For two decades, Emma Watson has been a success story, but her inner, self-reflective self is one of thinker, passionate reader, poet as well as diarist. She maintains 10 journals at all times and regularly writes every night before sleeping. Her self-reflection and private life is a huge foil to her public fame and success.
Watson also meditates and turns to journaling when she is unhappy, for which she has a simple description: “It’s interesting, actually.”
Summary of her success
Born Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson in 1990, she became a super successful actress early in life, as she played a lead role in the Harry Potter series. Her other movies include ‘The Tale of Despereaux’,’Ballet Shoes’, ‘The Bling Ring’ and ‘The Beauty and the Beast’. Today she dons the diverse hats of model, fashion expert, and UN Women’s Goodwill Ambassador. Emma Watson also advocates for the education of girls in Bangladesh and Zambia.
How they journal
Through self-reflection Emma Watson’s journals capture her thoughts and aspirations. She is almost a collector of diaries, seeming to be fascinated by just the very idea of journaling. She once said: I must have 10 different personal diaries: I keep a dream diary, I keep a yoga diary, I keep diaries on people that I’ve met and things that they’ve said to me, advice that they’ve given me. I keep an acting journal. I keep collage books.
Before turning in every night, Watson gets lost in journaling, scribbling down everything she sees and feels: “Dear Diary, today I saw Tom and he was sooooo dreamy…”
Being fascinated by dairying is just like being fascinated by self-reflections, by the steady unfurling and slow pace of thoughts through life. She explained it this way: Also, I think your thoughts are so much less frightening when they’re tangible, when you can see them on a page in front of you.
How long have they been doing it?
Journaling seems to have grabbed Emma Watson when she was a child slipping into becoming a famous teenager. When the U.N. Women asked if she would be a Goodwill Ambassador, she described her process of self-reflection as spending six months writing her speech, based on “journal entries that I’d been keeping since I was 12 or 13”.
How has self-reflection has helped them achieve their success?
A certified yoga and meditation instructor, Watson says that self-reflection seems to have helped her achieve “a balance between being a world-famous celebrity and a regular muggle”. Journals appear to be her backbone. They seem to be the reason that she weathered some tumultuous days in the glare of the limelight: “I’ve literally written out how I should deal with people when they first recognise me, because unless you are really quick about engaging them then they start to slip in to this weird space where they look at you as this external being.”
What challenges have they faced?
Born in Paris to lawyer parents, Watson moved to England when she was five years old, the same year her parents divorced. Her childhood is often at the forefront of her mind and she once mentioned that her mother worked late and did not visit her often, unlike her child co-stars’ parents. However, through journaling, she counts her blessings:
What does the future hold for them?
Emma Watson’s movie, modeling and socially relevant career continue to be on an upward swing. It is not likely to flag because of her self-reflection and journals. As she put it: They’ve given me a place where I can try to figure myself out, because those kinds of ideas feel too personal to put out into the public or even discuss with anyone else. It allows me to get things out of my head and work them out in a way that feels safe….
How can you get started with self-reflection?
While Emma Watson is such a big celebrity that she seems out of reach, some things can be learnt from her, and that includes self-reflection and development through journals.
Looking for an easy way to get started with your self-development practice? Daylitude can help shift your mindset, increase positivity, and discover a greater connection with yourself.