If you aren’t already aware, journaling has some really positive benefits to your health and wellbeing. One of my favorite parts of the day is when I stop everything and spend a half an hour or so just working on my journal. It’s cathartic and comforting and is a huge part of my self- care routine. Journaling can be intimidating to some people, especially if you’ve never done it before or if you’re a beginner. Have no fear. I’m here to bring you a beginner’s guide and 6 easy tips you can follow to start your journaling journey. I’ve also included photos from my own journal for inspiration.
Choose a medium.
The first thing you need to do if you want to start journaling is decide what format you’d like to keep your journal in. Now, when you think of journaling you might immediately think of a physical notebook style and that’s okay. However, it’s important for you to know that you can journal digitally or even through audio notes if that is what suits your needs. I personally journal using a B5 dot grid journal (you can find these on Amazon) but I’ve also used scrap paper, google docs, and spiral notebooks in the past.
Once you figure out what format you’d like to journal in, you need to figure out what you’ll use for your journal. If you’re going physical, are you going to use a plain notebook or a fancy journal book? If you’re going digital, what app or software are you going to use to store your entries? If you’re going to keep an audio journal, are you going to record on your phone or a recorder? And where will you store those audio recordings so you can listen back and reflect?
For the purposes of this article, I will be referring to a physical journal kept in a dot grid notebook.
Set Aside Time for Journaling
Now that you’ve decided what format you’ll be journaling in, you need to allocate time to journal. You will get the most benefits from your journal if you set aside time to journal at least once a week, but if you can, set aside some time each day to work on your journal. You don’t have to spend a long time on it, but 10-15 minutes per day can really help you to reflect upon your life and your experiences.
Don’t Restrict Yourself
A lot of people think that if they’re keeping a journal, they must follow a strict format or use the same layout each time they write in it, and that simply isn’t true. Whether you want to write long form journal entries, make lists for gratitude, or just collage pictures from your day into your journal, all formats are valid and accepted! The great thing about journaling is that you make the rules and the best rule to make for yourself is that there are none.
Vary Your Content
Along the same lines as having no rules, experiment with different types of journaling and find what works best for you. Maybe you want to add doodles to your journal. Maybe you want to write poetry one day and a collage the next. You don’t even have to write or journal about yourself every time. Journaling is about creative expression and letting out emotions that you might not realize you’re keeping ahold of.
Some of my favorite journal pages are the ones where I just make a collage based on a book I recently read, or free-write my thoughts around a doodle. Whatever you choose to put in your journal is your decision. You could even glue receipts or concert tickets into your journal and write about those. As Taylor Swift sings in one of her songs, “this is our place, we make the rules” – this is your space, and you make the rules here!
Let Go
Don’t hold on to self-judgement or expectations when it comes to your journal. Forget about spelling, grammar, punctuation, or any other guidelines that might hinder you. If you misspell a word, don’t cross it out. Just keep writing. If you draw a dog that looks like an elephant, that’s fine! Creative expression is meant to be freeing and if you focus on the negative things when you journal, you won’t benefit from the experience.
Set Realistic Expectations
Your journal is not meant to be perfect. It is meant to be a safe and free space for you to do whatever you feel like within its pages or files. You probably see aesthetic journals on Pinterest and Instagram and think “I want my journal to look like that!” and maybe yours will. But if you go into journaling with high expectations and don’t focus on the experience itself, you could end up disappointed.
Embrace the dogs that look like elephants. Draw flowers around your spelling errors. Embrace the fact that you’re a human who makes mistakes and allow your journal to help you flourish into the person that you are. Your journal is not going to judge you, so you shouldn’t judge yourself.
Conclusion
Journaling is a method of free expression in a judgement free zone where you can entirely be yourself. By following these easy tips and guidelines, you will be on your way to being a journaling pro in no time, because everyone who journals is a pro. It’s your space and your content. Embrace the freedom that journaling allows you and get to it!
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