The Art of Journaling: How To Start Journaling, Benefits of Journaling, and More

Embarking on the journey of journaling can be transformative. Discover the art of journaling, its myriad benefits, and how to get started. Unearth the power of words and the magic they can weave in your life.

Journal For Your Future Self

Your past self is your best indicator of how you actually felt in similar situations.

• You can’t trust distant memories, but you can trust your daily diary. It’s the best indicator to your future self of what was really going on in your life at this time.

Leave Your Destructive Thoughts In Your Journal

We all carry around destructive thoughts. Instead of carrying that baggage around in our heads or hearts, we put it down on paper.

• Taking something you are angry about to your journal prevents you from doing something you would otherwise regret.

Keep a Journal For Your Grandchildren

Paper is the best technology ever invented

• Stop wasting your time tweeting and chattering and texting and snapchatting
• Instead, create something that, if the centuries don’t cling to, at least your family can
• Write down the ideals and aspirations of a rare spirit

The Bullet Journal Method

Epictetus uses the word ataraxia fourteen times in the Discourses and twice in the Enchiridion

• It means tranquility or freedom from disturbance by external things
• BuJo is a mindfulness practice disguised as a productivity system
• One goal: intentional living
• Spend more time with what you care about, by working on fewer things

Brainstorm Ideas In Your Journal

Ludwig van Beethoven was rarely seen without his notebook, not even when out to drinks with friends.

• Pliny the Younger, a prominent lawyer and prolific writer in ancient Rome, was another to keep a notebook always at hand.
• Thomas Edison kept a notebook titled “Private Idea Book” in which he kept different ideas that popped into his head, possible inventions he’d later work on.

Forget All The Rules About Journaling. Do What Works

The point is just to do it. The key is to carve out the space again, today.

• There’s no right way to journal. There’s only your way of journaling. Make it weird, make it fun. Find what works for you.

Mark Twain

“Keeping a journal is the veriest pastime in the world, and the pleasantest…Only those rare natures that are made up of pluck, endurance, devotion to duty for duty’s sake, and invincible determination, may hope to venture upon so tremendous an enterprise as the keeping of a journal.”

• Mark Twain

Start Small

If you start out exceedingly small, you won’t say no. You’ll feel crazy if you don’t do it. And so you’ll actually do it.”

• Your journaling routine should start with the One Line a Day Journal.
• You don’t need to produce Nobel Prize-worthy prose. Start with one line-about how you are feeling, something you did yesterday, or something you are excited about.

Famous Journalers Throughout History

Stoicism 101: Ancient Philosophy For Your Actual Life

• A 14-day course that will equip you with the tools to live as vibrant and expansive a life as the Stoics
• Along with daily emails, there will be 3 live video sessions with bestselling author Ryan Holiday
• Learn more here

The Science-Backed Benefits of Journaling

According to a study conducted by Harvard Business School, participants who journaled at the end of the day had a 25% increase in performance when compared with a control group who did not journal.

• Another study by Cambridge University found journaling helps improve well-being after traumatic and stressful events, resulting in improvements in physical and psychological health, communication skills, and improved sleep.

Journaling is a strategy that has helped brilliant, powerful, and wise people become better at what they do

It can make you better too

• Here is the ultimate guide to journaling, including how to journal, the benefits of it, the famous journaling of the past 2,000 years, and the best journals to use.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

The emperor of the Roman Empire sat down with ink and papyrus and jot down reminders and aphorisms of Stoic thinking to himself.

• Where did he learn to do this and who did he follow?
• Epictetus, a former slave who had become a Stoic philosopher
• Seneca, another Stoic, who spoke about putting our lives up for review

Henry David Thoreau

“Is not the poet bound to write his own biography? Is there any other work for him but a good journal? We do not wish to know how his imaginary hero, but how he, the actual hero, lived from day to day.”

• Henry David, Jr.
• We are all poets trying to discover the truth of our experience, and the best medium to do so is a journal

Track Something In Your Journal

Most people drop the journaling habit, or never begin, out of intimidation

• Take the pressure off by creating an easy metric to track each day as the first line of your journal entry
• Track what time you woke up and how many hours of sleep you got
• Log everything you ate that day
• Record the tasks you accomplished at work yesterday

Use Your Journal to Prepare In the Morning

Marcus Aurelius journaled first thing in the morning

• He would jot down notes about what he was likely to face in the day ahead
• Put his own thinking down on paper to see it from a distance and gain objectivity
• A healthy mind should be prepared for anything

Bring Your Problems to Your Journal

Journaling helps patients stop obsessing and make sense of the many inputs-emotional, external, psychological-that would otherwise overwhelm them

• Keeping a journal is a common recommendation from psychologists
• Your journal is not your performing for history, it’s you reflecting and working through your problems

Anaïs Nin

“People look for retreats for themselves in the country, by the coast, or in the hills,” Marcus Aurelius journaled. “There is nowhere that a person can find a more peaceful and trouble-free retreat than in his own mind…So constantly give yourself this retreat, and renew yourself.”

Use Your Journal To Review Your Day In The Evening

Seneca wrote that the path to greatness requires self-awareness and self-reflection.

• Reflection is a key factor in expert learning and refers to the extent to which individuals are able to appraise what they have learned and integrate these experiences into future actions, thereby maximizing performance improvements.

Copy down quotes in your journal

Record quotes that motivate you, stories that inspire you, and ideas that intrigue you for later use in your writing, business, or speaking

• Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin, Mark Twain, and Ludwig van Beethoven all kept journals

Anne Frank

For her thirteenth birthday, Anne Frank was given a small red-and-white “autograph book” by her parents.

• Although the pages were designed to collect the signatures and memories of friends, Anne knew from the moment she first saw it in a store window that she would use it as a journal.

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