6 Journaling Ideas to Make Your Life Less Chaotic

Journaling your ideas and thoughts has always been encouraged. It makes you more self-reflective and provides you a better picture of your life and who you are. Despite this, not a lot of people jump to journaling as a way to enhance their life. But, here are some beneficial reasons as to why you might want to start.

Journaling affects our mental health positively. Here's why.

Not a lot of people know this, but writing in your journal positively affects your mental health. Specifically, it helps you by calming and clearing your mind. IInstead of thinking about things over and over, writing makes it easier to process your thoughts. Another benefit is that it helps you to release built-up feelings and everyday stress. Sometimes, we try to push away difficult emotions such as fear and pain, which are hard to deal with. But it's not good for anyone to bottle up their emotions inside. When you write, you help yourself acknowledge these emotions, making it easier to let go.

Another benefit of using journaling prompts for mental health is that they also help you deal with stress, as sometimes you might not be aware of the best way to deal with it. When you write, you deal with your stress positively. Journaling and using prompts also helps you identify what you're potentially anxious about, and at the same time, what your victories are regardless of whether they're big or small. It enhances your self-awareness, and you learn more about yourself. When you journal, it's quality time for you to sit down and be with yourself. Hence, it helps you to identify what you're feeling in the moment and why.

Life cannot be lived to the fullest if you are not striving for something and just going about it aimlessly. This means that you have to have goals. Goals are what help propel you forward, no matter how hard life is. Goals are something that we seek to achieve, but sometimes we get sidetracked because life can become hectic. But, when you journal about your goals, you can see how far you've come and what you could be doing to achieve those goals. This is just one of the many things you can write or journal about. Track your goals and see if you can break up bigger goals into smaller tasks that are feasible and achievable. Write about what you've done that day to achieve your goals, or you can even write what specific plans you have or actions you will do to accomplish them. If you feel like you're not motivated to reach your goals, here's an article to help you.

One of the most common journaling ideas is tracking your habits. Aristotle said, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." Have you reflected on your habits lately? What patterns do you need to change? What practices do you need to retain? Habits are very important, and sometimes we are so used to doing the same thing, sometimes we don't notice them anymore. Journaling about your habits will help you track what the helpful and unhelpful ones are. This will help you to focus and change your life one small habit at a time.

Using a journal like a diary is the most common reason why people journal. With this method, you share what happened throughout your day. You can write about what made you frustrated or even something that you want to process in your head. Writing your thoughts down is like talking to a friend. You let out your feelings and let your mind run wild. This helps you to release whatever emotions you felt throughout the day. This can also help you cope with an unpleasant experience that happened in the past. You can start doing this by asking yourself questions like, "What happened today?" "What did I feel?" Then your mind will likely start racing.

Writing down things that you are grateful for is likely to make you feel good. If it's a hard or new task for you, you can start by just writing down three things. Then, make it five. The week after, you can make it eight, and then the next week, ten. Eventually, you'll be able to craft a long list of things you're grateful for. However, don't just write down the things you are grateful for - add reasons why. You can start by writing, "I am grateful for…because…" This is bound to end or start your day on a good note because no matter how bad your day may seem, you'll realize that good things are happening around you.

Dreams excite us while goals make us look forward to the possibilities. We can use this concept as an idea for the journal. When you're creating your vision board, ask yourself, "What are the top seven dreams I have?" These might be overwhelming and even scary to write down because when plans are too big, it's easy to feel worried about achieving them. But it would help if you didn't worry because, with those big dreams, you'll be able to write down steps to achieve them and even make a time frame as to what specific date you want to accomplish that step. In no time, you'll realize you're closer to achieving those big dreams of yours!

Sometimes, before we go to sleep, we can't help but think about what we need to do the next day. A lot of times, we might also think about the problems we encountered during the day. This overthinking can often decrease sleep quality. If one of your problems is that you're feeling tired all the time, here's an article you can read to help.

Journaling helps you to be more rational and organized. Write about the problem you experienced during the day and write down some suggested solutions. That way, you'll be assured that you are actively doing something to solve your issues, and you already know that you're on your way to fixing it.

Here are some bonus prompts for you when you don't know how to start journaling. These journaling questions will help you to learn more about yourself and increase your self-awareness:

• What made me happy today?
• What made me sad today?
  
• Was there a specific thing that happened in the past that continues to bother me today?
  
• How did I handle my stress today?
  

These questions can also be considered journaling ideas for mental health as it will help you delve into your emotions and thoughts.

There are a lot of bullet journaling ideas for beginners out there, but the most common ones are the six shared above. The most crucial part is knowing how to get started. If you're wondering whether these can act as both journaling ideas for kids or journaling ideas for adults, the answer is yes! You can share this article with your kids or with your peers. Don't be afraid to try these creative journaling ideas to keep you motivated!