How to Journal (Like a Philosopher)

There are 3 things you need.

• Paper of your choice

• Pen of your choice

• Your mind.

If you have already started your journalling journey, you may have noticed some of the benefits.

If you haven't started journalling and want to get the benefits you may be aware that it can

reduce anxiety - By capturing patterns and your actions

better sleep - Less in your head to think about. It’s all out on paper.

Improve better self-confidence. You act on your weaknesses and reduce them.

And the biggest one for me is self-awareness.

I have noticed in the past that life goes fast. Many of life's little nuances are often missed by not being in the moment.

Reflecting on your actions in real-time gives you a better understanding of things going on around you.

It allows you to reflect and think deeper about life passing you by.

Like ice baths and claiming all the benefits, it might not solve all your problems.

I know there is still some confusion over what to write about so I want to give some clarity. I will talk about what I do as part of my schedule, in which turn may help you with your own journalling journey

I am going to start to speak more about journalling on this channel. If this is of interest to you, please consider subscribing.

I have struggled before, staring at the page with pen in hand. Wanting to write but not knowing what to actually put down.

My first goal is self improvement. This may be one of your goals with writing too.

This is my structure to journal. It is usually around a page worth of content for a day.

My first step is to write what happened during that day. this can be as easy as bullet pointing actions.

An example of my day was:

• Travel through to a different office for work.

• Drove down in the car with a colleague, we had a chat ( I elaborated on some of what we spoke about and what this means)

• I got home and realised I left my key and couldn't get in my house.

• I made a note of my actions following which included ringing family to see where they were.

• I made a note of what time my daughter went to bed and how she did at nursery.

• I also made a note of what myself and my wife did with our time during the night. Any TV shows watch or books I read or was reading at the time.

• Even what meals I had during the day.

This may seem silly at first but accounting for this day gave me a time to self-reflect. I have a greater appreciation of my movements of the day.

I can reflect on my conversations and any nuances I learned from others.

I now know in future that when I leave the house early I should take my key.

And I can reflect on my diet during the day to understand my health and reflect on whether I can improve on that.

Following this I will write an account of what went well during the day and what went bad.

this will allow me to understand and think deeper about how it happened, if is there a pattern in there. Can I avoid bad things happening again? Or is it inevitable because it's due to some external circumstance?

Every so often, when I have a thought I will also jot this down as it's worth discussing with myself.

My latest thought I have been reflecting on is "Is trauma self caused".

I will have to make another video on this as it's way beyond the scope of this video.

There is still something else worth writing and that is when I try and zoom out and think about the bigger picture.

Once you have identified the key points of what happened, it's time to try to understand them.

How do these points fit into your wider life through your own perspective?

A few Philosophers have done something like this in the past. They think of it as the ability to tell stories is what sets us apart from the rest of living beings.

Constructing a narrative about ourselves helps us find logic in life.

As we look for some coherence with our actions and our perspective.

Everything has happens is not due to binary actions. Journalling allows us to deselect our beliefs. We take our predisposed beliefs on a subject and construct that narrative.

Journalling in this way will allow you to take a more active role in understanding. Rather than writing things down for the sake of it.

We are constructing who we are.

For ancient philosophers like Aristotle, the central problem of Ethics is happiness. Or what they would call eudaimania.

Achieving happiness is no easy task it takes work and a lot of that work is reflective work.

Being able to reflect on your own life as a whole.

That is the whole idea behind journaling.

If you are struggling with the whole concept of journaling. Then give this format a go.

All you have to do is write about something that happened in your day

Write about something good that happened, something bad that happened. Any patterns recognised and how you can improve on that next time.