Keep A Goddamn Journal

I don’t mean the “dear diary…” type of journal. A journal can be a big pink notebook with rainbows and unicorns on it, or it can be a small black notebook that fits in your pocket(care to guess which one I have?) Keeping a journal is essential, and no, writing in your notes app on your iPhone doesn’t count. It’s about holding an actual pen and writing on a piece of paper.

So many psychologists have said many times; writing helps with putting your thoughts to words and even figuring out how you feel about a lot of things, especially ones you don’t want to talk to other people about. Give it a try for at least one month. Write some of your emotions, some of your concerns, some of your goals: short term plans, and long term plans. Maybe a quote you read somewhere that stuck with you. Perhaps a thought or a business idea or something you thought of when you had a moment of clarity, but most importantly, try writing ten things you’re grateful for today, and tomorrow; maybe write just five.

When you think of the things you’re thankful for, it changes the narrative in your head, makes you notice so many things that you usually just take for granted; makes you realize you have so much more than you think you do, makes you feel so much luckier than you are. After all, we are so focused on the things we don’t have and work day after day to achieve them. We worry about not having so many things that we wished we did. So why not now and then, take a twenty-minute break to write down the things that you do have, the things that you have achieved, you might still have a long way to go, but take that time to write down how far you’ve come.

So next time you evaluate your life, take into account the right amount of good and evil, cause we naturally tend to just look at the bad and what’s lacking. Just give writing a chance- that shit is therapeutic!