It is easy to get caught up in the negatives of life instead of focusing on the positives. What if there was a way to channel all the positives in your life and allow yourself to become a better you? The Five-Minute Journal is one of the easiest ways to ensure you are improving your well-being and your happiness, and it only takes five minutes.
Life is always hurried, whether you are going to class, heading to work, exercising at the gym, running errands or fulfilling your daily needs. The Five-Minute Journal asks you to take five minutes out of your morning or night routine to record the most important things to focus on throughout your day; then you reflect on the good stuff that did in fact happen.
So, how does it work? Each morning, you start with a new page in your journal which begins with either a quote or a challenge for the week. The Five-Minute Journal then recommends that you to write three things you are grateful for—it can be anything from pizza rolls to your family. Then, you are to list three things that would make your day great, followed by a daily affirmation starting with I Am…. That night you are to reflect upon three amazing things that happened within your day and how you could have perhaps made your day better.
While this process can be frustrating at first, due to the fact that the questions are the same every day, the process ends up being worth it in the end. Because the questions are repetitive, the journal forces you to come up with new things you are grateful for every day and new things that could make your day even more amazing.
This process has been proven to improve people’s lives. The journal teaches you to become more grateful for the good things in your life, allows you to become a healthier thinker, helps you clarify your feelings and strengthens your self-discipline. After sticking to the habit of reflecting for five minutes a day, the journal will ultimately train your mind to focus on the positive things in your life and help you appreciate it just a little bit more.
Through taking these five short minutes to focus, you can consciously create your life rather than having your life create you. You become the purposeful writer of your own story, recognizing that every moment is a little miracle, a chance to reinvent yourself and start anew.