I tried journaling for 30 days and here’s what changed
Picture this: It’s 31st of December. While you try to look back on your year, you struggle to recall what happened in the past 12 months. It seems that time flew and a year just passed by. You remembered making New Year resolutions at the start of the year but…. life happened and your resolutions are once again recycled to the next year.
Sounds familiar?
This was the reason why one of my resolutions in 2024 was to restart my journaling habit and to be consistent about it.
I started journaling for 30 days and here are 4 things that have changed:
1. I lived more mindfully and intentionally
Setting journaling as a bedtime habit became a very important self-care routine for me. It gives me a space to wind down, relax and reflect on my day and a chance to ask myself, ‘How am I feeling?’ This check-in was something that I didn't know I needed but had an incredible impact on my mental health. I was no longer rushing through life, living on autopilot, but living through it- accounting every day for its stories, both the good and bad. Accounting for the good days made me more grateful for the little wins in life; it could be the opportunity to spend quality time with my family and friends, a new experience for myself or just me making efforts to work towards my goal.
2. I gained a deeper understanding of myself
Journaling my thoughts and feelings daily allowed me to become more attuned to my inner world. Sometimes, when we get too overwhelmed by our emotions and can’t seem to comprehend ourselves, writing things down helps us to process and gain clarity. Doing so overtime allows us to observe the patterns of our thoughts, feelings and behaviour. Do we have tendencies to react in certain ways? Do we often find certain situations challenging? What type of activities drain us and what energises us? Only when we do the work of reflecting on our inner world can we gain a deeper understanding of ourselves.
3. I became more consistent with my goals
I also used journaling to keep track of my goals. This allowed me to gain clarity on my progress and hold myself accountable for being consistent. Journaling allowed me to see my progress over time and taught me that the key is not about achievement but consistency. For example, I set a goal to be healthy and fit. The key of the goal was not to lose x kg by a certain time. Instead, my goal was to go to the gym 2 times a week. Journaling my progress reminded me to stay on track and made achieving goals easier and much more manageable.
4. I learnt to embrace the imperfections of life
I began the year with much enthusiasm and motivation to achieve the set resolutions for myself. In January, life seemed to be going well and I was on track. However, one month later, I started neglecting my goals.
What went wrong?
Some days, I felt physically unwell. Other days, I was not in my best mental state. Sometimes, the situation at work did not allow me the spare capacity to work on the things that mattered to me. Yes, life happens. These factors affect our mood and productivity. That is when most people lose touch and abandon their goals.
Journaling helped me keep track of the changes in my life and reminded me of my direction in life when I started to lose my way. Seeing the changes in my life’s circumstances and how they made life challenging taught me to embrace the imperfect days and my imperfect self.
For example, as much as I want to accomplish a lot of things, on days when I was feeling unwell, I knew I had to pause and rest instead of pushing through my to-do lists. I was able to bounce back and get back to my goals when I recovered to a better state because the habit of journaling kept me on track.
In summary, journaling has changed my life by allowing me a safe space to wind down and reflect, helping me understand myself better.
It also helped me see life as a process, rather than a means to an end as I emphasise consistency rather than achievement of my goals. Journaling has also taught me to embrace all parts of my life story- both the positive and negative.
I felt like a crafter of my own life where each day is a page in my life’s story.
If you would like to live life more mindfully, stay consistent with your goals and understand yourself better, I recommend that you start journaling today!
Keen to try out gratitude journaling but don’t know where to start? Read this article.