The Power of Intentional Journaling

This year I made a major life change in deciding to move from working for an employer to becoming self employed. This has been a dream of mine for years but I always had been too scared to make the leap.

Now the stars had perfectly aligned with me being in the right stage of my life, financially secure and having obtained all the right experience and skills to make it work.

However in order to make sure I didn't back out of what I was doing and just obtain another role, to help me focus and process my emotions in the journey, for the first time in my life I turned to journalling.

I have said before that Whatpathtotake is founded on the simple truth that our whole reality is constructed from what we think about and where we place our attention.

This is why journalling is so powerful.

By setting some time aside everyday to stop, reflect and write down what we are thinking about, it is a way to capture what is on our mind and see where our attention is actually going.

In my case I journalled at least once a day but sometimes more if I felt called to.

Before I wrote anything down I took five minutes just to sit with myself and break from whatever else I was doing. Then I would write honestly, and from the heart.

After I finished writing I would reflect on what I have wrote and then again the next day.

By capturing my thoughts I was actively taking the act to focus my attention and express what was on my mind.

I looked at each journal entry as a snapshot of what was going on in my head at that point in time.

This is only part of the power of journalling though, as knowing what is on your mind is one thing.

But the next day after each entry I would sit and review what I had wrote the day before. This enabled me to further focus my attention.

In my case my overall objective was to make sure I was staying true in the intention of moving towards becoming self employed, so if there was anything in my thoughts that supported me achieving that goal then I could then set actions to work towards that.

On the flip side, if I had wrote anything that looked like it would not support me achieving my goal, then I could review it and decide did I need to take action to resolve how I was feeling.

For example, at first I felt some fear of the change as I never had been brave enough to do it before. So I did an internal exercise to explore that and how to live with the fear whilst doing it anyway.

This activity helped me narrow my focus and concentrate on what I was working towards and made sure I didn't deviate off course.

As I would write anything that came to my mind, the act of journalling this way also helped me identify other changes in my life that I wanted to make.

One thing this led me to personally was completely changing my diet. Through journalling I realised that I was eating too many convenience foods, and as a result six months later I am now cooking a lot more and my diet has really diversified.

A key thing about journalling is not to be afraid of what you are thinking about. What matters more is what you choose to do about it.

This is one of the fundamentals in learning to master your thoughts.