Why do you or why might you keep a journal?
There are many reasons you might keep a journal. Perhaps you are interested in personal growth, gaining new self-awareness, making a life decision, finding greater clarity, or want to improve your health with journaling. It can be so helpful to know “why” you want to journal. It is your “why” that helps you create the journaling habit. When you know “why” you want to do something, you are more likely to do it consistently over time.
That is why I am thrilled to share this list of 278 Reasons to Keep a Journal created by one of our IAJW Members, Sarabelle Prince. Sarabelle is a journal writer and I trust her incredible list of reasons to keep a journal will inspire you to find your own reasons to write, and to keep writing well into the future.
Click here to access this PDF gift >>
Once you have read this list, please take a moment to do the following:
- Share your top 1-3 reasons for keeping a journal in the comments below. We learn from each other’s motivations! Thank you for sharing.
- Also, feel welcome to leave Sarabelle a comment to let her know what you think of her list of 278 Reasons to Keep a Journal or to simply thank her for sharing it. Gratitude expands us all.
Your WHY matters!
There were several reasons that jumped out at me from this list. One being go within so you don’t go without. Something I did when I was younger was to write about situations before I spoke about them. That often kept me from saying things I would later regret. I fell out of the habit of journaling and am finding it difficult to cultivate tge habit again. I realize the benefit of a regular journaling practice. I can say anything in any way I want to inside the pages of my journal and I will never be judged or ridiculed. Thank you for over 200 reasons to build and keep up a journaling practice.
Hi Patricia, thank you for sharing some of your experience with journaling when you were younger. Scripting, or practicing what we might say in certain situations, or at least giving it some thought through journaling, is such a great way to use our journals. It can help us be better communicators. Here’s to the judgement free pages of our journals! Thanks again for commenting.
1. I used to hate doing housework until I reframed it as ‘nurturing my home’. My daily morning journaling practice is just like doing the housework – noticing the cobwebs, the clutter, the overdue tasks and doing the necessary chores to clean, clear and catch up – and I now reframe this as ‘nurturing myself’.
2. My reflective journal, which I call my Alchemical Journal, is where I find clarity, insights, surprising transformations.
3. Journaling prompts new perspectives on all aspects of my relationship with the world – and has created new habits of reading and study that I might not have identified as being of interest previously. It has opened my eyes and shown me so many new and delightful pathways.
Hi Hazel, I love reading your comments. I love the metaphor of your morning journaling practice being like doing housework (noticing the cobwebs within, etc.) and a way of nurturing yourself. I like how you have an Alchemical Journal (I have never heard this term before and can totally feel the energy of calling a journal by this name) – journaling truly is a creative alchemy of our lives. Thanks for sharing!
Love the 278 reasons that Sarabelle Prince has shared – my research supports everything she suggests and mirrors my lived experience. Here are a few more:
To find reasons to be grateful
In order to develop gratitude as a life skill and character strength
To deepen the hand to heart to head connections that drive our every day habits
To hang on to my core essence as a human being
To avoid the seduction or risks that thinking like a machine could deliver
For my investment of time and energy – writing helps with emotional processing, making decisions and investing energy in ‘the things that matter’. What I think writers will find that Gratitude is a complex psycho-social emotion and is an essential spark that ignites creativity and joy. Writing longhand is the best way to explore its transformative power. Write on!
Hi Lorraine, thanks for your sharing your wisdom here. I love this idea that “gratitude… is an essential spark that ignites creativity and joy.” Yes!