Journaling can be the framework for your memoir or life story. Let’s explore reasons, topics, and practical solutions.
CONSISTENCY
Consistency builds resilience. Resilience will give you the strength and energy to push through difficult times. When we are consistent and resilient, we get things done.
One proven way to up our consistency is by doing things every day. By journaling you can build up a written history and a body of work to use in a memoir or life story.
HOW DO I ACHIEVE MY GOALS?
Professor Andrew Huberman is a neuroscientist and tenured professor in the department of neurobiology, and by courtesy, psychiatry, and behavioural sciences at Stanford School of Medicine.
According to Professor Huberman, “there is a correlation between the formation of habits and the pursuit and achievement of goals: the likelihood of achieving a goal is strengthened by the reinforcement of daily habits, and making habits stick relies on connecting the new behaviour (or abstinence of the behaviour) to a bigger purpose or desired outcome.”
A RECIPE TO START JOURNALING
I am following Huberman and applying some of these principles into my life and he proposes a very plausible strategy when writing your journal. I can endorse this from personal experience.
It is simple and straightforward. This is what he says: “Making this [journal entry] each morning is effective. It simultaneously captures key elements from the science of goal seeking, emotional health, and motivation.”
Spend three to five minutes on it and one-word entries are okay.
Here is the daily list.
- 5 gratitudes.
- Plans for the day.
- Any fears or resentments.
- Things to watch out for.
- Things to strive for.
VISUAL JOURNALING AS AN ALTERNATIVE
“Art journaling is a visual diary where you can creatively express your ideas, thoughts, feelings, memories and emotions through any type of art form you enjoy. You have endless possibilities for artistic experimentation as your journal can be as unique as you are. You can write, draw, sketch, paint, scribble, collage, photograph, rip, tear, stamp, glue, sew, print and create in any way you choose. You can write about different things such as your day, what you ate for breakfast, favourite songs, places to visit, who annoyed you last week, what you have on your to-do list and more. You might prefer to focus more on the visual expression with images and colours with very few or no words at all. The options are endless,” says Rachel Greig.
Journaling as a framework for your memoir or life story can be combined with a visual diary.
THE DOPAMINE EFFECT
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter made in your brain. It plays a role as a “reward centre” and in many body functions, including memory, movement, motivation, mood, attention and more.
I believe we can naturally enhance our dopamine levels by taking small actions, like writing in our journals every day. The sense of commitment and achievement could lead to other positive changes in your life, over time.
How might I feel if I have the right levels of dopamine? You will feel happy, motivated, alert, and focused.
JOURNALING AS FRAMEWORK FOR YOUR MEMOIR
So, if you are struggling to write, journal and document instead.
Here we have an easy and effortless way to start a life-affirming new habit. It you need any assistance on the topic you are welcome to contact me, as an author coach, to assist you with your questions.
7 Responses
Dear Anemari, thank you for this important and wonderful piece. I also thank you for utilising good research on which you build your arguments. It was during December 2023 when I went through a tough time emotionally and had to be admitted to a psychiatric facility. For some or other reason I started to wake up way earlier than normally after about a week in the facility. I started to use the extra time before breakfast to journal. Now I wake up early in the morning without a clock. I must tell you, this never happened before. I believe my brain is waking me at roughly the same time every morning because I enjoy journaling. I try to write three pages every morning. I follow a process called “Morning Pages” developed by Julia Cameron. One of her arguments for the importance of doing morning pages is that it stimulates our “artist brain” and that there is an artist in each of us. I don’t know where this part of my life journey is taking me, but someone very dear to me told me last week that I seem much more energetic and lively after I started this process.
Dear Philip. I am a big fan of Julia Cameron`s morning pages and it is an excellent practice. There are one or two other sound scientific practices I will be exploring in the next few blogs, all relating to healing and emotional health – such an important issue as you have demonstrated here. Thank you for sharing this with us!
Absolutely loved reading this piece. 👏🏽
Thank you Zola and all the best with your work!
This design is wicked! You certainly know how
to keep a reader entertained. Between your wit and your videos, I was almost moved to start my own blog (well, almost…HaHa!) Wonderful job.
I really enjoyed what you had to say, and more than that, how you presented it.
Too cool! celestique.top
Thank you for your feedback and comments Celestique!