Keep a Positivity Journal -
Three Good Reasons to Start One Today!



   

Writing and keeping a daily positivity journal can reduce anxiety and increase your satisfaction, happiness and positive motivation in life. You may be aware of the life changing benefits of journaling and how it can change your life. Yet writing a self-development journal emphasizing the positive has unique benefits to your self-motivation and your life.


Three Good Reasons for Starting a Positivity Journal Today
/ by Guest Expert Ryan Rivera


The more negativity we encounter, both within ourselves and in the world around us, the more important it becomes to balance things out with a positive outlook. If it wasn't for negativity there would be no need to focus our attention and energy on what is positive instead.

After all, how far do we really think we can go with the monkey of negativity strapped tightly onto our backs? Even if we did manage to go very far, how fun would our journey actually be? After all, we want to really live life instead of living with the feeling that we're merely enduring it, right?

Perhaps we'll never know the full impact and benefit a positivity journal and positive thinking can have on a life, since positivity isn't easily measured or captured. However one thing is certain. Positivity and a positive outlook on life is a central component to living anxiety-free and happy.

Positive thinking keeps us motivated towards our goals, because we believe we can reach them. It helps us endure hardships by reminding us of our successes and the good times to come. Cultivating a positive attitude fortifies our ability to deal with failure, since we build up so many successes to fall back on.


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Why is Positivity So Often Challenging?


Still… developing a positive attitude is challenging. We unwittingly feed and encourage negativity in a variety of ways, unconsciously strengthening the very habit we could do well without. Once a negative mindset has set-in, positivity can even start to feel foreign or unnatural to us. After all, when a negative focus has become the mind's habitual pattern, it takes conscious intervention to turn these mind habits around.

That's why I strongly recommend you consider starting a positivity journal - a daily exercise designed to train your brain towards a positive outlook.


What's the Difference Between a Regular Self-Development Journal and a Positivity Journal?


Most people are familiar with the traditional personal development journal - a place where you record your thoughts, feelings and events of the day (usually just before going to bed at night). Journaling is a valuable release, since it gives you space to vent your emotions and experiences by bringing them out on paper. It gives you a place to materialize the world of your inner experience, thoughts and feelings.

Positivity journals are a lot like that, except rather than recording all thoughts and emotions that may be coursing through our mind, the goal is to journal only the positive things that happened throughout the day. Positivity journaling is meant to be a challenge - you need to come up with five to ten genuinely positive things that happened throughout the day (or more), while eliminating any trace of negativity from your writing and from your mind.


How to Bring out the Best in Writing Your Positivity Journal


Every experience you record in your journal needs to be positive; and the way you write it needs to be positive as well. Remember that thoughts and words faithfully reflect and influence one another. Your journaling needs to be positive through-and-through if this is the kind of thinking you hope to instill in your mind.

Sometimes you may notice passive-aggressive tones creeping into your writing where no negativity was actually consciously intended on your part. It is important to notice and correct these instances. Here is an example…

Positivity journaling done right: "The barista at the local coffee shop was very nice to me today."

Positivity journaling done wrong: "I'm glad my mother left me alone today."

The first statement is singularly positive. The second statement may seem like we are indicating a positive event, yet the underlying tone is - perhaps surprisingly - negative. You should always challenge yourself to come up with a minimum of 5 to 10 entries (15 to 20 if you get good). Really stretch that mind!

To really have the impact on our lives we're hoping for, this exercise needs to be done on a regular basis - ideally, daily. As Art Williams, a former American professional basketball player once said, "I'm not telling you it's going to be easy. I'm telling you it's going to be worth it."

This is a great attitude to adopt in most any self-development and personal growth pursuit and most certainly in line with the life changing tips and advice you'll find on this inspired life change website.


Inspired Benefits of Keeping a Positivity Journal


Positivity journaling is a self improvement strategy that can have a profound positive influence on your mindset. While it may not be a total cure for negative thinking, it's an exceedingly useful technique with some of the following positive benefits:


  • Reconditions the focus of your attention. The greatest benefit of this personal growth strategy is that it teaches your mind to focus on the good things that happen to you. As you persist with your positivity journal you'll start to catch yourself automatically beginning to think, "I should remember this for today's journal entry!" This positive focus replaces usual negative tendencies to gloss over positive events. It essentially trains your mind to pay attention to the great things in your life.

  • Ending your day on a positive note helps get you out of bed in the morning with your right leg forward. A lot of negative thinking comes right before sleep, and when you go to sleep feeling negative, you wake up feeling negative. Recording positive thoughts and events in your positivity journal at the end of the day, allows you to go to sleep focusing on all of the amazing things your life has given you. Instead of going to bed with worries, you go to bed with a gratitude attitude - and get to wake up with it too!

  • Feeling motivated and optimistic about the future. Having a positivity journal close at hand for the times you're feeling down is a great way to life your spirits. Even the most positive people in the world have challenging days where they're not feeling at their best and could use a 'pick-me-up' resource.

    The positive care and attention you put into writing your positivity journal will be reflected back at you whenever you care to browse it for encouragement and positive motivation. It becomes an unfailing positive resource you can come to rely on, reminding you of all of the positive things you've seen and done in your life. A traditional personal development journal may offer you a mixture of too many thoughts and conflicting emotions to have the reliable positive uplift you are looking for and that a positivity journal amply provides.


Positivity is simply one of the most conscious and mindful strategies for reducing anxiety and depression and living a happy, motivated life. The more positive we become, the more we find ourselves motivated to take on the day and reach for our goals - as ambitious or simple as these goals may be.


Summary


Positivity is an important component of good mental health and quality of life. Put simply, life with a positive outlook is immeasurably more satisfying than a life lived without one.

Why not determine to take charge of this aspect of our lives and step out of negativity on a regular basis by disciplining ourselves to focus on positives? Keeping a positivity journal can help you do just that.

This article was written by guest blogger Ryan Rivera, who had a serious negativity problem that made it difficult for him to reduce his anxiety. He has dedicated his life to helping others live stress-less and anxiety-free. You can further explore Ryan's work at the www.calmclinic.com.



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