Journaling For Self-Discovery: A Wonderful Way To Discover Yourself
Have you considered journaling for self-discovery?
Today, more and more people are realizing that journaling for self-discovery can be a wonderful way to understand themselves better.
A key role that journaling plays is that it initiates the process of self-discovery.
So what exactly is self-discovery and how journaling can put the process in full effect?
What Is Self-discovery?
Although defined in several different ways, self-discovery is basically the process of acquiring insight into your own character, nature, behavior, or any other reality that is associated with individual identity or personality.
Self-discovery is important for numerous reasons, one of which is that it empowers you to make lifestyle choices and behavioral changes that will connect you to your true self.
In other words, self-discovery empowers you to lead a more authentic life rather than conforming to the enforced, unnatural identity constructs designed by society.
How Journaling for Self-Discovery Works
Journaling has become a popular form of self-discovery. It helps people to identify what they want and more importantly – how to get it.
Through regular journaling, you can discover more about yourself and your goals than you ever thought possible.
Take a look at 5 ways that journaling for self-discovery works:
Helps you to identify with your inner thoughts and feelings
One of the main ways journaling helps with self-discovery is it enables you to identify with your inner thoughts and feelings. Understanding yourself is key to living a happy, more fulfilled life.
Journals allow you to write freely and openly. You’re free from judgment, which means you’ll often write straight from the heart and uncover things about yourself you never even realized.
Not only does this help you to identify with how you feel, but it also gives you the opportunity to see how you can potentially change your emotional reactions. Giving you more control over your thoughts and feelings enables you to shut out any negativity and focus purely on the positive – helping you to live a happier life.
Helps You understand what makes you tick
Those who are truly happy and fulfilled, typically know exactly who they are and what they want. Once you understand exactly what it is you do want and where you want your life to go, you’ll be able to focus on making your dreams and goals a reality.
Journaling really helps you to identify exactly what makes you tick. You can then use that to ensure you are living in accordance to who you are. Doing more of what makes you tick, adds passion and fulfillment into your life.
Motivates you to act
If you find it difficult to motivate yourself to achieve your goals, journaling can be an excellent tool. After writing down and identifying what it is you want, you can use the journal to determine what you need to do in order to achieve your goals.
Once it is written out in front of you, it does motivate you to act. As you start working towards your goals and marking off your progress, you’ll gain even more motivation to continue.
Encourages positive thinking
Part of your journal-writing exercise is to make a daily list of things you’re grateful for. Over time, this trains the brain to look out for the positives.
Positive thinking has a major impact on your happiness. When you start to look at things in a more positive light, you’ll start to enjoy life a lot more. It’s also true that positivity breeds positivity. So, the more positive thoughts you begin the have, the more will follow.
Helps relieve stress
Of course, writing things down also acts as an awesome stress reliever. It’s well-known that bottling things up can make problems appear much worse than they really are.
Sharing them in your journal helps to get your thoughts and feelings out of your head in a safe, non-judgmental environment.
Stress affects absolutely every area of your life in a negative way. So, the first step to living a more fulfilled and happier life is to eliminate as much stress as you can.
These are some of many ways that self-journaling for discovery works. It’s not something that’s going to work instantly so don’t expect to see results overnight. However, the more you do it, the more positive effects it will start to have on your life.
How to Use A Journal For Self-discovery
Keeping a journal is a fantastic way to get to know yourself. It reveals your deepest thoughts and feelings, helping you to really connect with who you are. You’ll discover things about yourself you never knew before and in turn this can help you to discover what you really want in life.
However, starting a journal can be pretty daunting. It’s difficult to know where to start and how to use it for self-discovery purposes. If you’re struggling, here you’ll learn more about how to use a journal to discover yourself.
Write down your fears and doubts
There are numerous ways you can use a journal for self-discovery purposes. Using it to write down your fears and doubts is one of the best ways you can start.
The trouble with fears and doubts is, they can manifest into much bigger problems in your head. When you bottle things up, they can start to feel a whole lot worse than they really are. So, writing them down not only gets them out of your head, but it also gives you the opportunity to see what you can do to resolve them.
You can look at them more clearly once they’re written down in front of you. Explore where these fears and doubts come from, and try to look at them without judgment. You’ll be surprised just how much learn about yourself and your ability to overcome the fears and doubts in your life.
Write about your passions and the things you enjoy
Of course, it’s also important to write positively for self-discovery. If you focus purely on the negative, it’s not going to prove very helpful in the long-term. So, write about your passions and the things you actually enjoy.
You can also extend this to include a list of the things you’re grateful for. This helps you to start thinking more positively, automatically improving your mindset.
Identifying what you’re passionate about will help you discover what makes you tick. Once you know what makes you happy, you can resolve to do more of whatever that may be. You could also write down the things you were passionate about as a child. Getting in touch with your inner child can be a really joyful experience.
It could even be that you’ve neglected the things you’re passionate about. Reigniting your love for something could be just what you need to live a more fulfilled life.
Consider writing in the third person
Ok, so this may sound a little weird, but writing in the third person can actually really help you to come up with solutions to any existing problems you may be having. It distances you from the issue, enabling you to look at it from a totally different perspective.
Often, it’s possible to overcome situations and issues in life when you can see it from different angles. So, why not give it a go – start writing in the third person for any issues you can’t seem to resolve. What advice would you give to someone in the same position?
This is a really useful exercise which can help you to identify new solutions to problems you’ve been having.
Use prompts to help you become more self-aware
If you really want to get to know yourself, there’s a few prompts you can use. For example, find one of your favorite inspirational quotes and then create an entire blog page about it.
You can also ask yourself questions such as “what do I feel is missing from my life?”. Any deep questions which require a well-thought-out response will help you to discover more about who you truly are.
Journaling has so many self-discovery benefits. The above are just a small selection of the most effective ways to use a journal for self-discovery purposes. Remember, the more you use the journal, the more you’ll discover about who you are.
If you’re ready to learn more about yourself so that you can become a more productive and positive person, now is the time to begin the process of journaling for self-discovery.
When you start journaling for self-discovery you get a better insight into who you really are and how you should approach your daily life and the world at large for a happier you!
