5 Reasons Why People Don't Want to Journal

For many people, the idea of journaling is akin to hitting the gym or following a nutritional diet plan. They may know it is healthy for their mental health, but it doesn’t make them want to jump and do it as a daily routine. 

Many factors may be at play for such type of thinking, but here are the top five reasons why people generally don’t want to journal daily, if at all:

1. They think it’s a childish game.

When it comes to journaling, some people think it is something kids do. They remember when they wrote in their dairies as young children, and it was all done in fun. But they don’t realize that journaling is a much deeper process. 

You are not simply listing the things you did in a day but digging deeper into your thoughts and feelings. 

When you are journaling with mindfulness, you are hoping to reach that part of your unconscious mind that holds the key to your behavior, actions, and reactions that you might be unaware of when it comes to your patterns of behavior.

2. They don’t have the time for it.

Other people say they just don’t have the time to journal. But even ten minutes of mindfulness journaling can reap great rewards. If you make it part of your daily routine, that’s even better.  Those ten minutes can help you to calm down, gain clarity, and give you things to ponder to better understand yourself.

3. They are afraid that someone will read their personal thoughts.

I hear this one all the time. People will say they don’t want to write down their true feelings in case someone discovers their journal and finds out all the personal things they have written in it. 

One way to combat this is to keep your journal in a spot where nobody else can find it. Maybe you can get a safe and keep it in there. 

If your fear is that great, you can even shred it, burn it, or toss it in the nearest landfill. 

The point of journaling is to show you things about yourself that reside in your unconscious mind. Once you have been able to address your issues, you can always get rid of your journal if necessary. 

4. They are afraid of what they may write and discover about themselves.

This is almost the same as the previous point except that in this case the writer might not be ready to learn about the hidden truths about themselves. Let’s face it, not everyone wants to go down the painful memory lane and re-live the traumatic moments of their life. This is understandable. But for those who are on a personal growth journey, learning about your true Self is fundamental.

5. They don’t think they have anything to write about.

Many people feel they wouldn’t be able to journal anything because they have nothing to say.

Again, journaling is not necessarily about sharing your thoughts with the world as much as it is about opening your own mind to yourself. Consider the Meditations of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. He journaled to learn more about himself. His journal was never meant for the public eye. Yet, thankfully, it was published, and now we can take great wisdom from its pages.

Which one of the above points is (or are) your reason(s) for not practicing journaling? Do you feel that you are already self-aware and don’t need to do anything? If you realized that journaling could help you to improve your mental health, would you do it? 

Until next time,

Keep Creating!

Angelina