Journaling Changes your Brain
Let me explain...
Have you ever heard of the “Mind Mirror Method”?
If you journal for just 15 minutes every single day, after one year that’s over 5,000 minutes.
More than 90 hours of your brain reflecting, learning, and rewiring itself.
Now, think about that for a second. Every thought you write, every emotion you explore, your brain treats it like a real experience. “The Mirror”.
Most people are afraid to sit in silence for more than a minute, while you’re going to do 90h of sitting with your thoughts in the next year.
Journaling gives you an unfair advantage over the rest of the world if you know how to implement it properly and turn just a few minutes a day into clarity, better decisions, and a deeper understanding of your own mind.
I’ve journaled every single day for the last 6 months (using the Mind Mirror Method), and I’ve never made this much progress or had this much clarity in my life.
Here’s how you can use this for yourself.
Part I : Dusting the Mirror
Picture yourself as a dusty mirror. You’re trying to see your reflection, but years of dust blur the image.
You can no longer see the detail, you start believing that blur is your reflection.
This creates a negative identity loop.
Your brain isn’t designed to store everything.
It’s designed to process things. Journaling is like giving your mind an external hard drive.
So, stop piling thoughts in your mind.
Pull out a journal, start with a date, a title and start working on the clean-up:
What’s been holding you back?
What are things you’re aware of but don’t act upon…
This part can take as long as you need it to, you can also start part 2 all while working on part 1.
This step is crucial. It cleans your slate. You can’t build anything on bad foundations.
This part isn’t easy, because most people have a lot of ego, they don’t want to admit they could be wrong, have flaws, or that their mirror has been dusty for so long.
“The only way to grow and evolve is to be open and aware.”
Once the dust is removed, journaling goes from being therapy to awareness.
Part II : Clean Slate
Now you can see clearly, therapy is done, you’re off to a clean slate.
This state you’re in now is the base state that anyone should be in. You deserve to be free from worry, guilt, fear and anxiety…
Now that your mirror is clean, you can start using the reflection to notice smaller cues about yourself and your life.
Use this concept:
Pause the Day:
When a thought pops up, stop what you’re doing, write it down, and start developing it.
I have so many great ideas during the day, but I never remember all of them.
Sometimes they resurface weeks later. If I had just written them down, even as a memo, I could have made so much more progress.
Use this concept to catch vices too:
If you wasted 3 hours scrolling, write down what you were avoiding, why you did it and what you were feeling at the time.
Part III : The mirror’s reflection
Your mirror is now shiny, you take care of your image and the beliefs that shape your identity.
You’re now building and reflecting.
Reflect your emotions
Write down the strongest emotion you felt during the day.
Reflect your actions
Write one important thing you did or a moment that stood out.
Reflect the lesson
Write one lesson or realization from the day.
Hope you enjoyed this article!
Journaling is something we use a lot in our community, we recently started implementing short journaling exercises in the Sunday calls because it’s one of the fundamental and only essential habits.
If you’re interested in building more discipline, clarity, and self-awareness, check out our community.
Discipline-OS:
I have done this my whole life. I have at least three to four (sometimes more) journals I write in.
It heals your soul