What is the point of writing down your thoughts?

If you do it for a short period of time it may mean nothing much, but if you do it regularly you get to know yourself better. Many very skilled professional people I know do it. You can try and write a diary for 30 days. Don’t have to write all your thoughts. Can just be one page or half a page each day, what you thought was important during the day and your highlighted thoughts and experiences. At the end of each day’s writing you can add 2 very short and concise points -

the good decisions you made and the results of that

the bad decisions and the results of that

After doing this for some days, you get to self reflect on yourself like you looking at another person. Often times people who have problems dont like to admit it or see them, but other people can see them clearly.

When we look at ourselves in the past it is actually very much like looking at another person because we are always changing. Change = evolution. Therefore changing is good, your body changes millions of cells each day and older cells die. By the end of each week you are a new person in a new body anyways, and so as you learn new skills in life, your personality and character changes too.

Suggestion - read about ‘Plato’s allegory of the cave’. A fish that lived a whole life in water does not know what water is unless you ’change it’s perspective’ by pulling it out of water. A frog that lives in a well thinks that the well is the whole world and there’s nothing more. So a change of perspective can be done by self reflection.

So when you read your diary after some weeks/months/years of journaling, you can easily self reflect on your life. You might notice problems that you have that you didn’t realize you had before and then take steps to fix them. By the 2 points of good and bad decisions you made each day, you can find out how.

You can chose to increase more of the good decisions that you made in the past to meet more good results and outcomes and improve your lifestyle. Example: If you see that you had a bad day and you feel fat and lazy, you can decide to replace your diet and add some stamina increasing exercises that you do everyday even just for 10 mins. Then journal and track the long term results of this exercise. When you look back after a year at what you wrote, it will even fuel you with more motivation.

If you have problems of irritation and intolerance, you can add mini meditations to your daily schedule for inner peace. You can add anything you like that solves the problems you face and consistently taking mini measures each day to solve them.