Farheen discusses the importance of habits, sharing with us the advantages of her own habit of journaling.
Creating habits is something that is essential. It may be easy for some but can certainly be a slow process for others. Essentially, habits are big (or small) actions that are implemented into our day-to-day routine to encourage us to stay on top of tasks. It has been proven that performing a specific action for three weeks straight has the ability to become a fully established habit. Maintaining a habit is significantly hard as they are different for everyone. Whether it’s reading a certain number of pages, walking for 30 minutes or drinking 8 glasses of water every day, you shift your mindset positively and make better decisions. My habit is journaling, it is my personal commitment and something I am proud of and see as a journey towards self-direction and gratitude.
Journaling is about putting your thoughts to paper, exploring new ideas and expressing your views. It is an unstructured ritual that is done freely. There are also many styles of journaling, but it’s important to remember that your journal is your sanctuary. The best part is having the freedom to express yourself without any sense of judgement, especially as journaling is about you and your journey of growth. Daily reflection and practising gratitude motivates me to keep going. I enjoy writing down the things that I am grateful for and it allows me to see the better in life. With journaling, I can always look back on the special memories I had experienced and discover my emotions and find that form of direction.
There have been many times when I had felt frustrated, upset and anxious, but having the ability to look back helps me understand that those feelings were temporary and not something to dwell on. This is something I have learnt – just because you are having a bad day, doesn’t mean that your life is going the wrong way. It’s just a sign of redirection and a push for you to move your way forward and use that emotion to a positive advantage. If a certain moment or feeling wouldn’t matter to you in five years time, is it worth stressing over it now?
I have realised that every emotion I’ve discovered through journaling had a significant meaning to me at that time, but these emotions don’t usually stick around. With every obstacle, it is difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it definitely makes you feel a sense of gratitude for the things you love and cherish in life. As time progresses with journaling, you learn about yourself. You find out more about what makes you, and what you’re worth. I use my journaling as a way towards personal development as I am able to see my strengths and weaknesses. I have learnt to place boundaries in my life through journaling and self-reflection and have understood how important it is to be self-disciplined.
Although journaling is something you can do freely, it will be different for everyone. You can try by writing out three things that you are grateful for, what your goals are in life and what it means to be you. If you would like to start your journey to self-reflection, it would always be a great idea to pick up a notebook and pen and put your thoughts to paper and think about what is it that you’d like to find out about yourself.
Written by Farheen Khan