There’s a lot to love about journaling. It’s therapeutic, helps to reflect on thoughts, provides a space to zone out and creates the opportunity for self-growth through interrogating who you are and who you want to be.
I enjoy journaling for the positive mental health benefits it provides and when it comes to looking at how other people journal, I get really geeky about the process and seeing what practices can be used in my own routine.
With that said, I’ve learned some valuable journaling lessons from pro wrestler Chris Jericho after reading The Complete List Of Jericho. In the book, Jericho records an incredible 2722 wrestling matches and it inspired me to think about my own journaling techniques.
Here are five key lessons on journaling I’ve taken away from Chris Jericho.
- Use journaling as a way to remember
In The Complete List Of Jericho, Y2J lays out all his matches in chronological order, starting from October 2nd 1990 and it struck me as a way of remembering certain places, feelings and results. As an example, Jericho mentions the place of the match, how much he earned and the crowd size.
Reflecting on my own journaling practice, this approach is therapeutic when turning the page back to a specific day and recalling something positive as a way to keep moving forward.
- Journal to remember the good and the bad times
A second lesson is the reminder that journaling can be done to recall times that weren’t always positive. Jericho does this in his book through reflecting on 10 of his worst matches and the frustration he felt in the past about not putting on a good match.
But he reminds himself of advice from a wrestler called Negro Cass who told him “take what you can learn from tonight and use it to make sure this never happens again. And tomorrow is a new match and your chance to make this one go away.”
It’s powerful advice and reminded me of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius constantly reminding himself to be a good man in The Meditations.
The point is that journaling should be a way to wrestle with your own thoughts and find a path towards overcoming negativity. Jericho’s prose helped hammer it home for me.
- Journaling deepens the connection to personal philosophy
While reading through Y2J’s matches, I was struck with the image of Jericho scribbling down this information to further his connection to wrestling and how much he loves the business.
This was a great reminder of how journaling helps me feel more connected to the philosophy of Stoicism and makes me more thoughtful about how to bring those practices into reality.
In other words, writing is a powerful motivator to inspire action and change mindsets.
- Journaling can be done however you want
One of the many beautiful things about the act of journaling is that it can be recorded however you want! To take the Jericho example, he started out handwriting all his matches into a numbered list (there’s pictures of the original journal in the book to prove it).
All the matches were then compiled into printed tables, demonstrating that it doesn’t matter how you choose to write down your thoughts.
- Journaling doesn’t have to be a solo activity
For some, keeping a journal is an intensively private affair and that’s okay. It can also be done as a group activity and The Complete List Of Jericho contains thoughts from many of Le Champion’s colleagues, friends and family.
This image of a collective memory journal is awesome and there could be many reasons for choosing to create one.
Closing thoughts
Whether done for self-improvement or emotional release, journaling is a worthwhile exercise. Viewing it through a different lens can be game-changing and after reading The Complete List Of Jericho my journaling routine will never, ever be the same again! (Had to squeeze the catchphrase in somewhere).
What’s your opinion on journaling and do you have any specific way of seeing the concept? Let me know in the comments!