If you have ever shown any interest in mental and overall wellness, you have definitely read or been told about the many benefits of journaling. I won’t go over them here, but there are many reasons why you should start.
However, the concept of journaling is often oversimplified, and people who are starting on this journey might be left hanging regarding what exactly they need to do or how to go about journaling so they can get the most out of it.
Despite knowing all the right reasons for journaling, some of us sometimes don’t know where to start. We know where we want to be and what we need to do but get stuck on how to actually do it.
Thankfully, I went through that confusion, so you don’t have to! I also wanted to enjoy the benefits of journaling, and these are the journaling tips I found.
4 Journaling Tips for When You Actually Don’t Know How to Journal
1. Explore your emotions.
I find this to be one of the good starting points for journaling.
Throughout the day, we are normally busy getting things done. It is easy to find ourselves flying on autopilot, not having a chance to stop and process how we are feeling.
Exploring your emotions when journaling requires you to stop for a minute and clearly understand how you are feeling at the present moment, also looking back to see how certain encounters made you feel throughout the day.
In order to get the most from exploring your emotions, you could consider answering these questions:
- What one word describes how I am feeling now?
- How did I feel for most of the day?
- What did XYZ make me feel?
- What makes me feel happy?
- What makes me feel sad?
- When was I last genuinely happy? Why was I happy?
2. Make future plans.
They say the best way to predict the future is by planning it.
When you sit down to journal, plan your future. Think about what you want and where you see yourself in the future, and write it down.
The ‘future’ does not have to be five years down the road. It can simply be tomorrow or next week. Journaling about your future gives you time to think about what you want and get a clear picture of what you want to work towards.
Some prompts that can help you best include:
- If it was up to me, how would I want my future to look?
- What would I like to accomplish in the future?
- How would I want my future to be different from my present?
3. Create a mind map.
I like to believe that we all have a multitude of thoughts flowing into our minds at certain times.
Unfortunately for myself, sometimes I forget about some of these wonderful ideas and find myself trying to remember them, often unsuccessfully. It is difficult for us to juggle and pay attention to all the ideas we get, so we usually focus on what is important at that moment and ignore (often forgetting) the rest.
Creating a mind map allows us to put down everything that is in our heads on a piece of paper.
It’s one of the journaling tips that helps us see the invisible links that exist between the thoughts we get. Moreover, it helps us brainstorm, allowing us enough time to explore and think about the thoughts we have and why we are having them.
When working on a mind map, remember that it doesn’t always have to make sense at first sight. It might take a bit of time to get everything connected, and in some cases, we don’t see how the thoughts are connected and that is okay.
Just start by writing down any ideas that pop into your head. As your mind map grows, you can start to literally connect them, maybe drawing lines between similar ideas, or common themes. From there, keep exploring and see where your mind map takes you!
4. Track your habits.
Sometimes, we have habits of interest that we either want to continue and improve on or those we want to reduce and ultimately stop.
Personally, physical activity has always been a weak spot, so lately, I have been trying to run and do some more yoga while reducing my screen time. Obviously, these differ from one person to another, and sometimes they are multiple habits while in some, it is just one habit.
Spend some time thinking and writing about that habit so you get an idea of how you can work towards your goal effectively. Journaling about your habits will help you keep track and see if you are moving towards where you want to be and the pace at which you are moving.
The reflection process is helpful in understanding what you can do to cultivate the habits you want.
Prompts that help me keep an eye on my habits when journaling include:
- How many hours did I spend on my phone today?
- Which app on my phone did I spend the most time on?
- What took up most of my time today?
- How much physical activity did I do today?
- What got in the way of me achieving my target step count or going for my run?
Journaling Tips: It Does Not Have to Be Boring!
When you aren’t sure what to do, journaling can seem like a tedious and unfulfilling thing.
There are so many ways to journal, and when you treat each day like a new and different day, journaling is way more rewarding and relaxing than we realize.
Talking to my friends about journaling made me realize that we all do it differently, yet we all benefit from it.
What I have also learnt is to go with the flow and not have a rigid plan for how I want to journal. On some days, I want to focus on my feelings, and on others, I want to focus on planning my future. On others, I want to look back and reflect on my past choices.
All of these journaling tips are important to me, and I have to do them. There is no need to beat myself up because I didn’t do one thing when I did another that was equally enriching.
Lastly, there is no right and wrong way of journaling and I believe that is another thing that makes the experience fulfilling.
It is a process of learning and unlearning in order to figure out what works best, depending on the stage we are at. When it comes to journaling, even when you aren’t sure about what you are doing, just do it. It gets better, more fun and more rewarding with time!
Photo by Michael Burrows
