Who are we kidding, we all talk to ourselves. Writing down what we are thinking and how we are feeling helps us to tame the beast within us. (No secret…we all have that beast within us.) Sometimes we need to let it out in order to build ourselves back up again and journaling is a great way to do just that!
Our minds are so full of information sometimes it’s hard to think straight. Sometimes, our thinking is caused by a series of thoughts that just keep replaying over and over in our heads.
Sometimes positive thoughts and often times negative thoughts. When we take the time write our negative thoughts down, often we can see that it’s really not as bad as we think it is. Or if it’s a good thought, sometimes we can see it’s really a great thought or idea worth exploring more!
Either way, journaling can be a great way to help us get things out of our head to free up space in our minds thus making room for new ideas and thoughts as well as elevating our consciousness (mind, body and spirit).
Journaling helps us get clarity around specific things and is especially useful when we are thinking about something too much. By writing it down, it might allow us to let it go, or it might allow us to see things differently and in a clearer light. It’s a process that many people find very freeing and healing.
There are many ways to journal and many kinds of journals out there. Some prefer to journal on a computer, but I find it more cathartic to actually put pen to paper in an actual journal/notebook.
Some people like to draw, some people like to write. Some use photography as a way of releasing or expressing their thoughts and feelings with photos. Some even view a vision board as a form of journaling.
Some journals are just blank books where you write or draw whatever you feel or what is on your mind at that moment. These types of journals are also used for “automatic writing” where you just open the book and let whatever is in your mind, flow out onto your blank page. There are also guided journals that prompt you with questions, statements or single words to spark thoughts (this type of journal can be especially good for people with Attention Deficit Disorder because it focuses on just one word). And there are journals for specific purposes such as food journals, workout journals, hiking journals, gratitude journals, meditation journals, dream journals, pet journals, concert journals, travel journals, and more! It’s endless…
There really are no rules for journaling. Honestly the main thing is to just be authentic and completely honest with yourself as you write. The point is to empty what’s in your head and heart onto the page.
Every journal entry is written (or drawn) for an audience of one, YOU! As with all journal writing, it’s best to simply write – giving no thought to spelling, punctuation, grammar or organization.
Just let whatever is on your mind flow out of your head onto the page. This is YOUR journal containing YOUR private thoughts, feelings and emotions. YOU choose if you want to share your journal with anyone or keep it to yourself. Be bold. Be creative. Dig deep. Enjoy the process and write from your heart.
I personally like to use different journals for different subjects as it really helps me to go back and find things later, whether it’s something I wrote so I wouldn’t forget, or a memory I wanted to document so I could re-live those memories later down the road. And then there are some of my journals have never been looked at again (by me or anyone). Yet documenting what transpired allowed me to unclutter my head, heal, and move on.
I’ve journaled for years. I do wish I had kept some of the diaries from when I was a teenager. I remember I had a pink one with a cool lock, and I think it might have had Cinderella on it (yes I’m dating myself). I chuckle to myself when I think about that diary, as that lock was a joke and could have easily been picked with a paper clip (and probably was)! I bet it’d be pretty entertaining to re-live some of those teenage thoughts, feelings and memories now! Some of them were so private, I burned those journals never to be seen again. Fortunately I did keep a few journals from when I was a young adult. It’s crazy to look back and see where my head was at various points in time and how much I’ve grown, evolved, and changed over the years. And thank goodness for that! Even some of the worst situations or circumstances afforded me such beautiful growth and change. Isn’t it interesting the way life works that way, that our most difficult moments bring us the most growth and change? It’s astonishing really.
As I got busy with my career, relationships and the daily grind of life, my journaling tapered off. I simply stopped taking time for myself. In retrospect that’s really sad and I think was actually one of the factors in having lost a part of myself over the years. But more recently in my journey to get healthy, I started to journal again. Over the last 10 years, I have filled up many many journals. I feel like I journaled everything, not just about my health and weight loss journey, although a lot of what was pouring out of my head was definitely health (and illness) related!
Not sure what to journal about? The subjects are endless. I journaled about classes, webinars and zoom sessions I had experienced. I journaled about people who crossed my path. I journaled about relationships. I journaled about people and animals who had passed from this world. I expressed my feelings and emotions along with my fears and even wrote down and confronted many of my limiting beliefs. I journaled about the beauty I saw in nature while out hiking. I celebrated my wins and successes in those private pages, even the smallest steps forward. I expressed spiritual encounters, dreams and specific messages I was receiving from my body. I journaled about the food I was eating and the exercise I was doing and how those things impacted my mind and body. I journaled about important and mundane things I felt I needed to accomplish. I even journaled (a lot) about my beloved dog. I journaled about trips I had taken or wanted to take. Frankly, I journal to this day about anything and everything! And the result of all that journaling is that it did and does in fact make room in my head for new and different things to come in. It’s amazing!
I know you may be thinking that you don’t have time to journal, but honestly it really is life changing. I always thought it would be great to carve out a mere 15 minutes a day to journal but I could never make that happen consistently. The one thing I do daily is a gratitude journal documenting three things I’m grateful for each day. Otherwise, my longer and deeper journal entries are generally triggered by something, a dream, an event, a circumstance, a trip, or just a compelling feeling to sit down, be with myself, and write. Without question, I do see a positive result from putting pen to paper. It truly can be a liberating, freeing and healing experience.
A friend of mine introduced gratitude journaling to her family and they all write in their journals right before they sit down for dinner every night and document three things they are grateful for.
Sometimes that becomes a topic of table talk during dinner. She said it’s fantastic to see how the quality of the writing has improved and the depth of the things that everyone is grateful for has changed in just six months. That warms my heart so much. What a great practice it is for the whole family.
If you are looking for a journal to get your started, or are an experienced journal writer and need a new notebook, click HERE to head over to my merch page. Then scroll down till you see the journal button, and when you click it, you’ll be taken to my amazon page.
I initially created the journals for myself, but because so many of my friends asked me about them, I decided to make them available to others. It’s a great joy to give someone the gift of a journal as it is giving them an invitation to explore themselves and document it. What a beautiful gift!
The journey to a healthier, happier you is so worth it. I know—because I lived it.
I stopped chasing skinny and started focusing on my health—and that single shift changed everything. I lost 140 pounds, but more importantly, I found clarity, energy, and a life that finally feels like mine. I share the whole story in my book. Click here to learn more and see what’s possible.
