The word “journaling” has become increasingly trendy in recent years – and for good reason, in my opinion! But what’s it all about?
Let me start by saying this: At its core, journaling is simply writing by hand, pen on paper. It’s similar to keeping a classic diary, but not quite the same.
In this article, you’ll discover what journaling is, why it’s so beneficial, and how it works!
What is Journaling?
Journaling is a method where you write down your thoughts and feelings – without thinking too much about what exactly you want to write beforehand.
Instead, you start somewhere and let everything “flow”!
While this can theoretically work digitally, it’s much more effective with pen on paper. The act of writing itself engages the left, analytical hemisphere of the brain, allowing the right, creative hemisphere to take over.
This is where the magic of journaling happens: You might end up with insights you’d never have reached through mere thinking, as they were hidden somewhere in your subconscious!
Through this process of writing things down, I’ve been able to name feelings that had been bothering me for a long time – feelings I couldn’t quite place or understand. I’ve discovered where these feelings come from (and in the best cases, I’ve had ideas about how to deal with them).
The result is almost always greater clarity regarding your own thoughts and feelings!
Journaling vs. Keeping a Diary
I think the difference from keeping a diary is clearer now: You usually keep a diary chronologically – recording what happened today, and maybe how you felt about it.
This can be valuable too, especially during “special” phases of life:
- when starting a new job
- during your first (or second or third) pregnancy
- on a long-planned trip
For me, keeping a traditional diary serves a different purpose, primarily preserving memories. Journaling goes much deeper.
Here, you can also use the events of a day as a starting point, especially if something happened that’s occupying your thoughts.
But you can also journal independently of daily events, exploring your wishes and goals, and delving into completely different areas of life.
Why Journaling is So Beneficial
As I mentioned earlier: Journaling engages the right hemisphere of your brain, and because you’re already busy writing, things surface that might have been hidden deep in your subconscious for a long time.
The thing is: When you’re just thinking about something, it’s often much harder to name a feeling! It might remain an indefinable sensation that doesn’t let go of you for days, holding you back or causing a lot of tension.
When writing, you have to find words for it – there’s no other way.
Especially if you do this regularly, you’ll eventually notice how you go through your everyday life much more mindfully – and at some point, insights might come to you even without active journaling.
How Does Journaling Work?
It’s actually quite simple: You grab a pen and paper and start writing!
Yes, it sounds easy, and basically, it is. Because journaling is all about letting go and freeing yourself from the “this is how something has to be or function” mindset.
You just need a starting point, an entry, and then you write without taking a thinking break – and then see where you end up. It’s best to set aside some time for this and make sure you won’t be disturbed.
The important thing is: There’s no right or wrong!
No one but you will read what you’ve written (unless you want them to).
If you find it difficult to start somewhere, you can alternatively work with so-called journaling prompts and ask yourself a question.
What Types of Journaling Are There?
Free “writing away” is just one possibility for regular journaling. Especially in situations where things might be chaotic for you, it’s often the most soothing method – free journaling can help you let go of things.
But there are many different methods you can use! I’ll introduce a few of them now.
Free Journaling
You already know how this works: You grab a pen and start writing.
This can be particularly helpful in the morning to release everything that has built up at the start of the day – maybe you had a bad dream, woke up with an unpleasant feeling, and want to let it all out so you don’t carry it through the whole day.
The so-called “Morning Pages” are a method that first appeared in Julia Cameron’s book “The Artist’s Way”: You sit down with your journal in the morning, before you do anything else, and write three pages.
Even if you feel like you don’t have much in you that wants to come out right now: You keep writing until you reach three pages. It’s pretty fascinating what can come out sometimes!
I wouldn’t fixate too much on free writing in the morning though. If your mornings are busy with kids, work, etc., you can of course do this just as well in the evening.
Free journaling simply means: start writing and see where your subconscious leads you!
