Journaling to Promote Self-Reflection

Each week, one member of our team is tasked with writing that week’s blog. We share personal thoughts and stories and provide our beliefs on what we’ve learned along the way in the hopes it can be of benefit to others. We do our best to generate content with a purpose, something that will challenge, motivate, encourage, or help bring about meaningful change for the reader—not content for the sake of content.

As the person who creates the schedule, you would think that I am well prepared when my time comes, but this week, when “Blog Post- Bekah” appeared on my calendar, I found myself struggling to come up with the “right” topic to discuss—something that would be valuable to the reader. As someone for whom words do not flow easily, I often struggle to come up a proper way of how to express my thoughts.

When this happens, I usually turn to journaling, or really what I consider journaling—opening a Word doc on my laptop and typing whatever is on my mind. Sometimes it all ends up being gibberish but other times it turns into something significant.

My form of “journaling” likely looks very different from how others would define the word—perhaps something closer to private thoughts expressed in a beautifully bound notebook that lives on their nightstand—but I still find it effective. It provides me an outlet to get things off my mind without fear of judgement because I have the privilege to choose what I share with others.

No matter how you journal, research shows that it has numerous mental health benefits such as managing anxiety and reducing stress by helping people cope with overwhelming emotions and providing them an outlet for self-expression. At a time when we’re all feeling strong emotions because of current events and future unknowns, journaling can provide a consistent outlet for us to share our thoughts and feelings in a safe environment, whether only with ourselves or also with others.

For some journaling comes naturally, but for others, like myself, some form of inspiration may be needed to prompt such sharing. For those who fall in the latter category, may I provide you with an incredible source of inspiration: ULEAD Cards.

The ten different components of ULEAD Cards offer unending opportunities for self-reflection and expression. From reflecting on a full color image that speaks to you in some way, to exploring a time you experienced an emotion word, to explaining your answer to the question a card poses, ULEAD cards act as a catalyst for deeper introspection.

Please understand the purpose of this piece is to encourage you to continue or to try journaling for the first time as a form of self-expression to aid your mental health, not to sell our card decks. In fact, the front side of our deck is available for free in digital form- https://uleadinc.org/digitaldeck/. I hope it can simply be a tool to help you better understand your thoughts and feelings by putting them into words so that when you are ready, if you so wish, you can feel confident sharing your ideas with others in order to promote more meaningful, positive change in the world.

Bekah Finch, Detail Specialist at ULEAD