The Benefits of Journaling

** Speech given at Toastmasters**

                Beginning in junior high school, an action was incorporated in to my daily routine which I have stuck with, somewhat consistently, for years to come including the present-day.  What is it you may ask?  Journaling.  Recently I discovered several spiral notebooks with handwritten journal entries from the mid-1990s.  I have been fascinated to read of these old memories long forgotten.  Definitely this has been a trip down memory lane as I have typed up all the old journal entries in to my computer.  I challenge each of you to begin journaling as there are many health benefits woven in to the art.

                First, what is journaling?  This word can contain many meanings to many people and can become tailored to the individual keeping the journal.  Entries in to your “diary” may be nothing more than a chronological list of what you have accomplished or what happened during any given day.  However, I propose making more of your time and investment in the project.  Expand on the emotional charge surrounding the events you write about.  State how you were feeling when something unexpected happens to ruin or bless your day.  Doing so acts as a cathartic emotional release, preventing bottled up emotions from turning rancid or allowing you to share your joy with yourself as your own private audience.  Years later you may re-read the journals and wonder what the big fuss was about, or exult in the good day you had.  In my own life journaling has been very therapeutic as I’ve been able to sort out thoughts and feelings on paper.

                Keeping a journal also creates and improves intelligence: mental and emotional.  The very act of writing engages the analytical left side of the brain while freeing the creative right side to perform the very functions it was designed to do best.  While capturing your daily life on paper, one instinctively searches for better words to use, thus increasing our vocabulary.  Many people also practice “streams of consciousness” while journaling.  All this means is to write without thinking.  Surprisingly, this removes writer’s block and opens the flood-gates to thoughts and ideas a person might never think he or she had, all the while exercising the expressive muscle.  Emotional intelligence is also matured.  We become more self-actualized in order to better perceive and manage our own emotions, as well as that of other people.

                Journaling facilitates personal growth and keeps track of our overall development.  Each entry is a step-by-step look at the victories and missteps in our lives.  We can look back in time, read about a particular incident, and think, “I won’t make that dumb mistake again.”  It is impossible not to grow while journaling.  All this helps the author not to miss out on the growth in their lives.  If an individual didn’t write about their life, then there wouldn’t be any record of how I arrived from there to here.  Each entry would provide a microcosm of experience to our formation and ultimate growth in to who you are today.  The decisions we made and the steps leading up to it would be clearly written for review.

                In conclusion, there are many ways to journal.  The old-fashioned pen and paper is timeless in capturing who we are.  However, for those of us who find our hand cramps up from long-term writing, Microsoft Word works very much the same, especially when my thoughts are pouring forth faster than my hand can write. The key aspect of journaling to keep in mind is to make the experience more than a chronological list of events.  Write about the heart and soul, the emotional charge, of the events taking place.  Allow the tears to flow, whether they are tears of joy or pain.  Oscar Wilde, the 19^th century playwright, once said: “I never travel without my diary.  One should always have something sensational to read on the train.”