There’s something I absolutely love about writing. I love watching each letter appear before my eyes, combining to create some greater meaning. I even love the art of the letters themselves. For me, this is true of typing but even truer of writing by hand. There is something so pleasing and calming about writing out each letter on paper. And then there are the sentences, poems, stories, ideas you write down. A certain kind of writing and journaling can allow you to do so many things.

One such thing is a kind of positive journaling. Taking a few minutes every day to write down the good things that happened in your day can be helpful in more ways than one. It helps in creating a more positive attitude and contributing to your happiness. It also allows you to put a positive spin on a day that may not have seemed so great. If you have anxiety, depression, or some other mental illness, writing can help you to see good moments among what may seem to be many negative moments. Such journaling creates a record of the good parts of series of days, months, and even years that can be looked back at in contentment and for reassurance.

Positive journaling is great, but that doesn’t mean writing down worries and more negative thoughts and moments is bad. Sometimes venting by writing can help clear your mind. Many times throwing away writings, tearing them up, or deleting them if they are typed is helpful as well. You can get all of your feelings out and then throw out all of the negativity.

Journaling can bring about creativity. Sometimes you may feel like journaling in a more artistic way. This may be planned journaling: sitting down and writing the things that come to mind. Other times it may be spontaneous: writing out a thought or idea on your phone’s notes or on scraps of paper. This kind of journaling can spark the creativity to create an entire work. However, it can also stimulate the mind and make it more creative in general.

There are many ways to envision methods of persuading others and making change, and journaling is one such way. Using your words, whether they are written or spoken, is so very important to making a difference. You may think your one voice won’t make much impact but if everyone thought that, no one would speak out and no change would be made. Through journaling, you can ponder how you can make an impact. You can brainstorm ideas. You can plan a persuasive blog post. You can work on a speech. You can begin to create a great agent of change.

The idea of journaling is often cliché, reminding people of children writing in their diaries. But it’s so much more wonderful and powerful than that. All it takes is a pen and some paper to experience incredible things.