Do you have a journal?

Recently, I was doing my cleaning and purging for the New Year, and came across an unexpected find, one of my old journals. It was tucked away in the back of a desk drawer. Needless to say, I took a break from my cleaning and spent some time going through it, reading my writings on daily happenings, thoughts, feelings and ideas from a few years back.

I have been journaling every day for a number of years now and often look back at journals to recall important ideas or plans or simply refresh my memory about some event. But looking through that older journal offered me a great verification of how well we manifest things in our lives. As I flipped through the pages it was clear to me that many of the things I only dreamed of back when I had written it had now come fully into being. It was also fun to relive those long-ago memories of pleasant moments with friends and family through my own words.

Journaling can be an incredible tool in so many ways. Over the years journaling has given me so much and I have many friends and peers who find it highly useful, as well. It is a real record of our days and our emotions, and it also serves to give clarity and help solve problems. One thing I've noticed is that through the process of writing down concerns and problems, solutions and ideas often just pop into my mind when I re-read my writing a day or two later.

Journaling and rereading journals can also help you to see the progress you make in the particular area of your life that you are writing about. In fact, scientific studies have shown that keeping a journal can have a very positive effect on us. It builds cognitive skills, reduces symptoms of chronic illnesses, strengthens the immune system, and reduces the negative effects of stress.

And best of all, journaling is a very inexpensive past time. All you really need is a spiral notebook and some nice colourful pens and your time, of course. Now that's a great price for all the benefits that journaling has to offer. I hope that you are already enjoying the benefits of journaling, and if not, I hope that you will give it a try.