When you first think of journaling, you might think of a teenage girl writing about her crush sitting on a windowsill. The connotation of journaling is often portrayed as young people writing to find themselves as they deal with raging hormones and new life changing experiences. 

This connotation is not wrong, but there is so much more to journaling then it is made out to be. Let's get one thing straight: journaling is for everyone (not just teenage girls). Journaling is a form of self expression where people can privately explore their complex feelings through empowerment and vulnerability. You don’t need to be the best writer in the world, but an effective routine journaling can bring so many positive outcomes and improvements to your overall quality of life. 

Article Touchpoints:

What The Heck is Journaling? And Why Should We Do It? 

Tips on How to Start Journaling 

Journaling Recommendations 

Take Away Message

Journaling FAQ

What The Heck Is Journaling? 

The key to journaling is to be effective with your writing intentions. It’s simply not just putting words on a page and hoping to gain a life changing perspective. If it was that easy, we wouldn’t need therapy. 

Effective journaling is a practice that helps you meet your desired goals or improves your quality of life. Some of these goals can include, but are not limited to, drawing connections between important thoughts, limiting the effects of mental illness, clearing your head, finding understanding between thoughts and behaviors, and gaining a better understanding of feelings. 

Again, you don’t need to be the best writer. There are numerous ways to effectively journal, you just need to find the way that works best for you. Here are a few different journaling techniques to keep in mind:

• Bullet journal – who said anything about sentences? Write bullet points instead! 
• Question journal – write down any questions for yourself to be answered later. 
• Idea journal – everyones got great ideas, write them down so you don’t forget. 
• Gratitude journal – remind yourself what you're grateful for. 

Why Should We Journal?

Journaling requires the left analytical, rational side of the brain; which gives your right creative, emotional side of your brain to wander and flourish while the other hemisphere is occupied. Allowing our creativity to be active can bring many improvements to our overall quality of life, as it helps us to gain better awareness in ourselves and the world around us. 

Baikie and Wilhelm offer 6 tips to ensure your journaling is effective and constructive: 

1. Write in a private and personal space that is free from distractions;
2. Give yourself some time to reflect and balance yourself after writing;
3. Write at least three or four times, and aim for writing consecutivity (i.e., at least once each day); 
4. If your wanting to overcome trauma, don’t feel obligated to write about a specific traumatic event – journal about what feels right in the moment;
5. Structure the writing however it feels right to you;
6. Keep your journal private; it’s for your eyes only – not your spouse, not your family, not your friends, not even your therapist (although you can discuss your experience with your therapist, of course!). 

A common misconception about journaling is that people only tend to journal when dealing with negative emotions. Journaling when dealing with negative emotions is great, but you will only receive temporary benefits when doing this. Our overall goal here is to achieve consistency. In order to effectively journal, you must journal at least once a day. We know, that sounds like a lot, but we’ll dive into some tips on how to do this in the next sections. 

Wondering how daily journaling can benefit your quality of life? These are 9 benefits to regular journaling (according to Hardy, 2017):

• It promotes and enhances your creativity in a way that once-in-a-while journaling simply can’t match;
• It propels you toward your goals, helping you bring your vision to life;
• It offers you a daily opportunity to recover from the daily stressors and leave the unimportant stuff behind;
• It can help you identify things that otherwise go unnoticed, such as patterns in your thinking, the influences behind your feelings and behavior, and any incongruencies in your life;
• It gives you a chance to get all your emotions out on paper, reducing your stress and releasing tension;
• It facilitates learning by creating a record of the lessons and key ideas you have discovered and helps you to remember them more effectively;
• It boosts your overall sense of gratitude and your sensitivity to all that you have been grateful for;
• It makes you a better writer and helps you to discover your “voice;”
• It leaves a written record of your experiences, which can be helpful today and extremely precious years into the future.

Tips on How To Start Journaling 

We can give at least twenty different tips on how to start journaling but there is only one that really matters: repetition. The first step to effective journaling is integrating it into your daily routine. We recommend starting by adding it into either your morning or nightly routine, and sticking with it so it develops into a habit. Choosing between morning or night is completely up to you and your already existing routine. However, make sure that you are smart about your decision so that journaling actually becomes an active practice in your routine. For example, if you're not a morning person you probably shouldn’t add journaling into your morning routine. 

Now you may be thinking, my daily routine is already long enough. How can you expect me to add yet another hour of activities to my busy schedule? You don’t have to, all you need is 5 to 10 minutes. 

Another common misconception about journaling is that it’s time consuming. However, effective journaling only requires about 5 to 10 minutes and you decide however long you feel is necessary for that particular day or topic. 

The Center for Journal Therapy provides some awesome guidelines for effective journaling. We suggest adding the acronym, WRITE, somewhere in your journal to remember these 5 guidelines. 

W – What do you want to write about? Think about what is going on in your life, your current thoughts and feelings, what you’re striving towards or trying to avoid right now. Give it a name and put it all on paper. 

R – Review or reflect on it. Take a few moments to be still, calm your breath, and focus. A little mindfulness or meditation could help in this step. Try to start sentences with “I” statements like “I feel…”, “I want…”, and “I think…” Also, try to keep them in the present tense, with sentence stems like “Today…”, “Right now…”, or “In this moment…”. 

I – Investigate your thoughts and feelings through your writing. Just keep going! If you feel you have run out of things to write, take a moment to re-focus (another opportunity for mindfulness meditation!), read over what you have just written, and continue on. 

T – Time yourself to ensure that you write for at least 5 minutes (or whatever your current goal is). Write down your start time and the projected end time based on your goal at the top of the page. Set your timer or alarm to go off when the time period you have is up. 

E – Exit strategically and with introspection. Read what you have written and take a moment to reflect on it. Sum up your takeaway in one or two sentences, starting with statements like “As I ready this, I notice…”, “I’m aware of…”, or “I feel…” If you have any action items or steps you would like to take next, write them down now. 

Journaling Recommendations

Now that we have an idea of what journaling is and how to start, what the heck are we supposed to write about? To help you get into the habit of journaling, we created a special journal just for you. The Aurgami journal is designed for daily journaling, giving you multitudes of daily writing prompts and activities to choose from. Not seeing one you like? We also post new journal prompts every week on our Instagram or feel free to choose one of our own. Remember, this journal is for you and your self expression, we are only here as a resource to guide you along the way. 

Take Away Message

We hope that you can see that journaling can bring so many benefits to your overall quality of life. At times journaling can be hard when dealing with negative situations and emotions, but we hope that with journaling you can find an effective way to deal with these emotions now and in the future. 

Remember, your journal is for you and you only. This is a safe space for you to express your internal thoughts and emotions so don’t be afraid to show your authentic self. If you're dealing with a hard trauma, know that you are not alone! This is a safe space for you, so feel free to share as much or as little as you like. If you feel that you are a danger to yourself or mental well-being please seek professional help. Please click here, for a full list of preventative hotlines. 

Journaling FAQs

Q: Can I use my electronic devices to journal? 

A: No, typing out your journal entries will not give you the same benefits as pen to paper. However, everyone is different and has their own way of doing things but physically writing your journal entries allows you to fully immerse yourself in your writing. It also creates a form of separation between you and your devices, which eliminates any distractions that may come up during this private time.