Start Journaling and Improve Your Life

Are you interested in making your life better in ways that you cannot imagine? You can do that. You don't need a self-help book, and you don't need hours of therapy (not that there's anything wrong with either of these).
All you need is five dollars to invest in a notebook and a set of pens, and a personal commitment to spend a fixed amount of time writing in your new journal.

Before long, you'll begin seeing the benefits. What are the benefits? Keep reading.

Journaling Creates Clarity
Many of us walk around with questions constantly running through our heads. What should I do next? Why aren't I happier? Where is this relationship going? Is this really what I want my life to look like 5 years from now? All too often, we never find the answers to these questions, simply because we don't take the time to think about them. Instead, we give them space to run around in our heads causing us to lose inner peace. When you journal, you can pull those questions out of your head and put them on paper. Then, you write your way into understanding the answers, or to giving your self-permission to let them go.

Journaling Makes You a Better Writer
Have you ever wondered what stops people from becoming writers? It is often that they simply don't know where to start. When you make a commitment to keeping a journal, you force yourself to overcome that hurdle. You figure out the steps to start writing and then you simply make it happen. When you do this, you develop the self-discipline that you need to become a better writer. You'll also have a repository of ideas, stories, and emotional exploration that you can refer to when you need inspiration. Remember that your journal doesn't need to be a log of your daily activities. You can use it to record bits and pieces of what will eventually become stories, or for free-writing.

Journaling Can Improve Good Relationships and Help You End Bad Ones
Every relationship encounters rough patches, and even when things are great there are still minor annoyances and irritations that can crop up. If have a tendency to take actions that turn those minor things into day-ruining conflicts, you could be sabotaging something really great. You may not be able to let everything go, but you can certainly journal about the little stuff. If you aren't sure whether you are dealing with something small or deal breaker, try journaling about that as well. It will help you work through your feelings and make the decisions that you need to make.

Journaling can Help You Understand Yourself
If you keep a journal, please don't throw them away as you fill them up. You should take the time, every once in a while, to read the things that you have written a year ago, six months ago, five years ago. You'll be proud of your personal growth, you'll surely see marked improvement in your writing over time, and most importantly, if you've abandoned any dreams it will remind you to pick them back up again.

Try keeping a journal for just six months, and you will be amazed at how much more connected you are to your own emotions. There will be instances where you realize that you understand what you are feeling and why you are feeling it, and then you will realize that this would never have been the case if you had not incorporated journaling into your daily life.

Anybody Can Benefit from Writing in a Journal
There is no particular skill or talent level you need to reach before you can start journaling. This is your journey, and writing process. It doesn't matter if you've been published or if you've never written anything that wasn't assigned to you in school. Every day that you spend at least a few minutes writing in a journal is day that you are taking an active role in your own growth and development.

Here are Few Questions to Get Started
When you first start journaling there will be days when you simply don't know where to start or you simply don't have the energy to come up with a new idea. When this happens, refer back to this list of questions for a bit of help and inspiration.
• What was the best thing that happened to me today?
• What was the worst thing that happened to me today?
• If I could describe my day in 5 words, what would I say?
• What am I feeling grateful about today?
• What 3 things made me smile?
• What 3 things made me angry?
• Who did I meet and how did they make me feel?