A beautiful friend of mine recently asked me a question and it prompted me to sit down to write this blog post. I think my answer could help so many people.
She asked me this:
How did you get started with journaling?
Before being asked this. I guess I just assumed it was an easy answer, needing no real explanation. This is because journaling is so heavily embedded in my routine. However, after thinking about it for a while, I realized that maybe others have the same question.
As humans, we spend a lot of our time procrastinating. This usually happens when we’re not sure how or where to start on something, often leading to inaction and overwhelm. So, I hope this blog post can bring you some clarity on how to begin your journey with journaling.
Journaling has literally changed my life. I’ve filled three notebooks alone in the last 2 months while traveling. My journal is something I cannot travel without.
Two key things that will help you make journaling part of your routine:
- Just start
- Let go of perfection
Starting a journal may appear a little daunting at first, but it’s honestly as simple as picking up a notebook and pen and starting to write. Don’t think about it too much. Just write down anything that comes to your mind. Do this regularly and it’ll become part of your routine without you even realising it.
That being said, we often overthink things which can get in the way of you finding your writing flow. So, if things pop into your head, rather than allowing them to stop you writing, use those thoughts or questions. Write them down.
You may find that you’ll ask yourself things like:
- Is journaling actually going to help me?
- Will it actually be worth my time?
Honestly, in my opinion… YES.
Journaling is most certainly going to help you, particularly when you do it regularly. It’s 100% worth allowing yourself the time to explore this new creative practice. It will help you make sense of your thought patterns, repetitive loops, and even helps to rewire unhelpful thoughts. At first it may feel a little strange, perhaps even childlike to pick up a notebook and pen. Maybe the last time you did this, you began with “Dear Dairy…”
But please – don’t let that put you off. The main point of journaling is to clear your head, release perfectionism and any cyclical thoughts.
By writing down your thoughts, you will be able to better identify and understand the links between the things that you’re thinking and the things that are going on in your life. If you find it difficult to start, the following journal prompts may help you.
Journaling prompts to follow…
For example, if you decided that you would like to start journaling this week, you could begin by answering quite broad questions like these:
- How am I feeling right now?
- What in my life right now makes me very happy and what do I want more of?
- What in my life is making me unhappy, weighing me down, annoying me or scaring me?
- Is there something that is bothering me at the moment?
- What or who am I angry, frustrated or upset with?
- Based on these answers, what do I want to let go of?
You may choose to let go of your judgment towards yourself or others. Maybe you want to let go of sadness, grief, worry or fear. There are no right or wrong answers. Just go with the flow and see what comes to mind as you put pen to paper.
If you decide that you would like to journal more frequently, maybe weekly or even daily you can be more specific with your questions:
- How are you feeling today?
- What are you not so happy about? What would you like to change about that situation?
- What is the one thing that you can do about changing this?
- How can you give yourself more love or compassion if you’re feeling scared or worried about something?
- What is going well in life and what do you want to keep happening in your life?
- What are you grateful for today?
There are many different ways that you can journal, some you may have heard of, others perhaps not. There’s a great post on SkillShare describing ten different ways to journal that you may find gives you some inspiration.
The Morning Pages method is a popular style of journaling and was made popular by the author Julia Cameron of The Artist’s Way. Put simply, you write three pages of whatever comes into your mind as soon as you wake up in the morning. This clears your head and gives you a fresh start to the day.
For those of you who find writing difficult, don’t worry. You can still journal! Instead of writing, you can doodle, paint, draw or collage. This is still an excellent way to help clear your mind and reflect.
The benefits of journaling…
You may be wondering how penning all your thoughts down on paper is actually going to help you? I completely understand why you might feel slightly skeptical about something that is so seemingly simple.
There are so many benefits from implementing this practice into your routine. Here arejust a few of them:
- Helps to relieve negativity, stress and anxiety
- Strengthens your memory
- Helps to boost your mood
- Improves health and wellbeing
- Keeps your thoughts and goals organised
- Allows self-reflection
- Inspires creativity
Are you convinced yet? Will you give journaling a go?
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