How to start journaling

Disclosure: This website is a participant in various affiliate programs, including the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. We also participate in other affiliate programs and may earn commissions through purchases made through our links. Any opinions, reviews, recommendations, or endorsements expressed on this site are our own and are not influenced by any third-party products or services being promoted.

If you’re looking to get started in journaling, and don’t know where to start, don’t worry! This post will help you get started.

First of all, there are no rules for journaling, but it’s a great tool for self discovery. All you need to get started is a paper or digital notebook!

Here are my suggestions:

Paper notebook

Digital notebook

What's covered in this post

What is journaling?

Journaling is a great way to capture your thoughts. Sometimes having too many things on your mind can bog you down and create unpleasant side effects like insomnia or anxiety. Journaling helps unload all that stress from your mind and give you a fresh start to the day.

Here are a few ways to journal.

1. Morning pages

This method is from a book called “the Artist’s way”. How it works is that you dedicate some time to writing three pages of longhand stream of consciousness writing in the morning. This meant to help your brain dump your thoughts on to the paper.

The most important part of this exercise is to get everything on to writing – no complete sentences – just let it flow!

Don’t sensor or analyze anything that you’re writing. This helps you get out of your comfort zone.

If you’re not up to doing this in the morning, anytime during the day would be a great time to do this too!

2. Journaling to self

Have you ever felt confused, lost or stuck in your mind?

This method of journaling can help clear your thoughts when you have it down in writing. You might even discover something new about yourself.

You can get started by asking yourself some honest questions. Here are a few examples

How do you feel at the moment?

What’s going great in your life?
What are you grateful for?

Don’t be afraid to keep it as honest as possible – don’t filter any of your thoughts on paper. This might feel uncomfortable, but it’s and effective way to discover what you’re really feeling.

3. Write a letter to someone

Ever been so angry or mad at someone and can’t get those negative feelings out of your system? Well writing a letter to someone can help you work through your emotions. Don’t worry, they’re not going to read it.

The main point of this way of journaling is to write a letter of forgiveness – even if you don’t think they deserve forgiveness. This allows you to let your feelings go and heal and forgive that person.

Go ahead, let all those negative feelings flow into writing and maybe you’ll feel better about it after!