If You Are Looking To Start Journaling, Here Are Some Useful Tips & Ideas

In this era of digital overdose, the one habit that I find myself constantly gravitating towards is journaling. I find nothing more therapeutic than using pen and paper to write down my thoughts, my vision, my gratitude and all my hopes for the future.

It is a meditative sense of personal connection that I feel every day when I spend a few minutes dedicating my mind and time to solely focus on penning down some very important pieces of my life.

In this post I am going to talk about how to get started with journaling and share some ideas on what you can write about. I hope this helps all of you who are keen to introduce this habit in your lives and would like some direction and pointers.

What is journaling?

Journaling is simply a practice of writing. You can include any form of content in your writing starting from your thoughts, your fears, your beliefs to your daily step count, your fitness timetable or your eating habit. It is a way to reflect on yourself and dig deeper into areas within yourself that you have never explored before.

It is a process of self-learning where you get to be really honest with yourself. It is such a fantastic way to tune into your inner self and find areas that bring you joy and the ones that may bring you fear or grief.

I have personally experienced that it is very effective with reducing stress as it helps me get a lot of emotions off my chest and on paper.

It is a great way to spend some alone time and at the same time gain all the benefits of a personal therapist! 😊

How to get started with journaling?

Choose a journal

The very first thing you want to do here is to invest in a nice journal for yourself. You don’t need to be very picky but I get super excited every time I have to start looking for a new journal. I look at many many many options and usually end up picking something colorful, happy and overall positive!

So just look for something that connects with you and that excites you.

Choose the right time to journal

This may not seem very important, but I have learnt that the only way I am able to journal consistently is by doing it at the same time every day.

When it comes to deciding the best time to integrate this practice into your life, this will be different for each one of us. And it may also shift based on changes constantly occurring in our lives. It is perfectly okay to move things around a little bit.

What is important is to find time when ideally you can be alone with minimum distractions. This could be early morning, before going to sleep or part of an evening self-care routine. Choose a time you feel you can bring out and channel your emotions well and write your heart out!

But remember – you don’t have to do it every single day. Never feel any pressure in doing this practice. For me personally depending on how I feel I may journal multiple times a day or sometimes just 1-2 times a week.

Decide what to write

Now this is where it can get a bit tricky, especially if you are a complete newbie. Finding your writing style and structure of your content that you resonate with may take a while. It took me a whole year to finally nail down my journaling to focus on areas that have a significant impact on my life.

I am going to list down a few different areas/styles of journaling that I have used and some others that I have seen other people around me using. You can choose one or many options from here and see what works for you the best.

How are you, really? – writing down your worries, decisions you are grappling with or grief that you are currently experiencing.

Mood tracker – tracking how you feel (Sad, Happy, Angry, Confused) every single day and using that to explore why you feel a certain way and question if there is anything you can do to feel differently?

Highlight of the day – something that made you feel proud or brought a smile to your face or just made you feel thankful for the life you have. The more you practice this, the easier it will get to identify moments in your day that made you truly happy.

Limiting belief of the day – self-limiting or negative thoughts or beliefs you had. Explore them. Why do I feel this way?

Gratitude – writing down things that you are grateful for.

Dear diary – write to an imaginary person who you know will not judge you. Tell them how you feel.

Personal/professional vision – break this down into daily, short-term and long-term goals you know you will achieve.

Organise stuff – could be any of your mundane chores, grocery lists, TO DO lists, videos that you need to watch for your content creation. Having them all in a single place is a great way to ensure that you track your list every day.

Personal growth – tracking your progress with respect to anything that you are working on in your life. Could be getting fitter, eating healthier, reading more books. Just a style to log your activities and track improvements.

There are so many more different options of what you could write in your journal. The list is limitless and so is your way of making it your own. That is what I love about this process. It is your own little oasis that you create and immerse yourself in.

No matter which or how many types of journaling you choose to maintain, it is always a great way to know where you started and how far you have come, what your thoughts were at each phase of life and how your thoughts and beliefs have changed over time. There is no better way to track your development using your own words and methods.

Also, never forget that your journal does not necessarily have to capture only the past and present, but it is also a great place to visualise your future, write down your wishes and hopes for the life you want for yourself. It is a place you get to DREAM BIG!

I really hope this for useful for anyone looking to embark on this beautiful journey of journaling. Please let me know in the comments if you need any help starting out or have any questions regarding any specific type of journaling mentioned here. As always, I’ll be delighted to hear from you all.