Journaling, Writing to Yourself

Through spiritual evolution and overall advancement, the mental aspect of our being comes into importance, along with the need to understand better our own unique psyche, our subconscious, and everything we might be capable of creating.

The practice of journaling will increase your self-awareness, improve your mind, and refine your ability to communicate. The benefits are vastly more important than many people understand. You will grow and advance as a person.

If you keep thoughts only in your head, they can scatter easily and be forgotten. Putting them on paper/word doc will make your thoughts more real and permanent.

Many people have blockages in communicating with others; how can you communicate with others if you cannot communicate with yourself? Journaling will increase your ability to articulate your thoughts, and order your words and sentences in a more coherent way. Writing to yourself will give you the practice and confidence to communicate better with others.

Writing/Journaling is very therapeutic. It enables you to gain insight into who you are and how you operate as an individual. Journaling will give you a private outlet for you to rant in, or write about your fears and insecurities in a way that will help you understand them better, in order to begin working on overcoming them.

You may have seen it online before: someone gets triggered by something, posts a giant emotional outburst rant, embarrasses themselves, leaves. (Hopefully they come back, at least under a new username if they want to separate themselves from the embarrassment.) They could have prevented this incident if they had written to themselves first, in their journal:

Anything that bothers you, including about another person, write it out. Don’t post it but keep it for yourself, at least for a while. Write it all out, rant and rage in it, contemplate it some more, write some more, read it over, complete it, feel the catharsis. And then decide if it’s something worth posting publicly. Chances are, you will realize that it is not something to make public. You can absolutely take parts of it, re-write it, and post a revised version if you feel it is necessary. But you will realize that there is no need to post your entire outburst.

The practice of journaling is very beneficial for people who seek attention everywhere online, or who dump their problems online and later regret it. Writing to yourself, explaining all your thoughts and problems, enables you to see that *you* are the important one, that you in fact do not need to over-express yourself to strangers online.

A lot of people seek attention from others for validation (this is often subconscious). If you spend time writing to yourself, you are validating yourself! Journaling is a form of self-care, you are putting time and effort into yourself, to take care of your mind and emotions. You need to understand that you are very important to yourself, and prioritizing time to write to yourself will prove this to you :)

Some people feel the strong need to express themselves, their personality, and their opinions, but in the wrong way, due to a lack of self-understanding. Every single person on the internet does not need to know every single detail about you. By keeping a journal, you can have the full sense of expressing yourself, while keeping appropriate boundaries.

There are various methods for journaling. There are many tips available online for methods, such as “brain-dumping” (getting everything on your mind out as fast as possible, often randomly), writing a set amount of pages each morning, or rules to stick with, and so on. Some recommend pen-and-paper notebook, some a word doc on computer, or you can buy an actual designed journal, or an app for your computer, or a digital writing pad. Look around and see what might work best for you. Typing is faster which many would consider preferable, yet manual writing with pen is slower which forces the brain to think better, which other people would consider preferable. (I suggest avoiding pencil which fades over time.)

Personally, I prefer to keep it free-form yet still with structure, always noting the date and time at the top of the entry. Sometimes I brain-dump, sometimes I write memories of my childhood (I find this very insightful and brings lovely feelings of nostalgia). Sometimes I will skim through past entries and find inspiration; or see a note to myself to do something, so I become inspired to immediately post a new entry as a follow-up. Sometimes I go on a philosophic tangent, or write random things that then turn into something that can be used in a post for the forums.

You can even have a few journals; use one for inspiration, motivation, and to write good things in it; and the other to vent, rant, and rage. My point is, you can completely tailor the journaling process to what you need, what will help you. You can make it as simple or as complex as you want.

One practice is to write about your mood, your emotions. This will help you better understand yourself and become more insightful. Write how you feel, and what made you feel like that, and what you think you can do to feel better. Or write about someone in your life and how you think they can feel better, or do better in their life.

Journaling can be done at any time of day or night. First thing in the morning has benefits, and you can write things you plan on doing in the day. Journaling in evening has benefits of going over the events of the day. This is similar to High Priest Zevios’s Introspective Meditation, and can be combined with it, or done one after the other. See what works best for you.

You can also jot down a few more lines throughout the day, I do this, and I always enter the time at the top of the new entry, because when/if I go over it again days or months later, it’s interesting to see how my day went and the random times I decided to write. It makes my day feel more full and real, when I read over it later.

Journaling differs from blogging, as with blogs, you are inviting criticism and even trolling from random strangers on the internet. Blogging is fine for some people and for some topics, but keeping a private journal benefits everyone. You might write in it, and then take parts of it for your blog.

And you might discover that a particular journal entry expands further and could be a helpful post to others in the forums (perhaps with some revision if the original was too personal).

Just make sure your journal will never fall into the wrong hands. I know someone who stopped journaling for many years because they developed a mental block after it was repeatedly discovered and read by their parents. It even had a key (it was a physical journal) but they did not hide the key well enough.

If you keep a journal on a shared computer, put a password on it. If you keep a digital writing pad, make sure to back it up in case it ever breaks. If you keep a physical journal, keep it somewhere safe and hidden from prying eyes. You can even buy ones that come with a lock and key, but keep the key safe. Some people keep the key on a chain around their neck, as they like the aesthetic of it.

Writing to yourself is mental exploration and opens new gateways that you did not know of before. It is a very enjoyable and therapeutic process that you will grow from.

In the time that I have gotten back into journaling (I didn’t for many years), I have developed a higher sense of Self, and gained heightened awareness of the importance of certain things in my past. I also feel so much more connected to myself, and an increased sense of self-love and self-knowledge. It makes my day feel more real, makes my life feel more real, more full and enriched. Which then makes my mind feel more enriched. This is truly a remarkable feeling that I wish for all of you to gain as well :)