Write Yourself Whole: 7 Journaling Methods for Self Care.

Whether you want to manage stress, get organized or boost your creativity, use these journaling techniques as another tool to care for yourself.

"Keeping a journal helps you create order when your world feels like it's in chaos. You get to know yourself by revealing your most private fears, thoughts, and feelings. Look at your writing time as personal relaxation time. It's a time when you can de-stress and wind down."

Do you keep a journal? Do you think journaling is only for writers or teenage girls? Are you hesitant because you don't know what to write about, or are afraid someone will discover your private thoughts?

Journaling has been used for centuries by some of the world's best minds – and by everyday people. While you may have kept a diary as a teenager, as an adult, you may be resistant to it. Some of the many benefits of keeping a journal

• Keeping your thoughts organized

• Improve your writing

• Set and achieve your goals

• Self-reflection

• Reduce stress

• Inspire creativity

Journaling is simply another form of self-expression, and one of the seven key rituals I use for self healing that we are currently exploring in Week 3 of our 40 Days Renewal through RItual. The beauty is that there is more than one way to journal. Below are seven powerful and effective journaling techniques that will help you get started and keep going. Hopefully there is at least one that interests you.

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1. Free writing

To free write means setting a timer, or a page number goal, letting your thoughts flow, and writing continuously and unedited. You keep your hand moving, not pausing to go back and edit what you just wrote. If you run out of ideas, you just keep writing whatever comes to mind. free writing is about letting whatever comes to mind flow onto your page without letting your inner critic silence you.

Will some of it not make sense? Sometimes.

But free writing is a powerful way to unpack a nagging problem or make sense of your emotions. Getting things down on paper puts you in touch with your true self. The more you free write, the more familiar you’ll become of your own thoughts without feeling the need to 'fix' them.

Use free writing in the morning to gather your thoughts, during the day to re-energize, or at night to reflect. How and when you write matters less than if you don't write at all.

The book, The Artists Way by Julia Cameron is a great resource, famous for the 'morning pages' practice.

1a: Listing

Listing is a great journaling technique for organizing, tracking, and recording anything related to your career, personal life, relationships, hobbies, and more. Lists are quicker to write than long-form journal entries, but they’re still a great record of your life and can be written daily, weekly, monthly. Writing out a to-do list before bed is a great way to declutter your mind and is proven to help you sleep better.

IDEAS FOR WRITING LISTS:

• Your favorite books, current reads, reviews, and list of recommendations

• Favorite films and Netflix series, what you’re watching now, and your to-watch list

• Meals, recipes, foods you’d like to try, reviews of restaurants you’ve visited

• Your favorite quotes/affirmations

• News stories that interest you.

• Log of your children’s daily life: what they did that day, funny things they’ve said, first words, their interests, friends they’re making, what they’re reading

• Places you'd like to visit, restaurants to try, museums to visit, etc.

2. Art Journal If your thoughts flow easier in a visual format, try an art journal for sketches, collages, doodling, and experiments?

There’s no single way to “do it right.” Your art journal can be a mix of images and sketches along with writing, or it can be purely visual. Your art journal is your platform to explore your creativity, keep track of your ideas and work through challenges.

An art journal helps you get in touch with your creativity (and we’re all creative) especially if you’ve always loved art but never considered yourself an “artist.”

If the idea of a sketchbook seems intimidating, then start doodling in an old notebook and take it from there.

Art journaling technique boosts your creativity without worrying about public reception or social media likes.

3. Dream Journal Keeping a dream journal may sound spooky to some, intriguing to others. This journaling technique helps you understand your emotions and your interior world.

Keep your dream journal and pen by your bedside. Write down whatever you remember from your dream. The more your journal, the better your memory will get.

Write about your dream as soon as you wake up because dreams become more difficult to remember as the day goes on. Write in as much detail as possible, even making drawings of any images that may have come up in your dream. With recurring dreams, you may be able to see a pattern that will help you address a particular situation. Many amazing ideas have come from the dream state.

4. Guided Journals

Instead of writing about whatever comes to mind, a guided journal typically includes entries with a prompt or prompts to write about a particular aspect of your life, such as health, spirituality, mental wellness, or even planning a trip.One guided journal is: Sis, Write it Down: A Guided Journal for Women of Color, which has writing prompts and motivational quotes. Or you can use these prompts to get you started:

• Things you’re grateful for

• Things that make you smile

• The happiest moments in your li

• People who’ve had a big positive impact on your life

• Regrets and what you’d do differently

5. Reading Journal A reading journal helps you get more from the books, articles, or blog posts you read.

Just writing something down makes you more likely to remember it.

A reading journal can be your record of inspiring quotes, insights, etc., that you come across in your reading.

You can track your reading, list books you’d like to read or re-read, books to buy as gifts, etc. If you’re studying a subject, a reading journal can be a great place to record your observations. Don’t just jot down quotes and notes. Write down any questions, or reflections you have about what you're reading. This will be very helpful when you look back.

6. One Line a Day Journaling

Writing just a single line a day helps preserve your memory, and lets you notice patterns. It’s especially nice for parents to track their children’s growth and remember everyday moments in those baby years when time flies so quickly. Don’t try to capture everything, but remember even what seems ordinary will be a memory that will matter down the road.

One line a day journaling can also help you get into the habit of writing every day. It’s not too overwhelming to write down a sentence, so you’ll be more likely to keep at it.

Here are some prompt examples for one line a day journaling:

• What’s the best thing that happened to you today?

• What are you thankful for today?

• What lesson did you learn today?

• Name your biggest task/greatest challenge for tomorrow

One Line A Day: A Five-Year Memory Book is an accessible intro to journaling that also lets you store memories from the past 5 years. There are five spaces for each day of the year, and if you write for years you can also see what you wrote on that same day in previous years

7. Gratitude journal This is one of the most powerful journaling techniques, proven to help you appreciate one's quality of life. It lowers stress, and it's a great nighttime calming technique.

A gratitude journal reminds us to appreciate the present. Take a few deep breaths and write in detail what you’re thankful for. Being thoughtful about what you are grateful for can be more beneficial than listing off all the blessings you can think of. Don’t make your gratitude journal another thing to tick off your to-do list. Enjoy the experience, take your time.

Instead of trying to come up with a list of things to be grateful for: food, clothing, shelter, try these:

• Write about an old relationship that helped a lot

• An opportunity you have today

• Something good/great that happened yesterday

• Something you observed that touched you, and why.

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A method that I am currently using is audio journaling. Just speak your thoughts right into the voice notes app installed on your phone--anytime, anywhere. Easy peasy. And, while I prefer pen to paper, this method works best for my life now. I use an app, "Easy Voice Recorder' which also transcribes what I record.

These are just seven techniques to get you started on your journaling journey. You can use these, or create your own. I suggest choosing and working with one that resonates most. There is no right way, and no limits! Are you a journaler? If not, are you open to trying one of these techniques? If you are, let me know which method you decide on.

Happy writing...!

Hakikah