A few years ago I had no idea why people use to write journals or keep diaries. In fact, I thought there was no point behind writing your hopes and desires and was a complete waste of time. Now look at me, I’m here writing a blog spilling my inner thoughts that usually I would have kept to myself. It’s funny how much people change!

I’ve only just started writing down my thoughts so I cannot tell you all of the benefits it will give you but I will tell you what I’ve learned. I managed to sum it up quite nicely in a tweet I made a couple of weeks ago:

“Reflection is the key to self growth, clarity and happiness. Pause, reflect, modify.”

Understanding – Taking the time to write (or at least, type) my thoughts down has allowed me to get a true grasp on what I’m feeling at the time. Whether these feelings are good or bad, sometimes it can be confusing if you’ve got a whole load of other things whizzing inside your head and writing it down can allow you to make sense of it all!

Evaluation – It gives us the ability to look deeply at the situation before hastily trying a solution that only solves a surface problem. For instance, when I felt like I had so much clutter I initially thought “Hey! I need some new storage units for all of this stuff!” and that should solve my problems, right? Well at a first glance you might think that would be the solution but when I looked into it deeper I began to realise that the lack of storage wasn’t the problem; but the surplus of items that I had no use for (but continued to want to store just for that odd occasion) was getting too large. So the best solution was to start to get rid of the things I don’t use anymore (and save myself some money on buying new containers!). I’m not sure I would have figured out this solution if I hadn’t taken the time to reflect what was bothering me and would have continued to address the wrong problem by buying more storage units.

Growth – It allows us to grow as people and find inner happiness. Okay, this sounds a little new worldy and all that but hear me out. Writing allows us to express ourselves and writing a diary or a blog makes it easier to express ourselves with people. The wonders of the internet have allowed us to extend our reach to people over the other side of the world and engage in two-way communication. People going through the same things as you can comfort you and make you aware that you’re not alone if something is wrong or rejoice with you when times are good

Deeper honesty – Reflection is associated with striving after truth. It is through reflection that we begin to admit for things that we find too difficult to do so after an event has occurred.

Sometimes it’s difficult to get around your thoughts to what’s actually on your mind and no matter how much thinking you do you can’t really express it. Well, I may just have a solution for you! The concept of free writing involves writing the individual to keep writing for a small time period in order to get through mental blocks. All you have to do is get a piece of paper and scribble whatever comes into your head regardless of any spelling mistakes you make. Just make sure you don’t think to hard about what you’re writing or what you have just written (save that until you’ve stopped!).

When you’ve finished you can look over your writing and pull out key themes that may be on your mind that are worth addressing. The most important thing is to not let yourself get bogged down by your problems as there are always solutions! I can guarantee you that your friends, family, even your neighbours have experienced what you’re feeling right now at some point in their life time.

Try and stay positive and just remember that you’re not alone