Whenever I think I’m wasting time by journaling, I read this list of reasons why I do it:
-Paying attention to my life = happiness
-Self-reflection is the highest form of living. Epictetus said we differ from animals and plants in two ways: we can reason and reflect—two things animals and plants don’t need because they were made to obey, not command. Animals can look only outward and dream. Humans can look inward and, as Carl Jung said, awaken.
-I don’t journal to “be productive”. I journal to calm and prepare myself for the day (ironically making me more productive throughout).
-You can’t be your best on autopilot. None of us are perfect. And because we’re not perfect, we can always improve. And because we can always improve, we have an obligation to make a constant effort to improve. Journaling helps us make this effort by taking us off autopilot for a bit.
-There’s only one rule when it comes to your journal: fill it. Journals should be messy. If the inside of your journal is clean and neat and completely coherent, you’re probably doing it wrong. Austin Kleon put it brilliantly when he said his journals are crapholes where he goes to dump his brains out.
-Time rushes by like a raging river. The only way to slow it down and savor it is to slow ourselves down.
-Your subconscious knows you best. It’s wise. The problem is that it’s terribly quiet and shy. It often won’t respond to direct questioning. Journaling creates a patient, quiet, purpose-free space for your subconscious thoughts to roam freely. Only then, in familiar solitude with you, do they feel comfortable to speak up. (And when they do, they’re assertive.)
-If we don’t monitor our thoughts, we become vulnerable to their influence and control. We can end up living in the worst way: unconsciously. Lusting for money, worshiping material things, seeking power, thinking you’re the center of the universe…what’s insidious about these things “is not that they’re evil or sinful,” said David Foster Wallace, “it is that they are unconscious.” Journaling rewires our brains consciously.
-By dumping out our thoughts and feelings, by laying them before us, we’re able to sift through, untangle, and examine them. And discard the ones that no longer serve us.
–Epictetus said our predicament is that time and again, we lose sight of what’s important. The truth never changes. Wisdom is always the same. Our brains are just exceptionally good at forgetting. Journaling helps to keep the important stuff front and center.
-Problems don’t need to be completely resolved for you to gain some relief from them. Sometimes we can loosen the grip of a sadness or a fear simply by naming it, by tracing its outline and examining its contours. “What we call depression,” Alain de Botton said, “is in fact sadness and anger that have for too long not been paid the attention they deserve.”
-Great things are happening in slow, inconspicuous ways. The trajectory of your life is made up of subtle, nearly imperceptible actions. It may not feel like it at the time, but the small moments you spend each day writing in your journal, working on yourself, are adding up in unfathomable ways.