You learned how heavy our mind’s workload is; thousands of thoughts run through our heads every hour. In our journey to build a happier brain, we must consciously generate more optimistic thoughts. But our minds are still in primitive age and inclined to think of negative reviews more than positive ones. So, what do we do about it? The solution is to create another brain out of our brain: a brain that does the ‘storage’ work on paper, where you can dump out whatever is going on in your head and make your head empty once again. This process is called journaling. Having a separate paper brain outside will empty your head and allow you to control your thinking process by directing your thoughts in the way you want. In fact, journaling is considered the most beneficial kind of writing “expressive writing”, often connected with journaling, is incredibly therapeutic. The study found that participants who wrote about traumatic, stressful, or emotional events were significantly less likely to get sick and were ultimately less seriously affected by trauma than their non-journaling counterparts. You can distance yourself from your thoughts and emotions if you consistently start seeing them on paper. Precisely, your conscious memory and RAM (just like a computer) should not be used to store the running thoughts; instead, they should be used to create new ideas.
Writing empties the conscious space so that much better work can be
undertaken by the mind, such as generating fresh ideas and thoughts.
Moreover, you can now see what’s going on more objectively. You can
distinguish if something is just a fearful, negative thought or if it is really
worth paying attention to.
Journaling also makes you more grateful and happier because you can see all the good things happening in your life now.
What should you write in your journal?
What one should cover in one’s journal is as follows:
What are you grateful for regarding your previous day?
What are your specific accomplishments?
What are your particular desired areas of improvement?
What are the top five things that you must do today to take your life
to the next level?
Journaling is a technique to bring happiness. Here is how it works:
Sit in a quiet place, and take twenty to thirty minutes to think about what you expect your life to be one, five, or ten years from now. Visualize a future for yourself in which everything has turned out the way that you’ve wanted. You have tried your best, worked hard, and achieved all your goals. Now write down what you imagine. This writing exercise, in a sense, puts your optimistic ‘muscles’ into practice. Even if thinking about the brightest future for yourself doesn’t come naturally at first, it may get there with time and training. Amazing things can come about as a result of writing. Also, researchers recommend a 20 minutes replay exercise. He says writing for 20 minutes about a positive experience is a GREAT way to boost your happiness. I’ve told you many approaches to journaling, as I didn’t want you to limit what has worked for me only. Everyone is different, so you may prefer a different technique to express your thoughts and emotions. This journaling exercise aims to empty your head and help you see your thoughts and feelings from afar. Again, ten minutes of daily journaling will start to enhance the level of your clarity and bring a smile to your face. You become more focused and action-oriented since you can see clearly on paper and identify what matters and is worth ignoring.
by Zahra
