Why I journal

Amanda

Nov 10, 2018·4 min read

When you journal, you ‘live’ your life multiple times:

In the moment
Capturing it on paper
Every time you re-read and reflect

As a child I kept a diary, as a teenager I used Livejournal, and these days I treasure my hand-written journals. I thought I’d share some of the reasons why I love to journal (with a few photos of my journals), in the hope that folks will share theirs too!

Journalling helps me to focus. It helps me to make sense of my thoughts, spot patterns and connections, and clears all of the clutter out of my head.
Journalling helps me to see how much I’ve grown, and where I’m heading towards. It shows me the ‘golden threads’ in my life; what I’m passionate about, what my purpose is, what my skills, strengths and areas to improve on are.
I jot down happy moments that become memories, so I can relive them over and over.
It makes me more self aware, helps me to practice mindfulness, reduces my anxiety and is a big part of my self care practice.
I use my journal to collect others ideas to build on and make sure that I always give credit to the right folks (otherwise I’ll want to use a quote, have no idea where I’ve got it from, and choose not to)
I set and track goals and habits through my journal.
It facilitates my personal, professional and spiritual journey.
Journalling helps me to ensure that I have creativity in my life.
Like the magpies I adore, I use my journal to collect anything and everything — ticket stubs, quotes that inspire me, magazine cuttings, bright colours, lettering. I create mood boards within the pages to inspire new ideas.
It helps me to be grateful for everything I have, and everything I am.

All in all, it’s just something I do for me to bring joy into my life. I don’t do it for a set reason, I don’t put pressure on myself. There are days I’ll fill pages and pages of my journal, there are days I can go without writing anything at all. My journal is absolutely not a streamlined, minimalist bullet journal style [Jeni’s are a thing of wonder, and I love the visualisations and sketch notes Lucy Knight does] — my journals are organised chaos, like me.

The journals I use are by a brand called Nuuna and I buy them from Amazon in the large size. I write with Pilot supergel rollerball 0.7s in black ink and fineliner colouring pens. And I use far too many stickers from Paperchase.

Some journalling articles/resources:

Some photos of my journals: