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This is a topic I am really excited about, so excited that I have a book written on this topic… working on getting it published, SOON!! One of the many things to make 2021 the best year yet!! I get tons of comments and questions about the practice of journaling… you know, “Why should I journal? What’s the big deal?” and for some of you, I know the thought “am I missing out on something” crosses your mind.
I am here to tell you that you are missing out on something. SOMETHING HUGE! I have been journaling for 15 years… and I talk about it all the time BECAUSE it has changed my life! I have stacks and stacks of all my old journals! If you were to ask me what’s the best way I manifest growth in my life; I would tell you journaling!
Well, first of all you are missing something. But I really believe that everyone should journal and here are four reasons why!
Why should I journal? You’re losing too much. You’re losing too much of the clarity that you got and you’re losing too much of what God said. You’re losing too much of that idea, it’s like a million dollar idea, but it happened back there. You never wrote it down five years ago and because you didn’t write it down, you lost it.
And why is that? Because your brain is finite. You have limited capacity, just like I do. I never realized how much I was missing, hurts how much I was losing until I started writing it down. When I started journaling, my very first journal from August 20th, 2004 took me a year and a half to fill up. It is a little 80 pager.
Let me recommend what I use now… these are nice leather bound journals and can be found at Barnes & Noble (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/black-bonded-leather-journal-975-x-75/12601756;jsessionid=C52E98158C03356F5101B0B6069C08CA.prodny_store01-atgap03?ean=9781591222613). And this takes me two and a half to three months. Like literally, I’m about ready to finish the one I am using here shortly. So the point I’m talking about is you don’t realize how much you’re missing two and a half months. And I could go back to the beginning of this and see. I did it the other day over this weekend and I went back and saw something that I had already forgotten about.
Listen, if you don’t have a way to capture all the stuff, the learnings, the revelations, the ideas, the creativity, the healing, the growth. If you don’t have a way to capture it, you are losing more than you could ever possibly imagine because your brain is finite.
You’re going to capture all that goodness and have it to tap back into again and again. All that awesome stuff that you’re learning, growing, hearing… all those kinds of things!
Now more than ever in the world, we’re living in, I think journaling should be a must for you because your mental health will thank you. And therapy, counseling, highly encouraged it, that everybody should get some. I just did a week long marriage intensive with my wife, like marriage counseling. Do therapy, get a life coach, get it all. But journaling… it’s right here. I don’t even have to pay an hourly rate when I pick my journal up.
If you read my journal, you would see my dysfunction on the inside. You would see the cycles of defeat. You would see the mindsets, the limiting beliefs that I battle on an ongoing basis. You would see the real me in the pages of my journal. But my mental health, there’ll be days where I get grumpy and I need it. We all have those days and my wife will look at me and say can you just go and journal, she knows that this is a mental reset. It is what keeps me healthy on the inside. When I am able to process, I can filter. I am able to be honest, real, and raw in the pages of my journal.
There is scientific research about this, like journaling is a listen and there’s a lot of scientific studies about minutes of journaling is enough to reset you and is a healthy release to all the tension inside.
This might be different for you, but at least for me it is one of the places I connect with God. You should journal because you can connect with God consistently. This is my practice. It’s a whole lot more than just connecting with God. But this is where God does his best work on the inside of me. Now some of you are more spiritually focused and you can make it a spiritual exercise to connect with the universe. I don’t know what you say, but this right here for me God shows up like higher power.
This is where God speaks to me. And so this creates a space to consistently do that and not just to connect, but to capture again, because that way I don’t lose it. Like yesterday, I wrote like two and a half pages of my journal. Like I was reading out of Matthew, the gospel, and I had a revelation that changed my life. And truthfully without writing it down, I could forget that next week.
Sometimes, you don’t know what you’re thinking until you write it out. I write myself questions. I ask God questions. I process, I think, I THINK BETTER. You may not realize it, but thinking on paper is one of the best ways that you can think. I know some people are verbal processors, I get that. Even if you are a verbal processor and you need to have a conversation to think out loud… you have got to capture the ideas because you’re going to lose it or forget details.
Journaling may be the habit like it has been for me, like the habit that has brought the greatest transformation in my life. So you should totally try journaling. You could start today. I hope this helped you about the why behind journaling. Go out there, give your greatness to the world, because so many need what’s on the inside of you. You’re amazing. I love you.
