A personal journal is that notebook in which we write down our emotions, our sensations, or even what we have experienced during the day.
It allows us to gain some perspective.
To see things from a new angle, with a clear head.
It helps us become better human beings.
And it makes us feel good!
Here are a few tips to keep it up long-term, or why not, start your own.
1. How do you keep a personal journal?
There are no rules because it is your own space of freedom, but if you are not sure how to go about it, here is a suggestion of questions you could answer:
- What goal did I set for myself this morning? You can start your journal with: "This morning, I committed to…"
- What person, book, training… helped me to be happy?
- What good, great thing happened today to make me feel so happy?
- What did I learn today that I can keep for later?
- What original discovery did I make that I could tell my other self from 5 years ago or 5 years from now?
These questions and the answers you write in your personal journal help you focus on the positive side of things, so you can get into the habit of adopting a more positive attitude on a daily basis.
2. Keeping a personal journal is good for us
First of all, we retain information better by writing it down.
Writing down one's emotions reduces stress and improves our mood.
As you write, your emotional state changes and you can sometimes experience a real sense of calm.
It allows us to increase our ability to write and communicate with others. In the era of fast thinking, SMS, social media, and TV, it is good for our minds to write, to take the time to deepen our thinking.
Just a piece of advice: don't wait for everything to be clear! Write, let your thoughts flow, practice letting go: it feels amazing, you'll see.
3. Some ideas
- Note the unpleasant situations you have experienced. It is important to give meaning to the events that affect us. Writing forces us to organize our thoughts. All the emotions that are put down on paper diminish instantly, especially negative thoughts, until they often seem quite trivial.
- Note the positive, joyful, pleasant events of your day. Writing them down and recounting them allows you to savor them better, to return to them later and experience the same happiness, to feel the joy and pleasure just as when we lived them.
- Note your emotions instead of "ruminating." When you start saying to yourself: "he said this to me…, and I said that to him…, but why didn't he want to listen to me…"! Write it down. You can even write a letter to that person, without sending it, but at least you will have expelled those negative emotions that poison your mind.
4. When should you write?
Whenever you want to, can, or wish to.
You can write every morning on public transport, in the evening in bed, or on a Sunday morning curled up on your sofa, once a year or once a month. But know that the more you write, the better it will be for you and the more you will document the story of your life.
You can also draw or add photos to illustrate what you have experienced.
To go further
Rereading your journal is better than watching the best series
Have you been keeping a journal for a long time?
Have you had the chance to reread it?
Don't you find it extremely interesting to realize that insignificant things had been able to consume so much of your energy… ultimately for nothing?
To reread this or that moment of happiness or to track the moments where we made choices that seemed trivial but led you to where you are today?
I have a journal in which I have been writing for about twenty years.
I am not very diligent about keeping my journal, and I regret it.
But lately, I have started reading it.
It is a real privilege to be able to do that.
I didn't know I was giving myself such a precious gift by filling those pages.
Rediscovering what my dreams were.
Discovering some that I have achieved.
But also those I have forgotten, perhaps to reactivate them.
Who knows?
Recently, my journal has taken more the form of dates with myself, a gratitude journal, and daily moodboards (my sketchbook).
But I have made a decision.
My brand-new journal
Today, while writing this article, I am thinking of my future self… 20 years from now.
I believe that one day I will be very touched to reread the pages of the journal that will tell my adventure with Louise Carmen.
To rediscover the emotions that I went through, the trials, the moments of happiness, my state of mind, anecdotes…
So, last night, I chose a Louise Carmen leather notebook.
It is a lovely gift I am giving myself.
A project notebook. A leather notebook that lasts a lifetime.
I am setting it aside for my daily writings or drawings.
I chose the project notebook because it has 3 slots in which I can slide my 3 notebooks and refill them as I finish them:
- my daily moodboard notebook
- the new personal journal I started last night
- my notebook for dates with myself
Download for free, right now, 63 pages of ideas for using your notebooks
"89 inspiring ways to use your notebooks"
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"89 inspiring ways to use your journals"
I hope this article has made you want to write your own daily journal. By the way, do you keep a journal? Tell us why and what it brings you! Do not hesitate to leave your testimonial in the comments.
See you very, very soon,
Nathalie V.
Creator of Louise Carmen
Additional information
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- I recommend listening to the show "Grand bien vous fasse" on France Inter: These personal journals that do us good (October 16, 2018)
- Samuel Pepys diary
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