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Whether you are a religious person or not, you should not ignore the health and state of your spirit. Your spiritual side is important, and you can explore it more deeply with practices like yoga, meditation, and journaling.

Journaling helps to offer you perspective. It allows you to preserve your experiences, impressions, and thoughts each day. Our perfectly imperfect human lives are littered with joy and sorrow, failures and successes.

We have a variety of experiences each day and they impact us differently. When you capture your emotions and thoughts about those experiences on paper, it provides you with a snapshot. Paying attention to these moments in time helps you to reflect on and explore previous experiences and what has been changing (or changed) in your life.

Once you have been journaling for a while, you can flip back through your journals to see where you were a month ago, or a year ago. You can also flip back to a time when you were experiencing similar things.

Often, we face problems that seem insurmountable. Yet, when you look into your past journaling you can see all of the challenges that you survived, thrived, and overcame.

Amazing things are happening in your life and it’s easy to overlook the small things. Your journal can essentially serve as a reminder to you of what you have walked through, what you have survived, what you have overcome, and how you’re still standing. That is something that will supercharge your spirit.

Creating a consistent routine that involves journaling will provide you with insights into yourself and your process of growth and healing.

It isn’t only the process of writing that will transform you, it’s the looking back – the reflection. The clearest path to the development of your spiritual self is a mindset that nurtures. You can create that mindset in yourself through the self-reflection that journaling offers.

All you need to journal is a pen and paper. You can create your journal in whatever way makes you happy. Find a journal that you like the feel of when you hold it. One that you love the look of and makes you want to write.

The key to benefiting your spirit through journaling is consistency. Ideally, you should make time to journal daily. However, as you get started try to journal at least four times a week. As you get into the groove, you are more likely to think of more things you’d like to write about.

Reflective journaling is one of the best methods to benefit your spirit. It’s a very meaningful way to journal. Once you have finished your journal entry, take ten minutes or so to reflect on what you have written. Think about your day, how it made you feel, and how you would like to do and be better going forward. You can add more to your journal entry during this process if you wish.

When you write in your journal, it’s good to put yourself back into the experience you’re writing about. Try to recall the smell in the air, the faces of the people who were there, how you felt, and what you could see, smell, and touch. Think about how other people felt at that moment and whether your emotions aligned. Take some time to dwell on it.

As you continue to journal you will learn more about yourself. As you learn about yourself, you can find new ways to grow and develop as a person.

Your physical health is important, your mental health is vital, your emotional state matters, and so does your spirit. Don’t forget it as you look to support the other areas of your health. Allow journaling to feed your spirit, just as it supports your emotional and mental health.

Take time to reflect and don’t be afraid to ask yourself honest questions to tease out deeper knowledge. Write about your emotions and impressions – being open to the wisdom that can come through your reflection process is a great way to encourage more of it.

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About the Author Dianne Daniels

Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and currently residing in Norwich, Connecticut, Dianne M. Daniels' mission is to empower women 50+ to Amplify their Self-Confidence, Deepen their Self-Knowledge, Inspire Creativity, and Glide into the next phase of their lives with the Power of Journaling, Affirmations, and Assessments.

You can learn how to use these time-tested, proven practices to create and manifest the life you want (and deserve) to live.

Dianne is an ordained Unitarian Universalist Minister with a Master of Divinity degree from Starr King School for the Ministry. She's an avid reader, a lover of old houses (she renovated an 1850s vintage Greek Revival home with her family) and has been journaling since the age of 9.

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