Over the next several posts, I’d like to present some guest thoughts from interesting folks in my online community. Today’s is from Lynda Monk, director of the International Association for Journal Writing. Please enjoy!
One Man’s Life-Changing Journey with Journaling: An Interview with Nishith Goyal
As the director of the International Association for Journal Writing, I have the privilege of regularly interviewing people about how journaling has positively impacted their lives. Journaling can help you lead a healthier, happier, and more purposeful life. Perhaps you are curious about journaling and wonder how to get started or what to write about?
I asked Nishith Goyal, a regular journal writer and author of books on journaling, about his own personal writing practice. Here is what he had to say. I hope it offers you inspiration for your own journaling journey.
What drew you to journaling? Why did you start with it?
It isn’t easy to pick a moment or situation that led me to the path of journal writing. I remember it started during my college days. I started writing everything about my daily routine, recording my dreams, letters to myself, etc. As I moved from my native town to Mumbai, the habit took a break.
The busyness from pursuing a professional degree, my 9 to 5 job, and the pursuit of finding a path in life became too much, and hence no space was left for journal writing. But the habit returned when I bought my first laptop. With my laptop, I found a handy and convenient tool through which I can record a lot about my life.
In 2013, I got an opportunity to move to the United Kingdom. The habit of journal writing continued in the form of recording whatever I could remember from my life. I tagged different memories to their respective dates/months/years and my life story started getting a shape. During one of the dreaded nights, as I returned home, I found a ransacked home and many precious things were looted. My laptop was one of them. I lost a lot that night.
As I moved back to India in the summer of 2016, the urge to write a journal came back. But this time, I chose pen and paper to draw and express my mind. I found a list of 31 self-awareness questions while reading a book and that helped me kickstart the habit again. I started answering these specific 31 questions, one at a time, every month. Each question was repeated every month on that specific date. The habit continued over a couple of years, and then I picked up another journal writing genre – The Morning Pages, as suggested by Julia Cameron in her book The Artist’s Way. And then there was no stopping. I added a gratitude journal writing habit to my routine, positive affirmations, a dream journal (I maintain an online diary for this), and an idea journal (I keep a small A6 sized notebook with me to write whatever ideas come to my mind).
Currently, I spend anywhere between 30-45 minutes per day to write in these journals.
How has journaling helped you in your life?
To me, journaling is an effective tool to speak and build a conversation with myself. Journaling allows me a lot of SELF-time. Over time, I have built faith in these SELF conversations. I am now a firm believer in the power of self-awareness and mindfulness, and journal writing allows me to taste them every day. For example, when I answer the self-awareness prompts, the same question gives me different answers every month. Hence, the self-awareness elevates itself through this habit.
Similarly, while writing my gratitude journal, a simple prompt, “What am I grateful for today?” allows me to go through the entire day and pull-out tiny moments of gratitude. And then this simple awareness of such moments in my life helps me fill my heart with dozens of positive emotions. Also, my positive affirmation journal writing helps me create my personal affirmations. This keeps me going during the tough times. These journal writing genres have their different purposes and merits in my life. They have allowed me to open a different channel to speak to my mind and forge a satisfying relationship with it.
I believe that the power of our minds can only be unleashed when we allow our minds to build a healthy relationship with ourselves. Our minds need a canvas to express and share ideas. Often, we keep ourselves so busy with external noise, that the internal voice doesn’t get a chance to express itself.
Every healthy relationship needs a lot of meaningful conversations and to build a relationship with our minds, we need to build such conversations. And, to me, there is no better way than journal writing to kickstart this channel.
Over time, journal writing has helped me improve my self-confidence. Also, I can see a positive shift in my mental and physical health. In addition to this, my personal relationships have bloomed because of this habit. Whenever in doubt or chasing a tough emotion, I take the help of my journals to express myself, ask questions, find solutions, and implement them.
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Nishith Goyal is the author of Be Better Bit-By-Bit and My 5-Minute Gratitude Journal, and he is currently working on his next book alongside his professional job in the finance industry. Nishith lives with his family in India. You can learn more about his work here: http://bebetterbitbybit.com/
Lynda Monk, Director of the IAJW.org, leads an inspirational and educational community for journal writers worldwide and is the co-author and co-editor of many books on journaling. She is passionate about the healing and transformational power of journaling and life writing.
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Promote Healing, Ignite Creativity, and Discover Writing Tips from Two Journaling Experts
“This book is a beautiful quilt, each chapter written by one of the wisest voices in the journaling world, on every aspect of journal writing imaginable.” —Ruth Folit, founder and past director of the International Association for Journal Writing
#1 Best Seller in Writing Skills, Writing Guides, and Nonfiction Writing Reference
The Next-Generation Book on Journaling Techniques
Learn from the best. The Great Book of Journaling equips you with practical and effective journaling techniques, advances your writing skills, and enhances self-esteem. Written by esteemed psychotherapist Eric Maisel and journaling expert Lynda Monk, Director of the International Association for Journal Writing, this book guides you on a path of healing, creativity, and self-discovery.
Discover the therapeutic magic of journal writing. Experience the transformative power of journaling. By engaging in daily meditations and personal writing, you can tap into your innate creativity and nurture self-love.
Packed full of valuable journal writing knowhow. We’ve rounded up 40 of the top journal experts in the world to explain exactly what journal writing can do for you! The Great Book of Journaling is full of practical tips, evidence-based research, and rich anecdotes from their coaching, teaching, therapy work with journal writers, and personal journal writing.
Inside find:
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If you have read Mindfulness Journal, The Self-Discovery Journal, or No Worries, you will love The Great Book of Journaling. Also, don’t miss Eric Maisel’s Redesign Your Mind and The Power of Daily Practice.
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This Post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit:iStock
