Over the last few months, I’ve picked up an old habit and it’s doing me so much good that I’ve decided to share it with you.
It involves spending 5 minutes a day writing down what’s on my mind:
it’s a great way to better understand your thoughts.
Once again, it’s a technique that seems “simple”, yet brings incredible results. Understanding your thoughts enables you to understand the engine that drives all your actions and creates all your results. It’s also the way to get rid of parasitic thoughts.
What’s even more fascinating is that the very act of observing your thoughts is already creating change.

This article is a fourth section on how to use a diary to move forward in your reconstruction.

I – Understanding your thoughts by writing them down
This way of using your diary is so simple that it makes you wonder how it can really work…
The good news?
There’s only one thing to do: try it and be convinced!

Simply reading this article without putting it into practice allows you to understand it intellectually and to say to yourself “it’s possible that it works…” and, more likely, that “I’d be surprised if it made any difference…”.
So be skeptical and give it a try!

I invite you to apply this technique for at least a week.
A month would be even better, and then give up if you don’t think it’s really doing anything for you…
(It’s rare…)

1) WHAT DO I NEED?
Paper + pencil + 5 minutes.

Personally, I prefer and recommend a real paper notebook and a nice pencil, rather than a version on your computer or tablet, but this is of course a personal choice.

As for me, I write with my favorite mechanical pencil (or with a banal pencil when I’m traveling and I’ve forgotten it…) and on a large-format soft notebook.

The reason why letter size (or A4) is ideal for me is that it takes me exactly five minutes to write a page in a large, small-square notebook, so I don’t need a timer…!

However, a timer is essential at the beginning.
You can use the one in your kitchen or on your cell phone.
There’s no need to increase the amount of time you spend on this activity.

Limiting yourself to a short time ensures that you install this habit in your life “because it only takes 5 minutes” and stick to it for as long as possible.

Next, I recommend choosing a convenient time of day, and preferably always the same one, so as to create a routine.
For example, right after getting up, or after brushing your teeth, or with your midday coffee…

I write in my diary every morning, after my morning meditation and just before breakfast.

2) WHAT DO WE WRITE?
Whatever comes to mind.
No frills, no elaborate prose, no poetry. Not even whole sentences if everything is rushed.

We write following the thread of what comes under the pen, as raw as it comes to our mind.
With words we wouldn’t dare utter aloud, if that’s how it happens.
By jumping from one thing to another, if that’s how our thoughts jump.

We write without going back, without rereading, without wondering where it’s going, or telling ourselves that it’s all nonsense.

And when the bell rings, we stop and close the page.

II – Can you really understand your thoughts like this?

Understanding our thoughts is a vast subject…
So do we really understand everything about ourselves, simply by doing this work?

It would be promising a miracle cure to say that this is the case.

However, the first step towards understanding our thoughts is to identify them.

Most of the time, we operate on autopilot.
With the 60,000 thoughts our brains generate in a day, it’s a good thing we don’t chase every one of them!

On the other hand, if we don’t identify any of them
is to run the risk of following any one of them,
without knowing why we react to this one rather than another.

When you write every day, little by little, your different thought patterns start to emerge.
Themes recur.
And not just themes, but also our perspective, the angle from which we approach certain subjects.
The way we talk about what we’re experiencing, what we’re thinking, about ourselves, the terms we use over and over again, and so on.

In black and white, we become aware of these patterns.

By highlighting them, we give ourselves the means to understand our thoughts.

It’s only a prelude to action, but it’s already a huge step.

Because by understanding what we’re really thinking, we can focus our actions on what really matters to us.

1) UNDERSTAND YOUR THOUGHTS TO TAKE ACTION
Taking action can be very simple.
Here’s an example from my life.

A few weeks ago, I woke up – once again – with severe pain in my shoulder, which had been operated on 6 months ago.
I found myself writing in my notebook that I had to see the surgeon again, which led me to think that I had to visit the dentist, then that I had to make an appointment to check my eyesight, as I felt I couldn’t see anything with my glasses on, and then that I had to go to the hairdresser, etc. (Yes, it’s spelled like that: had to, had to, had to, had to…).

It may sound superficial, but all these steps were things I was constantly putting off, out of laziness, out of annoyance, out of a desire to do more fun things…

In reality, as I let this stream of thoughts out,
I realized that I wasn’t, at that moment..,
enough value in taking care of myself,
to invest time in something as basic as my health,
and why not?
Why?
That’s what came to mind as I finished my page.

In fact, within a day, I had made appointments with all the people on my list…
which gave me a great feeling of lightness and satisfaction,
and freed my head from a series of thoughts that were cluttering it up unnecessarily.

How often do we let our minds get tangled up in thoughts that we could simply deal with,
rather than letting them poison us?

2) UNDERSTANDING OUR THOUGHTS TO GUIDE OUR THINKING
Often, however, we can’t move to immediate action.

The patterns that emerge may be fuzzier, less concrete, or more difficult to “get out” of us.
They can also be painful, or make us question ourselves.

Identifying our thoughts can then serve as a starting point for understanding ourselves and working on them.
Or, if this work seems to be beyond our own capabilities, to recognize the issues on which we’d like professional help (therapist, coach, psychologist).

To move forward, I suggest getting into the habit of writing for 6 days and rereading on day 7.
As you reread, you can underline passages or make annotations in the margins:
what surprises you, what comes up often, topics, words…

Observe: are you talking about yourself, or about others? How do you talk about yourself?
Examine the emotions that emerge, noting them and qualifying them:
Do you feel sad, discouraged, happy, angry?

After a month, read the book again, concentrating on the underlined passages and your annotations.
If necessary, summarize these powerful passages in a few lines.
If you write every day with honesty towards yourself, it would be surprising if nothing emerged from your writing that was worth exploring.

3) STICK TO THE HABIT WITH KINDNESS
Once again, creating this kind of habit in your life,
is about getting to know yourself better and giving yourself the means to progress.
It’s part of a general attitude of benevolence towards yourself.

It’s not a question of imposing yourself and feeling guilty if you skip days or if nothing comes up.
It’s not about documenting your life.

If a day is skipped, a day is skipped, we start again today, with today’s thoughts.
If it happens too often, we think of a better time, a better place, and start again.
Or we ask ourselves why we keep skipping this activity.

In the end, it’s over time that the recurring and more underlying thoughts will reveal themselves.

Make the commitment, start today (or tomorrow morning

I guarantee you’ll have a much better idea of what’s really going on in your head!
And I’m convinced that this introspection will help you get out of autopilot mode and consider solutions to the problems you’re facing.

Knowing and understanding your thoughts is the starting point for good mental health.

Have you ever kept such a diary? If so, how does it help you? And if you start today, come back soon and tell us in the comments what it’s doing for you!