Journaling with Prompts and Questions
Alternatively, you can use a so-called prompt as an entry point. This is particularly useful when you know exactly what topic is occupying you at the moment, and you want to get to the bottom of it. In this case, you usually have a specific goal for your journaling practice; a question you’re seeking an answer to.
A specific occasion like the turn of the year or your birthday can also be a great time to journal using reflection questions as a starting point.
By the way: It starts to get really exciting when you ask yourself the same questions every year around your birthday, for example. Seeing your own personal development through the answers is absolutely fascinating!
Maybe there’s also a situation that’s occupying you and making you ponder: For example, if you don’t know whether to stay in your current job or reorient yourself. In that case, you could also ask yourself a question, something like: “What does a job need to have for me to feel fulfilled and look forward to going there every day?”
This can offer you a great entry point to bring clarity to your thoughts. And that’s exactly what journaling is all about.
Here too, you’ll notice that at some point it flows as if by itself and you might end up somewhere completely different and have other insights – that’s perfectly fine!
Sometimes it takes such a question or a prompt as a thought-starter to then re-sort feelings and thoughts.
You can find inspiration for this here: 180+ Journaling Questions
Bullet Journal
When we talk about journaling, we certainly can’t leave out the topic of bullet journaling!
The hype around this journaling method, invented by Ryder Carroll, has been huge in recent years – and bullet journals are an excellent example of how diverse journaling can ultimately look.
If you enter bullet journal into Google or Pinterest, you’ll be shown lots of images with colorful, elaborately designed pages – this is what it can look like in the end, but it doesn’t have to. On the contrary, the original method is super minimalistic.
The goal of the bullet journal method is simple: gain clarity, keep an overview of what’s important now (and in the future) – and cross out the things that aren’t anymore.
I’ll go into the topic of bullet journaling in more detail here on the blog, as such a small section isn’t enough for it. If you want to dive deeper now, you can do so here at Punktkariert.
What Do You Need for Journaling?
The good news is: You probably already have everything you need at home. Namely, a pen and a sheet of paper or a notebook!
Let’s be honest – even though any scrap paper would suffice, it’s of course much more fun to buy beautiful notebooks. Maybe you’re like me and already have a stack of unused notebooks lying around at home…?
(Welcome to the club of anonymous notebook addicts)
In that case, grab the one that appeals to you the most right now, and pick out a pen you can write well with. Of course, you can also take any random ballpoint pen, but it’s simply more fun with decent pens.
My favorites, by the way, are the PITT Artist Pen from Faber-Castell in size S and the MONO drawing pen from Tombow in size 03. I always have several of both lying around at home because I’ve been using them for years.
As for notebooks, I’m a loyal fan of Leuchtturm1917 – the dotted notebook in A5 is simply my perennial favorite.
But as I said, you can use any notebook and any pen! The choice of the right accessories shouldn’t stop you from starting journaling and putting your thoughts on paper 🙂
How to Start Journaling
So, when you have pen and notebook ready, you can get started. And let me give you the most important tip right at the beginning: Take the pressure off!
Yes, especially with new notebooks, you always want to make everything nice and tidy at first – I know that. But that’s simply not what journaling is about.
There can be smudged pages, words that are crossed out because you misspelled them; or even words that you misspelled that you just leave as they are.
Journaling is a wonderful exercise to leave this perfectionism behind!
The first difficulty is often to fill the first page. This still untouched, radiant white page of your new notebook – of course you don’t want to ruin anything.
If you don’t want to start with actual writing on page 1, you can fill this page differently. Do you perhaps have a motto for this year? A favorite quote? Write it down here – then the first step is done and you can start with the actual writing on the next page.
Another good option to start is an entry prompt that generally deals with the topic of journaling. These can be questions like:
- What do I wish from my journal?
- Why do I want to write in my journal regularly from now on?
- How can I integrate my regular journaling practice into my everyday life?
This way you find an entry point and get the first pages filled right away. After that, everything will get much easier!
You can find more tips to get started in the Journaling Guide. If you want to dive deeper, here are 35 Journaling Tips.