Journaling for Wellness
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The how and why of working with journaling
When I look back to the points in my life when I felt the most alive — the most attuned to the world around me and the most perceptive about my relationships — I can see a clear commonality that united those years. It wasn’t how old I was, where I was living or who I was around. It was how much I was journaling. People may joke that talking to yourself is a sign you’re crazy; I’d argue the exact opposite. The world’s a confusing place. Most mindfulness practces ask that you listen and respond to the thought patterns in your mind to heal them, to challenge them, to grow and change. How are you going to get through without regular conversations with yourself? Of all the daily mindfulness practices available, apart from meditation itself, journaling is perhaps the least expensive and most portable. You don’t need classes or accoutrements. Here’s what I would consider some best practices to get into the habit and make the practice of journaling work for you.
1. You Have to Do It Everyday
Yes, this part’s the toughest to stick to and it does take a commitment to make journaling into a daily habit. Look for the spots in your day that would make a good fit for journaling, the moments when you always come up for air. Lunch break? The minutes before or after a commute? I always journal first thing in the morning. For me, journaling goes perfectly with the day’s first cup of coffee. If you’re worried about not having things to write about, journaling at the end of the day might be a good idea. That will set you up well to do a rundown, or better yet, a reflection on the day’s events. It doesn’t really matter when you journal though, as long as you do it daily. It also doesn’t really matter how long you journal for. Don’t assign yourself a word count or set a timer. Just write. Some days it may be three sentences. Other days it may be three pages. Both are fine.
2. It Has to Be Handwritten
Blogging can certainly be a useful practice, especially for writers looking to establish their voice. Social media sites and platforms such as LiveJournal are useful for those looking to connect or share their stories. Your journal is not at all like your Facebook page. It is an inward conversation, one you are having with yourself. Allow it to be private, discursive, free of spellcheck squiggles. Get yourself a beautiful journal or a 99 cent marble composition book. Either one will do (cheaper may be better; an expensive one may be intimidating to write in). It matters that it be handwritten though. Research has shown that writing by hand utilizes different parts of the brain, parts that govern fine motor skills and memory. Writing by hand ensures you will not be distracted and open a new tab to jump down some internet rabbit hole. No temptation to check email or google a recipe for dinner. My handwriting has been sloppy my whole life — slanted, wide, loopy. My hand is always rushing to catch up with my brain. Journaling by hand forces me to slow down — a good thing for me. If you are in the habit of writing by hand you may find the same thing, that it makes you take a breath as you think and feel.
3. Consider Fun Add-ins
Because I travel with my journal, the artifacts of my days often end up in there — gas station receipts, pressed garden flowers, museum admission stickers. Hospital bracelets from visiting my chronologically ill sister inpatient are tucked inside so many of my journals. If, like me, you have youngish kids, your journal is a good place to put the art you are inevitably gifted in spades. Sometimes I paste in other random finds I just feel like collecting — a newspaper horoscope, a magazine image I like (or maybe even am stunned or baffled by). My mother still gets prints of the photos she takes and makes copious copies for my sisters and me. A lot of those photos end up in my journal. Sometimes in the page’s margins I write down a joke I heard, someone’s clever quip. Sometimes I’m more a collector than an author and that’s alright by me.
4. Never Edit, Re-read or Share
Whether you call it your inner critic or the editor in your head, we all live with a voice that takes aim at our sense of self. One of the great gains of journaling is establishing a new inner voice, one that is productive and supportive. So don’t invite that inner critic into your journaling. Don’t edit. Don’t correct grammar or fact check. No one is grading this. Likewise, avoid the temptation to re-read your entries. It doesn’t matter if you made an assumption about a relationship two weeks ago that turned out to be untrue. You’re not writing a novel. There doesn’t need to be a cogent narrative arc. Just write for the day (or about the day) and move on to the next one. Sharing too I would very strenuously discourage. Things change when we are writing for an audience. This is a conversation with yourself. You don’t need to invite others in. What you write might not make sense to them. What strikes you as poignant might land differently for someone else. How do I know this? I dug the diary of ten year old me out of the back of a closet to share with my then ten year old daughter who read it and pronounced ten year old me to be boring and complaining. That’s all probably true! If you think of yourself as writing for an audience you will feel the need to be profound, to be Anne Frank, to serve up universal truths.
For friendly introverts like me who can’t imagine finding inner peace in a meditation hall or crowded yoga class, journaling is a wonderful solitary practice towards mindfulness. Whether you are venting complaints, cataloguing joys or just thinking on page, journaling makes a space in your life for the most essential voice in your life: your own.
