If you have been struggling to find more clarity in your life, and find your direction, then journaling can be your new best friend. Writing in a journal on its own really helps you to learn more about yourself, but you can go one step further with these easy methods. This will allow you to really take full advantage of having a daily journal.
A List Journal
There are lots of different types of list journals out there, but one place to start will be for you to take an accounting of things you want for your life. If you take the time to write down your goals and/r dreams, then it’ll be an easy task to follow up by learning what steps need to be taken to turn these dreams into a reality.
These kinds of lists can be serious work-related topics or just fun things that you've been thinking about for a long time. That kind of a list is usually called a bucket list, and it can give you some really interesting things to look forward to trying out.
Another thing you can do is to list the amount of accomplishments that you’ve achieved in the last year, quarter, or month. This can help you to gain a sense of how many things you’ve done. That’ll give you a clearer picture of how you’ve actually been spending your time, and show you that you have things that you can be happy about.
The Gratitude Journal
Do you ever find yourself becoming impatient, and unhappy about the things you wish you had? For some people, it can be hard to stay focused on the positive things that go on in your life. It’s becoming more and more common for people to focus on the things that they haven’t gotten instead of remembering what they do have.
Taking some time out of your day to write down the things that you can feel grateful for can put a lot of minor annoyances into perspective.
Sometimes it takes a good hard look to remind you that life hasn’t dealt you the worst hand, it just feels like that on some days. What kinds of things do you feel grateful for today?
Try to record what you’re thankful for that month, season, and so forth. Ask yourself this question as often as you can, and you might be surprised that you learn something new about what captures your concern and gives you inspiration.
Free Thought Journal
Not every single aspect of a journal should be regimented. There are times when it’s a good idea to just let loose and say what’s on your mind. This kind of journal is usually called a free thought journal.
It can help you get out all of the extra thought that gets trapped behind your eyes. You can use this to rattle off random ideas and musings. One of the biggest advantages of this kind of journal is that everything that comes out is probably going to be a little bit unfiltered if you can really open up and just let it all hit the page.
Later on when you’ve had some time to think about things, you can go back and analyze the things that you wrote down. Some thoughts can get masked by the influence of the world around you, so taking a look at the writings later when you’ve been spending time trying to get in touch with yourself, might be a revealing process that can push you closer to clarity.
Journals Help Chronical Your Emotions
It’s pretty enlightening to look back into the past to see what kinds of emotions you were experiencing during life events. The written word on the page is impartial and honest because it comes from the moment when those things were being experienced instead of a foggy recall from memory.
When people are young, lots of things that happen seem like massive events, but as people mature, they will often avoid assigning weight to things that they know to be frivolous, or fleeting.
This increases the amount of perspective that you have from your day to day life as well. It shows you how quickly the people, places and things can seem like the most important thing in the world one day, and then a few years later seem to have passed like a snap of your fingers.
Helps Create Intention
One of the biggest parts of clarity is understanding purpose and intention. Writing down goals, dreams, and intentions can and usually will set you on a more structured path that will help you to achieve and attain. When you aren’t sure of what it is that you’re going for, it’s a lot harder to make sure that you’re doing all of the things that will make your dreams a solid possibility.