Digging Back into Journaling
This post is for the die hard journalers and the dabblers. Those of you with the stack of journals in the basement written in since 3rd grade and those of you who buy a new journal twice a year to finally start writing in a journal everyday and actually never do. This is for everyone interested in journaling. Whether you’ve already established a journaling routine or are looking to get more consistent with daily writing, today we’re sharing tips to reconnect with your practice.
Create Your Journal
Golden Coil offers tools to help you create your customized journal. Select the Notebooks tab to begin customizing. After selecting your cover and creating your fill, or first page of your journal, navigate to Layouts < Standard and select which type of page you’d like to fill your journal with. When creating a journal, we like to use Dot, Grid, Lined, or Blank depending on the type of journal we want to create. You can even create a combination of pages.
Your Purpose in Writing
Think about what you hope to get out of journaling. Are you hoping to reduce anxiety? Take note of memories? Open up blocked creativity? Work on a writing project? Track growth/work toward a goal? Free write and explore your why. Understanding your goals and drive will help you shape a journaling practice that works best for you and help you to be more consistent with your writing.
Start Again
Start out small. If your goal is to journal everyday, aim for 2-3 days a week as you begin. Invite a friend to join you in your journaling practice and make them your accountability partner. After you journal, close your notebook and snap a photo to send them or check in each week to see how your journaling progress is going. If you have multiple friends interested in journaling, think about starting a journaling club. You can gather once a month to discuss journaling and spending time responding to the same prompt and writing independently. After writing you can discuss the process or the content, depending on the preference of the group.
If you’re looking for consistency in your practice, think about your best window of time to write. Is it early in the morning, midday around lunch, at the end of the day? Pick the best time that works for you. Make journaling something you look forward to. Pair the ritual of writing with some other favorites like lighting a special candle or incense, writing with a favorite pen, listening to a specific playlist, sitting in the same spot, and drinking from a favorite mug. A visual timer is also an excellent tool to utilize to keep yourself on track while writing.
What to Write
There are many approaches to journaling. The book “The Artist’s Way” made the practice of morning pages, three pages of stream of consciousness journaling popular. You can also focus on a gratitude practice, focusing on one special moment of each day to write about. You can also use a six question/prompt format and answer the same questions each day:
Three great moments from yesterday
Three things I learned yesterday
Three things I am grateful for today
Three things that would make today great
Two things that would make me feel better
Two things I believe
If none of this appeals to you and you like the idea of more structure, we recommend the book “The Book of Alchemy” by Suleika Jaouad. It includes 100 short essays and prompts for journaling. Each day you read the essay and prompt and then write in your journal. You can also use your own personal prompts to help focus your writing each day. We’ve included 15 journaling prompts below to help you get started as you brainstorm your own!
Write about a regret in your life and how you can reframe it.
Name a place you visited in the last year. Spend 15 minutes brainstorming every detail you can about the place. Use all your senses to describe your observations of the place. Sights, sounds, smells, what you could feel. How was the weather? What did you wear? How did you feel?
Imagine a day in your life 30 years in the future. What does your ideal day look like?
Think of a memorable coworker of your past. Write about this person and your workplace. Their habits, your interactions, what you knew about them. What did you love and admire about this person? What got on your nerves you?
Write about a time a stranger did something nice for you.
Play a song you love. Listen to it the whole way through. What does the song bring to mind? Spend 10 minutes exploring and writing. Keep the song on repeat as you write if it helps.
Do an image search of “classic painting portrait” and choose an image and write about it. Imagine the life of the person. What do they love and hate? How do they spend their time and what do they wear? Who do they love?
Write about something you are holding on to that you’d like to let go of.
Write about a favorite scent. What does it evoke for you?
Describe a time when you learned an important lesson from a parent or guardian.
Write about a friend and a time when your friendship was pushed or strengthened.
Have you ever felt your beliefs tested? What was that experience like?
First experiences can be exciting, nerve wracking, or stressful. Write about a first experience you’ve had in your life.
Have you ever felt judged or passed judgment on someone else? How did that experience change after some time passed?
Look out your window and record your observations. What do you see? How is the weather?
Let go of perfectionism and fall back in love with journaling this fall! We’d love to hear all of your journaling tips and advice in the comments!