The Art of Journaling | Unlocking Self-Actualization Through Written Reflection
What do Frida Kahlo, Albert Einstein, Maya Angelou, Oprah, and Andy Warhol all have in common?
Each of them kept a journal to record their experiences throughout their life.
I will walk you through the following:
- Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
- What is Journaling?
- Writing Does Not Replace Therapy
- What Are the Benefits of Journaling?
- How to Get Started
- Importance of Reflection
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
The basis of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is that we are motivated by our needs as human beings. Additionally, if some of our most important needs are unmet, we may be unable to progress and meet our other needs. This can help explain why we might feel stuck or unmotivated. It’s possible that our most critical needs aren’t being met, preventing us from being the best version of ourselves. Changing this requires looking at what we need and working towards getting it.
Maslow believed that people have an inborn desire to be self-actualized, that is, to be all they can be. However, several more basic needs must be met to achieve this ultimate goal. These include food, safety, love, and self-esteem.
Journaling is an opportunity for me to examine what I need and work towards getting it. Many people are born and raised in survival mode. I often journal(ed) about my unmet basic and psychological needs. The yellow brick road to self-actualization has been a long path. When asked my why, I say it is to know the best version of myself.
What Is Journaling?
Journaling is a form of investing in yourself and investigating yourself. Find purpose in understanding who you are and the stories you want to tell. Journaling could be the first step to writing the story. Journaling is for nobody but you. There isn’t one way to journal.
Pen to paper is a healthy coping tool. It’s cost-effective and easily accessible for many. Writing is a way to process feelings, emotional discomfort, and trauma. Self-reflecting and documenting events allows you to create a coherent narrative and shift perspective. Journaling can be a way to acknowledge your inner child, heal from abuse, process experiences, etc.
Journaling is the act of informal writing that is a regular practice. Journaling takes on many forms and serves different purposes, some creative, others personal. Writers keep journals as a place to record thoughts, practice their craft, and document ideas as they occur to them. Some people respond better to journaling prompts and guided journaling. Unstructured free writing changed my life. In 6th grade, I was introduced to free writing. Today, I do various forms of journaling: writing about my day, processing my feelings, creative writing, poetry, etc.
A popular form of journaling is a gratitude journal. Gratitude journaling (or downloading a gratitude journaling app) is a journaling experience to boost your self-esteem and improve your overall well-being. There’s a growing body of research on the benefits of gratitude. Studies have found that giving thanks and counting blessings can help people sleep better, lower stress, and improve interpersonal relationships. No matter what type of journal you keep, it’s a great way to enable yourself to start writing and engage in self-improvement.
Journaling is a time to investigate my questions. Journaling has been a safe space for me since the age of 12. I started with pain, love, and hope and mapped the complexity of my youthful emotions. During my two years in Morocco, I embraced writing. It provided a home to continue to process my thoughts and feelings and discover myself as my new best friend. Poetry became a creative outlet for expression, inviting healing, transformation, and confrontation with the past. Since my return to the United States, pen and paper have continued to be my refuge.
Poetry can make someone fall in love with you. Poetry can make you fall in love with yourself. — Joy Harjo, 23rd U.S. Poet Laureate and First Native U.S. Poet Laureate
Journals take many different forms, but no matter what type you keep or how regularly you choose to write, the benefits of writing in a journal are many and layered. Keeping up a consistent journaling practice can help you improve your writing (reading a lot also helps you improve your writing) and potentially change your life.
Writing Does Not Replace Therapy
James W. Pennebaker, a social psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin, is considered the pioneer of writing therapy. “It’s a whole cascade of things that occur,” he said. Dr. Pennebaker speaks about labeling emotions and acknowledging traumatic events — both natural outcomes of journaling — have a known positive effect on people. At the same time, writing is fundamentally an organizational system. According to Dr. Pennebaker, keeping a journal helps organize an event in our mind and make sense of trauma. When we do that, our working memory improves since our brains are freed from the enormously taxing job of processing that experience, and we sleep better. Dr. Pennebaker’s research has found that journaling about traumatic or disturbing experiences specifically has the most measurable impact on our overall well-being. Writing is a technique to move you through your feelings and not to stay in them.
Experiment using different methods to process your experiences. Some people like journaling, and others prefer recording themselves in a voice note. Figure out what works best for you. You can use your writings or recordings to aid you in therapy sessions. Your overall well-being increases as you work through healthy ways to release what your body holds on to.
What Are the Benefits of Journaling?
The best part about writing is the surprise discoveries. You might call them epiphanies or, as Oprah says, ‘Aha!’ moments. Journaling can help with personal growth, improved communication skills, and increased self-awareness. Developing a journaling practice can help you deal with negative thoughts and stress management by engaging in a daily practice of self-reflection and self-discovery.
The benefits of journaling are especially profound:
- It forces you to practice the art of writing
- It allows you to explore new ideas
- Enables you to break through writer’s block
- Allows you to practice stream-of-consciousness writing
- Provides a space to practice expressive writing without pressure
How to Get Started
While some can write for hours at a time, researchers say that journaling for at least 15 minutes a day three to five times a week can significantly improve your physical and mental health.
If you’re new to journaling, the easiest way to begin is to find a time and place where you won’t be disturbed and start writing. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar; you’re writing for yourself and no one else.
If you don’t know what to write about, here are some ideas:
- Write about something (or someone) extremely important to you.
- Write about three things you’re grateful for today — and why.
- Write about what advice you’d give to your younger self.
Importance of Reflection
Reading your own writing hits you differently. Over the years, I have randomly scanned pages from various journal entries I’ve written. Recently, I started a tradition of reading and summarizing my journals over a 12-month period. It’s fitting because my birthday is in December. I write about my takeaways from the previous year and outline my goals going into the new year. Reading my voice allows me to pause and deeply reflect. I am committed to examining what I need and doing my best to achieve it.
I dream it, I work hard, I grind ’til I own it. — Beyoncé
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