Learning the Art of Journaling By Chaplain Pamelajune Anderson, D. Min.

by | Nov 7, 2019 | Featured Article | 1 comment

Journal writing is the method of recording individual thoughts, reflections, and issues on subjects that have been handed or personalized. Journal projects allocated may include your ideas on daily reflection, tasks for reading, current events, or experiments in science. Journal entries are a reflective type of writing that allows you to use them to consider and react to something you’ve read or learned.

Journal entries, however, should not simply summarize what you’ve read, nor should they concentrate solely on your emotions. Rather, they should show your capacity to carry out a critical inquiry, which involves collecting and analyzing ideas or information.

Journal writing is also a form of exploratory writing since it lets you survey different ideas and writing approaches. It’s different from a diary, in that the writing may be a little bit formal.

Conversely, every day we consume a massive amount of information, the question lies on how much of it we do remember and can use in any meaningful way. Aside from exploring our ability to write, journal writing is another strategy for learning. One of the keys to learning is to limit passive consumption of information and to begin active engagement with the ideas we create. Compare a student taking down every word the professor says with another student summarizing the information in her own words and relating the concepts  she has learned earlier: Who do you think is learning more?

One of the effective methods to strengthen learning is through reflective writing. It turns out that we can use periodic journal writing to train our attention and strengthen neural pathways. One neurologist spells out that, writing exercise can improve the consumption, processing, retention, and retrieval of data of the brain. It encourages the attentive focus of the brain, boosts long-term memory, illuminates patterns, provides the brain time for reflection, and when well-guided, becomes a source of conceptual growth and stimulus of the greatest cognition of the brain.

In several medical occupations, including physical therapy and nursing, reflective writing has also shown to enhance decision-making and critical thinking. Journals have demonstrated invaluable instruments for professionals to examine previous experiences, evaluate their behavior, and draw ideas to meet future difficulties.

Moreover, a former business consultant suggests that writing simplifies thinking. Writing improves your ideas and arguments, merge incongruent standpoints, helps you identify important information, and extracts awareness from data.

Meanwhile, keeping a journal is an extremely efficient way of improving one’s mental, emotional, and life health. Many brilliant thinkers and philosophers have used journals as a means of processing their world perceptions and developing themselves and their thoughts. Journal writing can benefit just about anyone, regardless of their way of life or their perception of the world.

It’s also a lengthy path to improve yourself and build the kind of life that makes sense to you. And you need a map to assist you in achieving your destination, like most lengthy trips. When you do it well, journal writing can be that map. That’s not to say that when it comes to writing in a journal, there are completely correct and completely wrong things to do, but there are things that are more efficient than others. Not everyone is going to need the same things or use the exact same processes to get where they want to be.

Journal writing can also be an effective method to drift between emotions, both good and bad. Sometimes we feel things that we don’t immediately understand. It can be all about attempting to find out why you’re sad and having a difficult time or why you love a person you love. The answers to your ‘why’ may help you figure out what decisions you can make and the emotions that you have.

Composing a journal also helps to clean up the mess inside your head. It lets you remove that mess from your mind and organize so you won’t think them over again.

A journal is also a simple way to keep track of your personal and spiritual development and encourage growth. You can recognize where you have made the right and wrong decisions, and find out how you have reached where you are now.

Journaling offers so many concrete, complementary advantages to help an individual analyze themselves, their lives, and their journey. It’s a safe place to wind up and be frank about your achievements, failures, hopes, and dreams.

1 Comment

  1. Charito

    I’ve always loved journaling. I’m ecstatic now that it’s finally caught on.

    Reply

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