Your journal is a personal space where you can write freely, a private space to be truly honest with yourself.
Setting some time to intentionally write down your thoughts is a way to empty your mind, to prepare to relax and focus on being more present. It can also be a good way to cope with stress and anxiety
Use journaling for different reasons, such as noting down feelings, keeping a food diary, a gratitude practice or a reflective practice.
There are many ways to journal so if it doesn’t come easy at first try out a few different techniques until you find one that suits you. You can use a combination of different techniques within one journal or keep separate journals for different aspects of your life.
Choose which you prefer, writing by hand or using your computer. There are pros and cons to both. I prefer hand written especially because it gets me away from the blue light of the computer and it feels like a more contemplative practice especially if you choose a beautiful journal and pen.
Create a sense of sacredness to your journalling time with yourself by mindfully setting an intention, settling into your body and harnessing the power of your breath consciously accepting the Shakti energy into your body on the inhale and releasing any tension on the exhale. When possible sit somewhere in a pleasing and calm environment, set the tone using scents and light a candle .
Get Curious
Ask yourself questions.
What has happened today? How did that make you feel? Are you excited about anything? Why? Reflect on the thoughts and feelings you’ve been having.
did something stand out to me today?
what am I feeling grateful for today?
did I learn something new today?
did I have an aha moment today? What importance might that have to my personal growth?
what can I improve on? Do differently?
Keep the tone of your questions and answers compassionate in that you don’t want to be beating yourself up but also be real, don’t sugarcoat everything either.
Be honest, recognise your wins and also your failures.
Finish on a positive note. Pair a negative sentence with a positive call to action or sandwich a negative between two positives.
Tips to get flowing
Make the moment intentional by settling into your journal practice with a grounding breath technique
There are no rules let your style be yours it is an expression of your thoughts and beliefs put down on to paper as a way to empty your mind and relive stress and also a way to learn about yourself. Be non judgemental.
Once you start keep going you could start with how you feel in the present moment or start a story line from your day as a prompt or write about a remembered sensation of a strong feeling from your day. Try not to overthink, the more you practice it will become easier.
By writing quickly you can get in the zone of expression and overcome writer’s block and stop your judgemental mind from editing or criticising your feelings.
Be honest this is the best way to grow, be your best friend and show compassion to your learning process. Sometimes the truth even to ourselves hurts but it can lead to healing too. It can teach you to learn how to set new boundaries and what values are important to you.
Allow yourself freedom of expression a full range of feelings don’t edit yourself.
Different styles to try
You can begin sentences with “I feel,” or “I think,” or “I wonder what” not limiting yourself to a particular topic. Let the beginning of your journal writing be an exploration of your thoughts at that time.
Mindfulness journaling being extremely present to the current moment, your breath, the sensations in you body, your thoughts, your surroundings. Between moments of observing write down your observations.
Reflective journaling compare your earlier feelings to your current position by asking “How am I feeling now?" "Could I have reacted differently?" Consider what you’ve learned about the event and most importantly your reaction to it, ask yourself, "What have I learned from this experience, what can I take from this to improve upon my future experiences?
Expressive Writing for 20 minutes about your deepest thoughts and feelings regarding a challenging or negative experience research is showing that it may lead to improvements in your memory and help to decrease intrusive thoughts.
Free Writing without boundaries, subject or structure, you could limit yourself by allocating a set amount of time to it or decide how many pages to go for.
Descriptive writing choose a moment or sensation from your day and really go into descriptive detail using your experience of sensations. Tap into your experience of awe and describe it. This is similar to a gratitude practice but may be more expressive.
Gratitude journal where you acknowledge what you are grateful for, noticing and appreciating the things that you are grateful for has 5 proven health benefits
Brain storming choose a word or phrase maybe one that has meaning from your day? And then get creative writing down what that brings up for you by free association, so you have a central idea you can expand upon. It does not have to make sense. Think of it like abstract art.
Characterization giving feelings a personality, give your emotion a style, name and describe its behaviour. You can use this technique to also personify an aspect of yourself. Bring some humour into learning to make friends with all your emotions.
Take an Inventory List the polarities of your life. Assess your current situation. You could look at your work/life balance, your health, your emotional and spiritual wellbeing. This gives you a clear outline of where you are at right now and where you might want to make changes Find out what is really important to you..
Write a letter that you don’t actually intend to send. It can be to another person, a specific time and place, an event or even to yourself. You could imagine telling someone exactly how you feel or you could rewrite the script of an experience in retrospect and describe a preferred interaction and outcome.
You might find that your desire to journal or the ease in which you express yourself ebbs and flows daily, weekly this in itself is interesting so try no to judge, instead be curious, enjoy and reap the benefits.
Receive your FREE Beheld Wellness Journal to help you begin or expand onyour journaling practice.