Hey you,
I hope you have been well?
If you’ve clicked on this post you’re probably wondering how to start journaling when you don’t like writing. This post is for the journaling beginners.
There are different things that are going to be addressed in this post, you will find the order below:
- What is a journal
- Getting the right essentials
- Brain dumping; what is it and how to do it
- Journaling with pictures, tickets and other collectables
- Vision journaling
- Art journaling
- Habit and mood trackers
- Gratitude journals
What is journaling?
The first question I’m going to answer is what is journaling? Journaling is writing down your thoughts and feelings with the goal of understanding them more clearly.
Journaling is writing down your thoughts and feelings with the goal of understanding them more clearly.
Although journaling is known to be a very theraputic practice ,I know that it isn’t an easy hobby to start. To be honest, journaling takes time and discipline to work effectively. It also depends on how you normally let things out. For some people journaling might be very effective and can be a way to help you heal, while for others it’s mainly a tool to help you understand and you’ll have to get the healing through another method.
Regardless, it helps you gain understanding into any topic that you have in your life.
1. Get the right journaling essentials
It’s important to have the right things that you have the right essentials, such as a good journal, pens, markers, washi tape and journal prompts.
There are different types of journals:
- Ruled journals
- Bullet journals
- Blank journals
- Digital journal
The best way to figure out which journal is best for you is by asking yourself how you like to express yourself best. Is it through writing? Is it through drawing? Or by making things?
For the people who don’t like writing at all, but prefer to work with pictures, cut outs and stickers, a blank notebook might be the best way to go.
For the one who wnats to alternate between writing and drawing or using pictures, a bullet journal, also known as a dotted journal, is a good in between.
For the person who does like to write things out, without using a pen and paper a digital journal might be best.
If you have the right things to use, it sets the mood for the journalling experience. One of the important things when it comes to journaling is having time to do it. Create time to just be at peace and remove the distractions, so that the creative side of your brain, the right hemisphere, can be activated.
On the frirst page you can put your name, date, age and current life circomstances that you’d like to include, such as your study or job, a picture of your favourite event of that year. All these things are amazing memories to look back on years down the line. It might feel a little awkward now, but later on you will thank yourself.
Another essential is journal prompts. Journal prompts are journaling ideas and questions that help you focus on what to write or do in a journal. Using journal prompts give you a clearer direction before you start journaling!
2. Start with a brain dump
If you’re struggling to be calm one of the fastest ways to get rid of all of the overwhelming thoughts that are rushing through your mind is by creating a brain dump.
A brain dump, also known as a mental dump is a transfer of concious thoughts that are flowing in your mind onto a piece of paper or digital document.
You can do a brain dump in various ways:
- You can create a list
- you can create a mindmap
- You can let it flow out like a story
It doesn’t have to look nice, it’s just important that you let clear the clutter of your mind. Everything that you’re thinking of write it down, until the flow of thoughts ends and your mind is at peace. I have used this as a way to practice being still.
3. Collect pictures and tickets of the things that make you happy
One of the ways to journal without writing anything is by sticking all the pictures, tickets, wrappers in your journal with the matching dates.
Savouring the moment meaning: Enjoy.
Google
By doing this your savouring the moments that made you happy. Having reminders of things that you did that made you happy can be encouraging to look at when you’re out of positive things to think of.
If you’re keeping a digital journal, you can also add some video blogs of moments where you had fun and keep them as a mini vlog.
4. Create a vision board in your journal
One of the things that is very helpful, when you don’t feel like writing is creating a vision board in your journal. I have vision journals especially for this practice. Vision journaling If you don’t have one, you can check it out here. If you want to know how to create a vision journal, click here.
5. Draw your day, also known as an art journal
Another way to limit your writing in the journal is by drawing and or painting. You can draw events that happened in your day, scenery or people you saw, you can also draw how you feel. If you decide to draw how you feel it is important to write some keywords besides it, so that when you look back years down the line, you can remember which emotions and or experiences you had made.
6. Habit and mood tracker
A habit or a mood tracker is exactly what the name says it is. It is a way of tracking the habits that you want to achieve and a mood tracker tracks how your mood is on which day.
It’s also a simple way to see your progress over the years that you’re journaling. It’s also a way to keep your mind organized.
There are different templates for habit and mood trackers, so you can chose various types.
7. Gratitude journal
One of the easiest and most fun ways to journal is a gratitude journal. Every morning you write down three to five things that you’re grateful for. It helps you get your day started in a positive light.
In the evening you can also add things that happened during the day that you’re grateful for as well. Make sure to look into the small things that happened during the day. It helps you end your day with a smile as well, because even if the day wasn’t too great, there are always one or two things that went really well.
I hope you enjoyed this post, and if you have please don’t be shy and leave a like or a comment! 😉
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Big love,
Joy
