Not Journaling Every Day? Try this.
Journaling is not a one-of-a-kind process or subject matter. Some people journal about their travels, their relationships, and funny things their kids say.
Others may ask themselves deeper questions to discover their own answers within. Many have wanted to start journaling, but give up soon after they start, so it never becomes a habit. They often feel like they don’t know what to say.
A friend who has been journaling every day for many years, sat at a coffee shop one morning, writing in her journal.
A high school student who worked there came over, pulled out a chair and sat down across from her. “Are you journaling?” he asked. Her reply was “Yes.” He continued, “My therapist said I should journal, but I just couldn’t. How do you do it?” So she gave him tips on how to start and keep writing often.
She saw him two weeks later and as she walked into the coffee shop, he came up and gave her a big hug. “I’ve been journaling every day for two weeks and I feel so good! It wasn’t hard.”
What can journaling every day do for you?
Journaling every day is a powerful habit that allows you to explore your thoughts and feelings and become aware of how to address them. It can have you discover what is getting in your way in areas of your life, relationships, goals, job – and recognize healthy solutions.
To move on from something that upset you, also takes a vulnerability to feel the discomfort or pain that you have attached to a problem. People will often say to just move past the discomfort, yet doing so without getting in touch with the emotions of it, will have them come up to again to bite you later.
Exploring the feelings and discomfort through journaling, allows you to let it go, so when you choose a positive version, it’s not sitting on top of the negative.
Tips for journaling every day
Tip: Start small – Commit yourself to do it every day for a week and do one page per day, morning or evening. You may want to do both after you start.
As with any success in forming a new habit it takes time, and especially in the beginning of the process. Write in a place where you have few distractions. After journaling awhile, you may find you can journal in the middle of a lot of noise.
Writers get stopped most often because they have no idea what to say. “It’s a beautiful day. I fed the dog this morning,” and then they quit because they are at a loss for words.
Practice writing by saying whatever thought comes into your mind. There is an endless supply. Maybe it’s “I have no idea what to say next.“ This gets you into a stream of thoughts. You aren’t ‘thinking’ what to say as much as becoming a vessel for the thoughts to be expressed. You will get into an effortless and energizing flow with your writing.
Write with pen and paper instead of typing. A brain study showed that journaling every day by hand boosts brain activity and fine motor skills, which they believe is helpful in learning and memory.
Tip: Start with a gratitude list of at least 5 things. After writing them down, jot down a few things about each of the 5 items. Why is that item on the list?
You may find over time that you have gratitude for things you find hard or upsetting. It might surprise you. Write how you could be grateful – what did you learn? What did it teach you?
Habit of journaling creates a powerful perspective
Journaling every day opens your inner world where you get to know yourself, what stops you in life, how to move through it, and where you excel. It lightens you. You get to choose. It also affects all parts of your life, and with the addition of the gratitude list, you will see everything in your life with gratitude. What a way to start your morning!
