"For almost five years, I've been dutifully drawing little green dots at the top of my journal entries. A small green dot means it was a generally good day, a slightly bigger one that it was pretty fantastic. A huge one represents one of the handful of no-notes, absolutely perfect days of the year. Orange dots equal stress, red denotes anger, and blue means feeling blue."
"To better understand the science behind journaling (and why it's so effective), I reached out to Arthur C. Brooks, a Harvard professor and happiness scientist. He told me that journaling is one of the best ways to achieve metacognition: observing your thoughts as impartially as possible. "The act of writing down your thoughts moves your emotional experiences from the limbic system - the 'reptilian' part of your brain - to the prefrontal cortex, where you can rationally understand your feelings," Brooks said."
"From tracking my moods for so long, I already had a sense that a lot of standard (read: boring) happiness advice is true: I recorded my best moods on days when I drank less, slept well, exercised, socialized, felt engaged at work, and did something nice for someone. Zooming out, I also realized that much of what I assumed about happiness was not only wrong but contradictory. Fully experiencing 'bad' emotions, such as annoyance or anger, was vital to my well-being"
Daily color-coded mood-dot journaling over nearly five years tracked emotional patterns and habits. The practice of writing supports metacognition by moving emotional experiences from the limbic system to the prefrontal cortex, enabling more rational understanding and control of feelings. Long-term mood data linked higher well-being to less drinking, better sleep, regular exercise, social connection, engagement at work, and acts of kindness. Consistent, simple tracking made the habit sustainable and produced gradual nudges toward happier habits. Experiencing negative emotions fully, including annoyance and anger, emerged as an important component of overall well-being.
Read at Business Insider
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]