Journaling.

Notebooking or journaling as some may call it, is making a comeback. Thanks to hectic lifestyle with no distinct line between work and home. Many have started prioritising mental health by allocating some down time for mindfulness practices.

There are various ways in which one can adopt mindfulness practices to express his or her feelings, ideas, or thoughts. Writing, talking to someone, drawing, or whichever method that one finds most comfortable in preventing suppressed emotions. Suppressed emotions can potentially lead to anxiety or depression (Mental Health Org).

Writing, be it bullet journaling or free writing, traditional or digital, is one of the most common approaches to mindfulness practice. In this context, I am talking about ‘reflection‘ journaling than ‘to-do list‘ journaling. Honestly, I was not a big fan of traditional journaling during childhood despite the countless fancy diaries I collected. The fear of someone picking up my journal diary was one of the reasons. Also, there was a time when I was shocked after re-reading one of my old logs. “What on earth went through my head at ten years old?” is still a mystery. Today, I wish I’d continued writing back then.

Gone are those days. I can only recall bits and pieces of memories, instead of enjoying the full episodes of my roller-coaster teenage years. Self-reflection would have been more exciting today.

I felt story exposure was more embarrassing back then compared to today. Not because of the various unexpected content, but the fear of others’ judgement. Self-esteem and confidence do built over time. When I started this blog, I aimed to reflect, express my feelings, thoughts, and sharing ideas with others. In this sense, it is a blog or journal on truthful reflections of my life. There ain’t no shy. All because they are written genuinely based on my everyday frame of experiences.

Via blogging, I am able to heighten self-awareness, develop greater self-knowledge and understanding especially when it comes to re-reading previous logs and other writers’ work.

Journaling has helped me in removing mental blocks, guided me to pace out stressful moments, and achieved emotional clarity. All because in order to write, one will have to think rationally rather than rashly. Even with free rash-writing, it will somehow trigger sanity. Truth to be told, I believe in the reflection learning process so much that I ventured into art expression too.

So, while many are raving about journaling as a trending topic on pinterest in terms of how beautiful and creative journals can look or a quick cure to lockdown boredom and stress, I hope it is here to stay. All because the values that journaling brings in the long term is far greater than just a trend of pandemic.