Improved concentration, creativity, and inner peace are just 3 of the many benefits of journaling regularly.
Over the past few years of writing this blog, I’ve referenced journaling as a tool and have shared guided journaling techniques to guide you. But now it’s time to focus in on journaling, its fundamentals, and how and WHY to start your practice.
So that’s why this post is here! Learn ALL about journaling, why it’s so impactful, and the benefits of journaling. You can even get started with free prompts designed to help you work on your growth mindset and develop your resiliency!
Ready to grab those free journaling prompts? I’ve got you!
An Introduction to Journaling
Just so we’re all on the same page (pardon the pun…), let’s clarify what we’re talking about when we’re talking about the benefits of journaling. ‘Journaling’ refers to writing your thoughts, emotions, experiences and feelings (ideally in a dedicated, private notebook). There are many different journaling techniques to explore that serve different purposes: some types are therapeutic, others more spiritual. There are also different forms of creative journaling, like bullet journaling or keeping a diary.
The Benefits of Journaling
Penning our thoughts to paper is very therapeutic, beneficial to our creativity, and clears our minds, but it also has deep mental and physical health benefits.
When researching the ‘benefits of journaling,’ you often find articles that speak to the benefits of mental or physical health. But we are holistic beings, with our mental and physical health incredibly interrelated. There are both ‘mental’ and ‘physical’ health benefits of journaling, such as:
- A greater ability to cope with feelings of anxiety, depression and stress.
- Improving immune function.
- Supporting cognitive processing and memory.
- A greater sense of optimism
- Organizing our thoughts to boost productivity
- Raising awareness to our subconscious thought patterns so we can create sustainable change.
As a creative soul and writer, I can also say from personal experience that journaling deeply improves your creativity and generates inspiration when you’re going through something like writer’s block.
How To Start Journaling
You can start journaling now – you don’t need special materials, just paper and a pen. If possible, I suggest you get a dedicated, private notebook for your journaling. You can also choose to keep a digital journal (as some of my coaching clients have), though I suggest writing by hand if you’re able to.
Something magical happens when you allow the energy of your soul, heart and wisdom to exit your body and enter the page of the paper.
Get started by trying one of these prompts:
- One piece of advice I’d give my 7-year-old self is…
- If I could ask 70-year-old me a question, I’d ask them…
- I’m proud of myself for…
3 Simple ‘Guideposts’ For How To Make Journaling Effective
As a transformational life coach, I act as a guide for you to help solicit the answers from within you. I don’t believe in telling you what to do, and I certainly don’t believe there’s any one way of doing things. That’s why I invite you to see these as ‘guideposts’ rather than hard rules for how to create an effective, sustainable journaling practice:
- Journal Daily: To make journaling effective for you, it needs to become a habit. It needs to become almost instinctual that when you find yourself caught up in a negative thought loop or spiral, you reach for your journal to work through it before it becomes a source of panic, anxiety, stress or panic. To make something a habit, tack it onto an already existing habit. So if you sit down to have a coffee every morning, why not see that as a perfect time to do a journal entry, if even for 5 minutes?
- Make Your Practice Your Own: Some people love using their journals as a space to brain dump and release whatever thoughts or feelings are on their minds. But for those just getting started with practice, it’s hard to do that sometimes. Having prompts or guided journaling techniques is a great way to get started.
- Call In Accountability: We all need a helping hand and support, especially when forming a new habit or creating a lifelong behavioural change. That’s why it’s great to have an accountability partner while developing your journaling practice. This could be a friend, partner or other loved one. If you’d like to take it a step deeper, having a transformational coach’s presence, accountability and guidance can be a game-changer. I’m here to hold that space + accountability for you should you feel so called.
70 Journal Prompts For You
With these guiding prompts, get started with journaling (or take the next step in your journey!). 70 resilience-building and self-love-cultivating prompts in a digitally-fillable journal are exactly what you need to guide you in this next stage of your wellness journey.
