I’m definitely not the person to advocate for things like “miracle cures” – especially when it comes to mental health and quality of life. I know that feeling good and happy about ourselves, especially in these times, is incredibly hard and challenging. I also know that healing is not a linear process.
That’s why I was so skeptical about journaling and writing for mental health. A couple of years ago, I was in a pretty dark place. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, I was shifting between dozens of different moods all within a day and had unstable relationships. In moments of hopelessness and a burning desire to get better and become more passionate, I browsed the web to find the answer to what can help me.
Next to exercise and meditation (which I was already familiar with), I stumbled upon the practice of journaling. I was a complete stranger to journaling as a man in my 20s. I thought writing diaries and journals is for 13-year old Tumblr girls.
Let me tell you, journaling literally changed my life after just a couple of months. Ever since then, I am a fierce advocate of journaling for mental health. This is also why I’m here writing about this today. For all those who still have doubts about whether journaling is for them, I came up with these palpable, straightforward ways journaling will improve your quality of life.
1. Mega Confidence Booster
In principle, no person can improve their quality of life if they do not believe they are capable of doing so. This is such a broad principle that it applies to all aspects of a person’s life. That is why writing a journal will allow you to increase your confidence.
So, when you begin to increase your self-esteem, you will feel different in different areas of your life. On the one hand, you will feel that you have all the skills necessary to improve your quality of life. On the other hand, if you do not respect yourself, then there is no reason to improve your quality of life.
That is why you can start by writing different sentences in your diary that mean you respect yourself. Even if you want to, you can incorporate messages to respect your faults and your good qualities. Having faults is not a bad thing, as we all have them. This way, you can feel at peace with who you are.
2. Manifestation & Attraction Of Positivity
Writing messages to yourself in your journal is an excellent start to begin increasing your confidence and self-assurance. So, you can start by writing down those things that made you feel good during the week.
At this point, it doesn’t matter if it’s about small things or big things. What is relevant here is to include everything that has impacted you positively. It is also a good time to remember those people who have given you this pleasant feeling. In turn, write down what they said, or what positive action they had with you.
On the other hand, we all constantly make mistakes in different areas of our lives. So, when we learn from these mistakes, we have the perfect opportunity to improve. So, learning from your mistakes will allow you to improve your quality of life. Simply, you will not make the same mistakes again.
By continuing to write your messages in your journal, you can add those things you have learned and enjoyed. By writing down each of these experiences, you will be able to remember them and therefore enjoy them again in a certain sense. Without a doubt, these positive thoughts will improve your self-esteem.
3. Inspire & Motivate Yourself With Your Journal
As described in the previous point, you can use your journal to write down the positive experiences you have had recently. However, you can also write messages for yourself by writing about your best qualities. This is one of the best options since no one can describe how good you are better than you.
In this case, you can start by describing your most positive qualities and characteristics. Remember that they should only be positive qualities and not negative ones. If you don’t think you have any, just think about it some more. I’m sure you have a lot of positive characteristics, just as everyone else does.
As you can describe your best qualities, you will be strengthening your self-esteem. Also, each of the qualities you name will be strengthened as well, because you will be recognizing them. Without a doubt, the result of this is a stronger self-confidence.
Next, you can write different messages dedicated to the parts of your body. At this point, you should remember that your body allows you to do a lot of activities every day. On the contrary, if you did not have any part of your body, you could not have the life you have now.
So, once you start doing this exercise, your quality of life can be enhanced. When you recognize and thank your body parts, you will want to continue to improve your quality of life. By improving your quality of life, you will be strengthening your whole body and your health even more. That is why this is such a powerful exercise.
4. Look Forward To Achieving Your Goals
Once you have completed the above points, you can continue and improve your quality of life even more! In this case, it is a matter of writing down and describing what your strongest character traits are. This is not about making negative comments about yourself. Instead, you must recognize what your main strengths are. Each of these strengths will allow you to move on to the next exercise. Therefore, here is a list of the projects you want to complete within this year.
So, when you do these exercises in your journal, your self-confidence will be increasing. So, without realizing it, you will be creating a list of new projects that will probably improve your quality of life. It is also important and very useful to improve your self-esteem because it is the main tool you will use to improve your quality of life. When your self-esteem is high, then your self-confidence is also high and the importance you give to yourself. When this happens, you will be recognizing that you are important and deserve a higher quality of life.
On the other hand, describing and explaining what you are good at is very helpful. Regardless of the particular activity, the truth is that everyone is good at something. So, when you describe what you are good at, then your self-esteem is strengthened. In this way, you can use this same strength to help the rest of the areas of your life. So, when you are good at something, you can also be good at other aspects of your life. It’s like the so-called habit of excellence – you get great at one thing, and then it just pours over to other areas of your life.
5. Establish A Path To Follow
When you choose a role model, you are choosing the path you want to take. In this simple way, you can establish a certain process that will allow you to improve your life. Also, it is advisable here to describe in as much detail as possible which model you wish to follow.
In this case, you can help yourself by writing down all the reasons why you want to follow a certain life model. In time, you will gain the confidence to achieve these goals. Starting by writing down the life pattern, you want to achieve means taking the first step. Goal setting triggers a positive cycle that gives a powerful impetus to powerful changes. Setting and hitting goals are also closely connected to a higher likelihood of happiness and life satisfaction.
Conclusion
There are many other benefits of keeping a self-esteem journal. The reason I haven’t included them is that, in some cases, they don’t apply to everyone. In other cases, some benefits and emotions are powerful, but very hard to describe in words. I guess the easiest way to put it is that you will feel peace and satisfaction, much like after a good workout.
I also find writing a self-esteem journal very similar to meditation. Rather, it’s similar to the progress you make as you start regularly practicing meditation. First, you enjoy the escape from your usual behaviour patterns, but later, it becomes your new thought pattern. It’s exactly the same with self-esteem journals. First, you will like the effects of framing a positive mindset when you’re feeling down. However, after a while, you will start noticing that this is a whole new lens through which you’re looking at the world.
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