The power of journaling

At School Beyond Limitations we nourish all aspects of being a human:
The spiritual, the emotional, the physical, the intellectual and the social side of who we are.

With regards to the spiritual, the emotional, and the intellectual side we encourage our students and ourselves to journal in school and beyond on a daily basis. Journaling allows us to be reflective, to be creative, to be mindful about our actions, to be acknowledging and grateful, to dive deeper into who we are and so much more.

Indeed, journaling is a powerful tool for personal, spiritual, emotional and intellectual growth and self-reflection. It also allows us to practice handwriting and to experience the beauty of filling a book with our own words, thoughts, reflections, ideas, dreams. By regularly writing in a private journal we connect with our own inner knowing. Eventually this allows us to discover our essence and our WHY.

I was quite struck by the depth of the journaling entry of one of our students who recently wrote the following when prompted to choose a quote of his liking by journaling his thoughts about it.

This is what he came up with:

‘Our journey of this mysterious life starts from the moment we are in our Mother’s womb. We depend on our parents/guardians and are safely raised till an age when we learn to depend on ourselves. It is essential for an individual to learn to lead their thoughts, intentions and actions. I think the way we think has to do a lot about how we see things and what we do. A little bit of encouragement, motivation and inspiration can actually be the reason for something great.

Other’s influence matters too but becomes a concern until the point when we lose ourselves, our authenticity. When we have a strong mindset and we know what we are doing we naturally become passionate, dedicate time and energy and stay disciplined and focused. To reach the goals in our journey we need companions. The journey becomes much more fun, challenging and learning when we have someone at our side. But as I mentioned before, life is mysterious, sometimes our closest can leave us alone in our hard times. So it is wiser to learn to experience things alone and be grateful to the ones who were there with us.

Life gives us nothing but time. Opportunities-we create, bonds-we build, challenges-we set for ourselves, moments-we cherish. Our lives are an art and we are the artist. The more details, colours and effort we add the better it looks. As we are maturing, experiencing more about life we knowingly, unknowingly bring some changes to us. Changes to improve things or to correct our mistakes. But it is us who decides what we learn from the changes, from the lessons we are getting. We must not forget we are continuously learning, thus we shall not stop learning even after we reach our goals we set for ourselves, there is always more to do and achieve.’

The depth of his thoughts are evident.

The message to himself and to others is an invitation to see our lives as a piece of art in which we all are invited to shape it accordingly.

Journaling helps us sort our thoughts, gain clarity:

It improves our mental health because we can process and reflect on our emotions and situations.

It helps us understand our thoughts and behaviours.

It helps us identify patterns and triggers and gain insight into our own self, personality and values.

It helps us learn from mistakes (as our student said).

It helps us explore our imagination and dreams.

It helps us remember things and details.

It helps us become more comfortable expressing ourselves and communicating with others.

The power of journaling is endless. That’s why we place such a huge emphasis on this practice on a daily basis.

Are you interested in SBL’s learning approach? If you would like to access more information about School Beyond Limitations or ask any questions, please reach out to us.