Find Yourself

Journaling provides a time for you to discover who you are, by capturing your thoughts on paper we can discover and explore the different sides of our nature, our belief system, our creativity, our recurring patterns and our inner voice.

Allocating some time to put pen to paper to capture your thoughts and feelings gives you the opportunity to reflect on situations and explore your feelings, without fear of judgement. This freedom allows you to truly delve deep into yourself.

Fleeting thoughts, insights and inspiration can be lost in our 70,000 thoughts per day. Jotting them down in your journal not only clears the space in your head but means it will not be forgotten. It allows you to go back and read your thoughts, ideas and feelings, so you can learn more about yourself through reflection.

Why is Self-Discovery Important?

Getting to know yourself better gives you an abundance of freedom. Truly understanding who you are, what core values you have, your aspirations and purpose can lead you to a life of fulfilment, happiness and contentment.

The better you understand yourself, you become more confident in who you are as a person and why you do what you do, you become less concerned about what people think of you. You have an underlying self-confidence and sense of purpose that cannot be deterred by the opinion of others.

Identify your core values

As you journal you will discover what brings joy and contentment and, conversely what doesn’t sit comfortably with you. Identifying your values will assist in guiding your actions, if you behave in a way that is in line with your values and beliefs you will experience greater feeling of fulfillment.

Spend some time to clear your mind and jot down a list of your own personal core values. (See a list of Core Values). Condense your list down to five core values. These five core values should help determine who you are and what you stand for.

Discovering Patterns

Journaling teaches us how we think, it allows us to find and listen to our inner voice. Looking back on our thoughts and the stories we tell ourselves we start to see patterns in our thought process, things that may trigger emotional responses and ideas and inspirations that reoccur.

Discovering these patterns can be life altering, we are too busy in our day-to-day to notice patterns in our behaviour and responses. When we regularly writing about our experiences we can look back and start to see patterns emerging. This gives us the opportunity to put some measures in place to stop these patterns or use them to our advantage.

Rewrite the stories you are telling yourself

Not only will you see a pattern in your habits and emotional responses, you will also discover the stories you are telling yourself repeatedly. “I’m disorganized”, “I never finish anything I start”, “I’ll just put the weight back on”, “I’m not good enough”. These stories will come up again and again, through journaling you will see them cropping up.

Journaling is the perfect medium to rewrite these stories. Your mind can either be your best friend or your worst enemy. It tends to play the same messages over and over again.

May I suggest you try to be your best friend. When you notice these reoccurring stories appear, think to yourself, if my best friend or child, was saying these things about themselves how would I respond? Write a letter to yourself as your best friend. When you start to see the same story cropping up, change the story. Over time you will begin to change the stories you are telling yourself.

Challenge the stories you write or have been told about yourself. I always told myself I am not a morning person. I now get up at 5.30am every day to meditate and write. I love it, it’s quiet, it’s time for just me and I don’t feel guilty because I’m spending time away from my family, because they are all still in bed. It turns out, I just didn’t like getting up early to exercise!

Turn yourself in the author of your own story – rewrite it the way you want.

Trusting your Intuition

The more you trust and practice using your intuition, the better you become at deciding what is best for you.

Intuition is defined as “a brain process that gives people the ability to make decisions without the use of analytical reasoning”. This is commonly referred to as a ‘sixth sense’ or a ‘gut feeling’.

Developing and learning to trust to your intuition can help you from feeling trapped, which can often happen if you base all your decisions and behaviours on logic and reasoning.

Journaling about your experiences and decisions made you will begin to see that when you follow your gut things seem to work out for the best.

Giving yourself permission to write about your dreams and aspirations without the “I shoulds” gives your mind the opportunity to listen to that inner voice. You can write things in your journal you wouldn’t say out loud.

To really get in touch with your intuition through journaling, try a meditation prior to writing in your journal, or do some colouring or doodling. Do something to clear your mind so you get into a state of flow. Then start writing whatever thoughts or ideas come to you. Write without judgement or overthinking.

Take time to look back through your journals

Writing in your journals is one way to help find the true you, taking the time to review them is another. There is a lot to be gained from looking back through your journals as time goes by.

Reviewing your journals can give you an insight into a situation or decision you were too close to in the moment. It can let you see reoccurring ideas or behaviours – this can lead to a great insight into what you truly want and who you want to be.

Taking time for yourself to journal and discover your true desires is a great gift to give yourself. Grab pen and notebook – you’re worth it!