1. Archive of strategies/perspectives. Usually the things I write about are things that I’ve found helpful in my daily life. When you keep those things in your head, it’s easy to forget about them, or not have those thoughts as sorted out or solidified.
Having an archive of those strategies or perspectives helps me remember them better so I can keep practicing them.
Example: few days ago I started thinking too much about something that kept bothering me. I was thinking about asking someone else for their perspective, and then I remembered writing that journaling can help you sort out your tangled up thoughts after putting them on paper. So I journaled instead. It helped.
Similarly, if I’m dealing with negative thoughts once more, I can remind myself of the strategies and perspectives I’ve written about to pull me out of that loop more quickly.
2. Tracking the development of ideas. Reading older posts helps me see how much I’ve changed, or how differently I think of the ideas that I came across before and wrote about.
For example, many times I think about the concepts discussed in the book, Ego is the Enemy. I’m glad I wrote a post about that because I keep seeing different ways in which those same concepts can be applied in my daily life.
For example, with time, I’ll keep thinking about different ways to trim down the weeds of ego and try to be a good student willing to learn from others without letting my ego get in the way.
Having written about the growth mindset is also helping me catch myself from negative and limiting thought patterns, so I can continue persevering in developing a growth mindset and learning whatever I want to learn.
3. More to learn. Sometimes, I realize that there are still some concepts that I don’t fully understand yet, despite the passage of time since I first wrote about that topic.
For example, when I wrote about self-acceptance, I felt that my thoughts were not as organized because there is a lot more that I need to understand about the topic. The topic of the existence of God also circles through my mind frequently, which I would love to reach a resolution on.
I believe that once in the future I understand these topics better, it will be rewarding to look back at this written record of a state of uncertainty, and finally see the progress.
Faiza 