Quick update before we jump into today’s post: Last week, I shared about anniversary reactions. I am happy to report that I woke up feeling full of joy on Wednesday, and I am incredibly thankful to say that it has continued through this week. There are so many ebbs and flows of the healing journey, and I am celebrating a shift happening for me right now. If you are reading and in a difficult place right now, I want to encourage you that there is hope for change, and I know it will come sooner than you feel like it will.
This week I thought I would focus on journaling. Every time that I mention it, I receive questions about how I journal, why I do it, and why I talk about it so much. I thought it might be time to give a better insight into the wonderful world of journaling and why I keep telling you that it’s a great asset to everyone’s journey, but particularly for people who have experienced abuse or other trauma. So today, we focus on the how.
I often say that I am not a very creative person. I don’t consider myself artistic or musical. I sometimes joke that my hands are not really connected to my brain. They just don’t seem to do what I want them to. When I dance, I call myself wet cardboard – I am not completely stiff, but I certainly don’t move in a graceful, fluid, or attractive manner. My hands feel about the same when I am trying to make things. I don’t have that golden touch. But when I journal, the creative part of me feels alive and free to run.
Journaling is not really about your words. I will talk about why we should journal on Wednesday, but it’s important to note right now that a journal is whatever you make it. It doesn’t need to be a novel. It doesn’t need to be full of poetry. It doesn’t need to make sense to anyone but you. I’ll even say that not every entry needs to include words. Some can be in other abstract forms.
I personally don’t like to journal in a…journal. A book to fill is intimidating to me. I used to get through a few pages and lose the habit for a couple of weeks or months. Then I would feel like I needed to start a new book. Or I would write an entry, start a new one, and feel like I wanted to add to the last one but not have any space to do it. This made me feel pressure to make every entry perfectly thought out and articulated, which made me want to do it less. Instead, I tend to journal on notepads, so I can tear the pages off, or use index cards.
I prefer to journal on white, college-ruled paper with black pen. That might sound incredibly boring to you. Feel free to make yours full of color with bubble letters or doodles galore. I keep mine simple because I don’t feel artistic, so when I try to be, I become critical and discouraged. This often makes me feel anxious, which deters me from continuing. I save my “experimenting” for other times, like when I watercolor paint. I hope to one day allow some color into my entries, but for now, clean and simple keeps me coming back.
Most of my journaling is in full sentences, but I also like to keep a calendar style journal with one or two emotion labels for the day. As a female, it really helped to add this to my period tracking. Hormones play a big part in mood and seeing it mapped out opened my eyes. It made me realize that all journaling should involve an emotional aspect. I say that because some people journal food habits and/or physical symptoms for a variety of reasons. Even if you are looking for a diagnosis, how you feel just before or when you experience the symptom is important information. Knowing that an allergic reaction makes you feel frustrated may not reduce the physical symptom, but it could help you to better regulate your emotional well-being.
Anyway, another popular type of journaling is through checklists. This is especially great for beginners. The premise is that you have a list of simple questions that you ask yourself each day. They generally involve a one-word or short answer OR require you to complete a task. (ex. How would you describe your day? What was your main mood? Were you of service to anyone today? Did you get any sunshine?) You use the same list every day to identify patterns or stabilize your mood. It is an easy way to create the habit of daily entry and improve your emotional awareness. It may very well lead to more expressive forms of journaling.
Charts are up next. There is so much value in creating a family tree. Include as much information about each individual’s physical and mental/emotional health, and short personality descriptions if possible. Make note of couples, married or unmarried, how long they were together, if death or divorce occurred, a few words to describe the relationship, etc. You can learn a lot through those that came before you. Timelines are a wonderful asset as well. Mapping your major experiences and other events surrounding them can reveal quite a bit about your coping mechanisms and learned behaviors.
I wrote about my love for choosing one word to focus an entire entry on here. You may find lyrical writing to be appealing. Bullet points are certainly a great option. You can even use other people’s words to express yourself. The point is, there is no right or wrong way to do it. The less pressure you place on what you say or how you say it, the easier it will become to fall in love with, and the more often you will do it. I can’t wait to share all of the benefits that can come from a steady journaling practice!
Leave a comment with your favorite way to journal.
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