I started my first diary when I was in the first grade. It came with a tiny key so you could lock your secrets from nosy siblings. I wrote then that I loved my dog and that I wanted to marry Raymond Wong. There wasn’t much else to that diary. About ten years later, when I was in my teens, I tried again. And kept trying. I journaled to vent, I journaled for gratitude, I journaled for healing. And it all was something that led me somewhere deeper, richer, to my true heart and selfhood. Many, many moons later, alongside my clinical training and coaching, I’m here to impart some journaling wisdom to you.
Here are four ways to get more out of journaling:
1. Play
Play with a medium that works for you. Try a physical journal if you’ve never started one. Try a digital one. Literally just get started on your phone in Google Keep or Notes. I was always a physical journal-er until this past year, and now I have a hybrid approach. I have a journal-journal, a gratitude journal, and a digital work-in-progress journal where I write my thoughts about my creative projects. Play with when you journal. A lot of healing comes from play.
2. Let loose.
Put it all out there. This is a place for you. This is a place to put all that energy, the bitterness, sourness, the complaints, all that stuff. It’s a place for you to put it and then leave it. If you need help with leaving things, try this clearing mind clutter exercise. You have permission to let loose here. You don’t always need to find the good in everything 100% of the time.
3. No judgments.
Leave the self-judgment out of this space. This is a place just for you–for you to be your weird, wonderful self.
Journaling is dancing in the dark, it’s standing in front of a mirror and accepting that award with your hairbrush.
No need to edit yourself here—you (maybe) do that enough in the rest of your life.
4. Be Mindful.
Try to be mindful of how you’re feeling while you’re writing. Is it uncomfortable? Does it feel weird or silly? Being present is going to help you get more out of journaling, and it’s going to help you figure out what type of journaling works for you. How do you feel when you start? How do you feel at the end? Taking note of this can help you track healing over time.
I’ll be starting a Journaling and Mindfulness as healing workshop soon, so sign up below to get notifications on enrollment and the latest blogs and videos!
And P.S. In case you were wondering, I did not marry Raymond Wong.
