Transcript: Write your Life story like a Pro.

A.K.A. The Psychological Benefits of making notes.

Writing notes, making voice-notes, or talking to someone (even on your own or with a pet, as it happens) have universal benefits.

The question is whether they pay off in terms of effort versus reward.

The investment is not large in terms of time- perhaps around 15 minutes a day. But the mental effort can be taxing, and people get put off by the notion of what they might write, or the effort of having to recall and process things that the brain has already filed away.

So is it worth this effort? The answer seems to be a resounding yes.

Making notes acts like a lubricant for the machinery of your mind. It works like this. We see that brain development in children who were never exposed to language, through isolation or deafness, is very severely impaired. The brain uses language as the vehicle by which it brings order and solutions to thoughts and problems.

So writing and speaking reflectively gives you a second chance to organise the memories of your activities and actions, and to more properly plan your future actions and attitude.

Without that, it’s like going through life with a camera recording everything, but never going to the editing suite to see what you’ve recorded, and make sense of it, putting it into some kind of sensible story.

Be a pro. You need to go back to the editing room, to gather up all that video and edit it together so it makes some kind of sense!

These stories are important: they make up knowledge about yourself and the world. They help clarify what your aims and plans should be. They even help you foresee and create solutions for complex problems. For the modest investment of some time trying to record your thoughts on paper or in voice form, you steadily and surely gain a mind that is more efficient, more creative, more settled and better at recalling memories and solving problems. We know this through research.

Both journaling and reflecting can have many psychological benefits, such as:

• Reducing stress and anxiety by expressing and releasing negative emotions
• Enhancing mood and well-being by focusing on positive aspects of your life and cultivating gratitude
• Improving self-awareness and self-understanding by exploring your inner world and identifying your strengths, weaknesses, values, and goals
• Boosting cognitive and academic performance by improving memory, comprehension, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills
• Increasing self-control and self-regulation by monitoring your behaviour, emotions, and impulses, and developing coping strategies and action plans.
• Stimulating creativity and innovation by generating new ideas, perspectives, and solutions.

Some general tips to make the most of your journaling and reflecting practice are:

Set a regular time and place. Make it a habit. Start daily, then after a month or two, shift to weekly.

Use a medium that works for you, whether it is a notebook, a computer, a smartphone, or a voice recorder. Write or speak freely and honestly, but try to write in full sentences or understandable phrases that you can read back later. The reason will become clear shortly.

You can use prompts such as who what why where when, or things like GORD:

• Gratitude- start by noting some personal assets or events that you are thankful for.
• Observations- recalling the events recently
• Reflections on what happened, and how you acted/ reacted
• Decisions- planning your approach to future similar situations and for the coming day.

The aim is not to find answers there and then. Sometimes you will, sometimes you won’t. The benefit is in the process: in the very effort you put into reflecting and making notes, regardless of what you discover.

The reason is that you are bringing emotions, facts, and judgments all together into a central space. It’s a forum where your Ego, Intellect and Center can meet. It puts you together.

The benefits are not immediate, taking at least a month to show for someone who does this for 15 minutes a day. And then, the benefits are just as often reported by you as people around you. They may notice you being more purposeful, more settled and calm, more confident and at ease with stress and so on. You may even notice direct cognitive benefits such as better processing power, better short term memory and better mental arithmetic.

The Benefits of Writing or Speaking in Full Sentences

Full sentences add an element of effort to the process which multiplies the benefit, because you are doing a lot of the work the brain would have to do on its own otherwise: you are pushing for clarity and coherence. This boosts the effectiveness of reflection.

You can also review your journal entries or voice-notes periodically, and look for patterns, themes, and insights. Journaling and reflecting can be a rewarding and enjoyable way to grow and learn from your life.

Doodling or drawing pictures or diagrams is equally useful because again, you are connecting parts of the brain that would otherwise not communicate so readily.

You will be writing assignments and reflections when prompted by exercises in SABR. These are specifically there to help you learn and discover a topic, but they are also there to get you practiced in the habit of jotting your thoughts down. Look after your journal or wherever you make notes- keep it private and safe, offline if possible.

Talking to someone else can be just as useful, but its not always possible to find the right person. Your partner or close relative may seem like the right person but this is not always the case; sometimes your personal issues and style may seem all too familiar to them and they may say things that distract you from your activity. Instead, people can reflect on their own or with a pet, or even an inanimate object like a teddy bear or a photograph of someone you admire.! As long as it has personal meaning and a sense of personality about it, research shows that it seems to have the same effect.