5 Tips for Getting Started With Journaling
I am not exaggerating when I say I have at least 15+ journals stashed in a box under my bed spanning from age 5-25 (present) years old. From the little pink and yellow striped one with a gold lock holding entries explaining my massive crush on Chad Michael Murray after watching A Cinderalla Story when I was 8, to the hot pink fuzzy journal with stars on it explaining the woes of being 10, to the massive spiral bound rainbow polka dot journal discussing a play by play of my 12 year old life, to the more elegant black and tan journals full of real heartbreaks, massive loss, but also huge wins like college admittances and graduation, successful business launches and worldly travels as I got older.
My journals have been my confidants, best friends, therapists and safe space for as long as I can remember. The place I could let any and every emotion out, process my thoughts, and make sense of the world around me. They’re where my spiritual awakenings, breakthroughs, and biggest life lessons have been recorded for future me to look back at.
To put it quite frankly, my life would not be what it is today without the power of journaling.
When I’m sad, scared, angry, heartbroken, excited, celebrating, stuck (you get the picture) I write. I get so many questions about how to start journaling, so I’m finally here to share my…
Top 5 Tips to Help You Get Started Journaling:
Find a journal that calls to you: It’s important that you LOVE your journal! Ask yourself “what type of journal would inspire me?” For me, I need journals that stay open easily, otherwise I get annoyed and won’t use it as much. I love looking for journals at local bookshops and on etsy. Also get a pen you love writing with! Some questions to consider:
Do you like lined, gridded, or blank pages?
Do you want spiral bound or normal-bound pages?
What size journal inspires you?
Are you most inspired by neutral colors or bright colors? A plain cover or designed cover?
There is no right way to do it: keep in mind that there is no right way to journal, just like there’s no right way to live with chronic illness. Journaling can look like:
Long form journaling: just writing pages of whatever you want! Emotions, current situations, how your day was, etc.
Stream of consciousness journaling: this is similar to long-form, but you pretty much just put pen to paper and keep writing for a set amount of time.
Future-paced journaling: this is something I LOVE implementing for manifestation. You write about your day at the start before anything has happened as if the entire day has happened. You can also write far in the future - like months or years in the future. For example, I may write in the early morning “today’s work calls went so incredibly well, etc.” the idea is that by visualizing your day in this way, you’re more likely to align with the type of day you want and bring it to life.
Gratitude list: you can make these lists in a normal journal or get a dedicated gratitude journal. Here are a few of my favorites:
Other lists
Affirmations
Poetry
Bullet journaling: I haven’t tried bullet journaling, but I have a lot of friends who love it! It entails using a dotted grid journal to keep logs, lists, daily lists, and get creative. Search bullet journaling on Pinterest and you’ll find so many examples!
Collages: I absolutely love making collages from cut up magazines and images I find on the internet. I find these sometimes help me channel my emotions and feelings easier than writing, and they’re so fun to make and look back on. I also make regular mini collage-style vision boards in my journal too, to make sure I’m aligning with my goals and manifestations.
Drawings: don’t be afraid to get create in your journal by sketching and doodling!
Make it a habit: I have a goal for myself to journal at least once a day, whatever that may look like. Some days it’s 5 pages, some days it’s a simple gratitude list, some days it’s a few poems. It always depends, but having that goal of daily writing has made it such a habit that I never have to force myself to open my journal. Pick a reasonable goal for you and start building your journaling muscle as a habit. Even if you don’t feel like you have anything to write about, stick to your habit goal and write anything.
Write the bad AND good: It always seems easier for me to pick up my journal when life feels hard and sad because journaling is SUCH a good emotional release. But after reading back through some of my old journals a couple of years back I realized I almost ONLY wrote during the hardships. Although a great release, it made me hyperfocus more on the bad times than the good. I now try to write to process the hard and record the good in my journals. By writing about and processing the good, it helps during harder times to look back and remind myself I can and will feel that joy once again.
Use guided prompts: Something I’ve loved implementing into my journaling routine is the monthly new and full moon journal prompts from Spirit Daughter. I get the subscription for the workbooks and it’s fun to have some guidance twice a month on what to dive into while journaling. You can find guided journal prompts on Pinterest, google, in the Spirit Daughter workbooks (like I mentioned), books, etc. Another great option is purchasing a fully guided journal! Here are a few I like:
A Year of Zen https://bookshop.org/books/a-year-of-zen-a-52-week-guided-journal/9781647397173
The Untethered Soul Guided Journal https://bookshop.org/books/the-untethered-soul-guided-journal-practices-to-journey-beyond-yourself/9781684036561
You’ll Come Back to Yourself Journal https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1775272729/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
5 Minutes in the Morning https://www.amazon.com/Five-Minutes-Morning-Aster/dp/1912023121/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=5+minutes+in+the+morning+journal&qid=1618437708&s=books&sr=1-3
Write, even when it feels hardest: I have a huge gap in my journals during the years of my eating disorder and the first year of my ulcerative colitis diagnosis, when I definitely needed the emotional processing the most. But at that point in my life I was scared of my own emotions and thoughts, and therefore neglected the thing that had been my favorite release for so many years. Notice when you feel resistant to journaling and ask yourself if there’s anything you’re avoiding.
Benefits of journaling:
Emotional release + regulation
You’re to to work through situations and emotions better
Problem solving
Creative outlet
Knowing yourself more deeply
Practicing gratitude and other powerful mindset tools
Now that you have some tangible tools, it’s time to just dive right in! There will never be a perfect time to start, so why not start now? Xx