life or who described themselves as joyful, actively practiced gratitude and attributed their joyfulness to their gratitude practice."
Journaling can help develop and enhance your gratitude practice - and so too it can help develop and enhance your joy. Here are six tips to help you get started.
How do you feel about new beginnings? The uncertainty of what's to come can be scary, exciting, nerve-wracking, overwhelming.
You can take control of each new beginning by setting intentions. Intentions are not goals. A goal is something that you work towards and check off your list when it’s done. Intentions are about your way of living. They're about who you want to be in this world and how you want to show up. Intentions are rooted in mindfulness and gratefulness.
Many people set intentions through meditation alone. But, you can absolutely set intentions in a blank notebook and there are several benefits to doing so.
Bullet journals, in particular, are known for their splashy, artistic spreads, like those tagged as #bulletjournalspreads over at Instagram. One look at all the flowers, cartoon characters, and pastel colors, and some men might decide that, nah, bullet journaling is NOT for them. As one Redditor says, he was initially “blown away by all the girls with fancy tape and stuff.”
Here's the thing, though: journaling is what you want it to be.No one says you HAVE TO use “fancy tape” but no one says you CAN’T. Stop worrying about what your journal should look like and just start writing.
Being stuck at home--whether due to weather or quarantine--can be tough. We end up feeling isolated and lonely--and that has a negative impact on our mental and physical health. Hygge can help. Hygge is a Danish concept that draws on mindfulness and creating comfortable, cozy spaces. While hygge was specifically created in response to Denmark's harsh winters, it's a concept that can be used year round. It's about creating joy and making the ordinary special, by practicing mindfulness and by ritualizing everyday activities. The end result is a feeling of contentedness.
Are you having trouble sticking with your health and fitness goals? If you are - you're not the only one. Life can be busy and overwhelming. It can be hard to find the time and energy we need to focus on our health. But it's one of the most important things we can do.
If you need a little help in staying committed to your goals, why not try using a journal? Just writing your goals down can help you keep them in your sights. And then tracking your progress on those goals can help keep you motivated to reach them. While journals and trackers don't guarantee success, they're great tools for motivation and accountability.
If you've been looking for a way to increase your happiness, look no further. It's as simple as writing down happy thoughts in a blank notebook. Keeping a happiness journal is a terrific way to train yourself to keep to the sunny side. If all you do is make a daily list of, say, three things that made you happy, you’re going to increase your happiness. But there are other things that you can do in your writing journals to take your happiness to a whole other level, including:
If you're feeling stressed (and who isn't?), breaking out your blank notebook and transcribing your thoughts can help. No one knows for sure why journaling is an effective stress-buster. But there are several theories that make a lot of sense.
If you need a break from stress, why don't you give it a try?
How are you coping with things? With all the changes happening in the world due to the pandemic, it's quite possible you're experiencing some grief. While we tend to associate grief with death, we actually grieve other losses. We may grieve over divorce, loss of friendship, loss of job, the diagnosis of chronic illness (loss of health), and loss of opportunities.
Journaling is such a valuable tool for working through grief that it's often part of professional grief therapy. That said, putting pen to paper while you're swimming in grief can be tough. We have some tips to help you over that hurdle.
If you've heard of bullet journals before, you may have written them off as confusing or too complex. They DO require some planning to set up, but because they are highly customizable, they tend to work better than pre-printed planners.
Ryder Carroll developed the Bullet Journal® concept, honing it for over 20 years for his own personal use. He never intended to share it. But once he explained the concept to some friends, he realized that as each person adapted it to their own needs, their productivity soared. The time it takes to set up a Bullet Journal can be well worth it for anyone.