DO YOU EVEN JOURNAL?

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When was the last time you wrote down your honest thoughts? Silent prayers? Too-big-to-discuss-dreams? Frustrations? etc. When last did you put pen to paper to document happenings in your life? When last did you see life as a miracle? I don't know but there is just something about reading old journals and laughing over things you wrote, or seeing prayers you penned to God answered, or even that last heart-break you fought day by day to keep your head over water that is now a laughable memory. I've come to understand that writing has tremendous power.

Research claims that there is a strong connection between mindfulness and happiness. The more you write, the more you learn and experience yourself differently, increase your emotional intelligence and gain a deeper understanding of God. Journaling also brings you into a space of mental organisation, with improved communication skills too (because you use words when you write. See?!) I haven't been a consistent "journaler" for many reasons. One reason I can think of is I have this IRRATIONAL fear of dying, and someone reading vulnerable moments in my life I never vocalised. When I journaled seriously, I would write very vaguely and abstractly that only I as the writer could tell you the meaning behind it LOL. Maybe I need to get back there. On the flip side, I understand that just maybe when this appointment with death comes, and I have my dreams and visions and plans written down, there just be that person that will turn these written down plans to living memorials in my honor.

Journaling isn't the same as keeping a diary, in the sense that diaries just chronicle the activities of the day. Journaling documents LESSONS learned along the day, prayers in your heart and things God is placing in you. Journaling is discipline. I dare you to begin. I dare you to dust your abandoned journal and continue. I dare you.