when most people think of a journal they probably think of a notebook used to
record each day's events journals are often used to write down memories and
experiences but they can be much more than that we can use a journal to
explore ourselves and learn how to grow as individuals journaling has become an
activity that is frequently recommended by mental health professionals because
it's so useful in helping us examine how we think and feel and in allowing us to
understand how our own minds work but just writing about what happened during
the day in a matter-of-fact way isn't really going to help with personal
growth journaling has to be done in a more introspective way to be beneficial
to our development there are a lot of ways to journal for self growth where
the following exercises should be enough to get you started number one take time
for gratitude it comes up again and again with the topic of personal
development and maybe you're sick of hearing about it but gratitude is major
for happiness for those hoping to grow into the kind of person who naturally
feels happy most of the time rather than the pressed or sad or frustrated
learning to identify good things around you is extremely helpful step there are
a couple of ways you can practice gratitude with your journal you could
simply make an entry listing the things that you're grateful for or you could
pick out a couple of things that you're thankful for and write a bit more in
depth about why you're thankful for them and what they mean to you either way
you're taking time to focus on positive things in your life and training your
brain to look for them over time it'll become a habit both during your time
journaling and throughout the rest of the day and will result in a notable
mood boost there are two keys to doing this exercise first when you pick out
things you're thankful for don't pick vague things like friends or
family be specific and pick out things from your day so that you're used to
seeing things to be grateful for in your day to day experiences second take a
moment to really appreciate each thing if you get used to feeling gratitude and
not just identifying good things you'll be a much happier person tip number two
is to consider the day's lessons you've probably heard the old saying you'll
learn something new every day and we really do we just have a tendency to
overlook small lessons and things that reinforce lessons what we've learned
before journaling is a perfect opportunity to revisit situations you've
experienced early in the day and consider what lessons you can take away
from them if you don't have anything specific in mind just start by writing
about your day let's say you'll work alongside someone you look up to
professionally and you were able to offer more to the project than they were
as you write about the experience consider what it taught you in this case
you could have learned that people may not be what you think they are or you're
more capable than you previously thought once you've identified that
to get further see what that lesson means for you and how you might perceive
things differently in the future because of this realization learning is a great
way to grow when you're able to learn from your experiences you develop in the
way you see life in the way that you feel at different situations to number
three is to explore emotions examining your emotions is especially useful for
people who sometimes feel that their emotions are out of control
being more aware of what sparked certain emotions and why can be a huge step
towards gaining some control over the way that you feel if you're able to
journal while you're experiencing a difficult emotion that's great
but you can also journal later on and look back at how you were feeling right
about the emotion you were in and the emotions started including as much
detail as you can so you can see and identify what may be caused then when
you found the situation act phrase or whatever trigger it might be you can
start to write through your thoughts about why that thing might have provoked
you maybe it connects back to a hurtful experience or hit on a deep-seated
insecurities you can examine the trigger to work through your emotional
connection to it then try to come up with ways to ease your difficult
feelings now and prevent them from taking control of you in the future this
process allows you to understand yourself better so you can get a handle
on problematic feelings and eventually let go of them tip number four is stream
of consciousness knowing yourself is important for self growth because it
helps you figure out where you can stand to improve or change writing in a stream
of consciousness style can be an interesting experience and make you
aware of things lingering in your mind that you weren't really aware of them
before bringing these things to the surface can help you get to know
yourself and might even give you insights into your needs wants fears and
other things learning more about yourself can help you make better
decisions and what to do with your life and help you find happiness stream of
consciousness writing is very simple but it can take some practice to really let
loose and just give in to it start the exercise by closing your eyes
taking a few deep breaths and clearing your mind then pick up your pin and
start writing in your journal physical writing is better for you than typing
because it allows you to make words bigger or smaller you can draw images
and change the direction there's much more freedom to express yourself when
you start simply write whatever comes to your mind don't judge what comes out
though it may not seem important to relevant but you never know where your
thoughts will lead you so let them come out as they are you don't even have to
write incomplete sentences or use any kinds of formal punctuation just let
your thoughts flow out through the pin on
paper when you feel like you're done look back over what you've written you
might actually be surprised by some of the things that came out take note of
some interesting words or phrases that came out and consider why those things
might have came up they could reveal something about you that you haven't
realized before tip number five is to revisit a tough problem life is full of
problems and how you handle them can be the difference between moving forward
quickly or getting stuck in them using your journal to figure out ways to get
through different problems that you run into will help you become better at
solving problems and this extends outside of your journaling time too
you'll find strategies that allow you to move through obstacles more quickly and
general solutions that you can apply to many situations when you're faced with a
difficult problem turn to your journal start writing about the situation you're
facing including both the objective facts and the thoughts and feelings that
you have about it because these things do matter
writing allows you to access the problem-solving part of your brain so as
you're right through information you may have ideas about potential solutions if
not look over what you've written and consider the details further when you do
come up with an idea write through how that resolution may work and why it
might work you might find holes in your idea come up with alternatives that
might work better by the time you're done writing you'll have a much better
idea on how to handle the problem than you did in the beginning and maybe even
a solid solution the more you approach problems in this way the better your
problem-solving skills will become before I in this video I need to share
two amazing resources that I feel can greatly benefit you especially in the
terms of journaling the first is my friends journaling course he's had
hundreds of people go through the course in the testimonials really prove the
quality he's basically the expert of journaling and if you look up YouTube
had a journal a whole bunch of his videos come up so I highly recommend my
best journal 2.0 there's a link in the description if you want to learn more
it's basically a course on how to journal by one of my friends Clark and
of course if you haven't heard of my practical growth Academy yet you who
really need to check it out basically I've created a private membership group
for those who are serious about self-development and growing themselves
each week I'll personally research and answer your questions we will be reading
a book each week where I create an animated book summary follow along PDFs
and actionable worksheets and each month you'll get a mini mastery course where I
research and teach you 80% of the foundational topics and 20% of the time
it'll take you to learn the cost to join is less than the price of a book each
month if you sign up now you'll get a special bonus also you'll have unlimited
access to all the previous content thank you guys so much for watching and I hope
you