The art of journaling has been around for a long time. Throughout history, journaling has helped many people record their thoughts, hone their writing skills and find a sense of inner peace and understanding. Journals have also been turned into some of the most important pieces of literature we have today. 

There are so many great benefits of journaling, and the best part about this process is that it is personal and it is something that is just for you. You don’t need to worry about what it looks like, or your grammar. Journaling should be for you. And if you are diligent with your journaling, it can deliver a number of great benefits that you are sure to love.

What Can Journaling Do For You?

If you want to start journaling, you will quickly realize, there are a number of great benefits you can start to take advantage of. This includes the following:

• Journaling can provide you with the ability to simply get your thoughts out of your head and on to paper. It can help you find mental clarity and peace if you feel like your brain is crowded. 
• This process gives you the opportunity to reflect on your life and to learn new lessons from old experiences and to see lessons in ways that you may never had before. 
• Journaling can help you organize your thoughts, feeling and goals in ways that you may have never done before.
• This process is great for visualizing your goals and spelling out the goals that you want to have for yourself in your future so that you can work towards bringing those goals to fruition.
• Regular journaling is also a great way for you to keep track of the progress you have made as you start to work towards those goals so that you can see how you have grown and changed over time. 
• Writing in a journal can help you reflect back on your memories and to take a trip down memory lane and see all that you have done and accomplished and to bring back memories of your thoughts and feelings during certain times in your life.
• Studies show that regular journaling can actually help sharpen your memory and the opportunity to really put yourself back in a moment in time so you can really soak up these old memories.
• Journaling can help you see how you have grown over time and how your thoughts or beliefs have changed as you have matured. Reading old journal entries may surprise you as you put yourself back in your old mindset.
• Journaling can help motivate you to make the most of your day. There are many people who want to push themselves to create moments worth journaling every day.
• Journaling can be a great stress reliever and it can help you vent your frustrations and help you get out pent up energy that may be causing you stress or anxiety.

Journaling can and will change your life for the better, you just need to be ready to get started with the process. All you need is a computer or a pen and paper. You don’t have to journal for a long time either. Your entries can be short, sweet and succinct. In fact, many people find they only need a few paragraphs per day in order to get the most out of their journal entries. 

How to Get Started With Journaling

If you are ready to get started with journaling, the right prompts can help you get in the hang of things and help you really use journaling to its full potential. 

Here are some great journaling prompts to get you started.

• What am I looking forward to most this week?
• What are three big personal goals I have for myself this month?
• What are three big professional goals I have for myself this month? 
• What is something that I am looking forward to in the future. Why am I looking forward to it? 
• What is something coming up that I’m dreading? Why am I feeling this way?
• What is a trip that I would love to take this year?
• What is one thing that I learned about myself in the last year?
• What is one accomplishment that I’ve made that makes me proud?
• What is the biggest challenge of the past year that I have overcome?
• What is a mistake that I’ve made that has helped me grow?
• What is one thing that I have done lately that has inspired me?
• What is one thing I’ve done lately that has frightened me?
• What is the biggest thing about myself that I would love to change?
• How has my day gone today? What was the high of the day? What was the low?
• What is something new that you would want to try? 

These are all great prompts that can easily help you get in the swing of journaling and inspire creativity so that you can start to see how easy journaling is. While prompts can help, you don’t always need prompts to encourage journaling in your everyday life. 

I encourage you to make journaling a routine and a habit. It may take a while for you to get in the habit of journaling. Once you start journaling every day and make it a routine in your life, you will start to see what regular writing can do for your mind, body and soul. It can take several weeks for the act of journaling to be a habit, but once you do, chances are you will miss the feeling and ritual of journaling for your own self improvement.

There is no better day than today to start journaling and start seeing what you can learn from keeping track of your own internal thoughts.