I think I Had a Bowl of Anxiety for Breakfast

Anxiety, depression and information or electronic overload may be eating away at your memory faster than you can chow down on a bowl of Quaker Cinnamon Oat Squares.

Clients tell me they can't remember what they did the week-end before or can't remember what they ate for breakfast by the time dinner rolls around.  Sometimes they share that they can't remember the good days, the content days, the days without drama.

 The Tool to Capture the Days that Make Up Your Life.

Get in the Habit of Keeping a Journal

Do you have a difficult time remembering what you ate for breakfast this morning, unless it just happened?

Do you remember what you did on your last day off?

Is your head so full of thoughts that your heart has wondered if it will ever be asked to make an appearance?

Do you wonder whether your life has purpose?

Keeping a journal is a great way to become grounded in your everyday experience. It documents more than just birthdays, holidays, and dreadful drama days, the days your memory seems willing to hang onto. Your journal documents how you really spend your life, most of the days of your life.

Keeping a journal will help you to improve your memory and provide you ready access to the wisdom you have garnered that becomes quickly forgotten in the anxiety, disappointments, drama and fads of everyday life.

You think you know how you are spending your time, your days, your precious life until you keep a journal. Once you keep a journal, you will see how your everyday memory is a present day experience that is filled with biases, dissociation, illusions, unnecessary information and worries, and slates washed blank where the details of life once were printed.

Once you have kept a journal for a period, when you have a difficult time remembering what happened in the past, you can simply refer to your journal.  When you need courage you can go back to a day when that courage was on full display. When life is overwhelming, you can turn to the page you spent detailing your peaceful walk in the woods behind your grandmother's house.

These journals may contain entries that specify the events on any particular day, as well as personal notes to yourself. These notes can be related to the events, or they can be completely unrelated. It’s up to you. You may capture goals or your toddlers first words. The magnificent chicken cachiatori Greta served at the dinner party that evening and the rude comment Herbert said was just a joke. That you walked not 10,000 but actually 11,242 steps. You may want to capture the 3 things you are most grateful for.

The value of the journal won’t be apparent until you have been using it actively.This is where making it a habit comes into play.

If the entire concept intimidates you, start out small. Don’t try to create volumes in your journal in the first few weeks. The journal structure that you come up with will evolve over time. You’ll keep what is working and scrap what isn’t.

Discipline yourself to make an entry every day. Start with 10 minutes a day. If you write more, lovely, as long as you do 10 minutes at least a day. If you have a hard time knowing what to write, start with "I remember when....." and take it from there.

Whoever said, "Try to avoid haphazard entries as the value of the journal will diminish." doesn't have a clue as to what they are talking about.

The journal is the reference book of your life.Therein lies its ineffable value. Further, contains the wisdom and answers to problems you solved in the past which have appeared again cloaked in new circumstances. The entries will contain notes about how you solved the problems, faced your fears, failed miserably and survived, and lived through some quintessential regular days.

It's up to you whether you want to create this journal online or handwritten. If you will feel more of a commitment when you handwrite your journal or type on your laptop, go with the way that draws you closer. The choice is yours, as long as you keep it going and use it.

Some productivity tools can help in your efforts to journal. For instance, Evernote is a free online tool where you can create notes. You can date these notes and create a section called journal. They even have a feature where you can set up checklists or task lists. The information is saved in the cloud and is secure.

A journal can help you recall information, but it also serves to help you improve your memory. As you continue to record your daily events, you are training your brain to be mindful with this activity. 

Another great idea.....  turn your journal into a book and sell it. I challenge you! Let me know what your commitment to journal has brought you.