Wouldn’t it be nice if each time you felt like shit, a little fairy would land on your
shoulder and whisper in your ear that it’ll all be alright?
How about if whenever you had to deal with fear, doubt or frustration, a magic book would
appear, guiding you step by step on how to get through it?
Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could re-live all your favourite moments in life?
If you could only re-call that first day of spring of 2020.
Actually no, no one needs to remember that.
But, in a world of perfectionism and filters, wouldn’t it be nice to have a place to be
messy?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, let me introduce you to the world of journaling.
“You are a diary, but I think you are much more than that. Thank you” –Lana, 8 years
old.
This, right here, being able to look back, reading the thoughts and reflections of my
8-year-old self, my 14-year-old self, my 20-year-old self, is why I will never stop journaling.
Here’s 17 years of it. Dating back to 2003. I have these kept in a secret storage unit
on an island far away where muggles can’t go, so don’t even think about it.
So why would any human being spend 17 years just writing for themselves? Wouldn’t it
have been better to just, I don’t know, spend those years writing a book? Or several
books?
Honestly, maybe, I haven’t even thought about that.
But no.
Journaling is self-care. Journaling is self-love. It’s also self-destruction if you overdo
it, but then again, so is everything.
It helps me think. It helps me organize my thoughts. It helps me get clarity. It helps
me understand myself and understand life events.
It’s like becoming friends with yourself, because some things aren’t meant to be shared
with anyone else; they’re just meant to be understood. For ourselves.
Journaling is the place where I do not let perfectionism control me in any way, something
that I struggle with in other areas of my life. I write freely, I don’t care about
it being coherent—it just has to be coherent enough to where I’ll be able to read and
understand it in the future. If I feel like jumping from one subject to another, I’ll
do that. If I want to stop writing mid-sentence, I’ll do that. If I feel like drawing an
illustration or add stickers or photos or if I want to create a mind-map, I’ll do
that, too.
It’s a beautiful mess, my favorite mess.
With that being said, I do want this video to be educational. I want to break it down
and make it simple for you. So, here are some guidelines that I use when journaling and
that might be helpful for you as well.
Let’s start to the most frequently asked question: should you write on your computer
or by hand? I personally write by hand majority of the time—I think it feels more personal
and I love having a collection of notebooks like this. Also, whenever I look back, being
able to touch my own handwriting, something you wrote in the past… like wow, I wrote
that… that’s so cool. Or it might just be me being over-dramatic and nostalgic. I
also never edit when I write by hand. If I want to scratch something, I’ll just draw
a line over it, I won’t ever use a rubber. That’s cheating.
However, if I know beforehand that there’s a lot that I’d like to get off my chest,
I won’t even bother with the old school journal, I’ll go straight to my computer.
Second question I get asked a lot. When should you journal? What hour of the day? It doesn’t
matter. Whenever you feel like it. Morning, mid-day, middle of the night. Who cares?
How often should you write? As often as you feel like. Every day, three times a week,
once a week—it’s up to you. For me, it varies. Sometimes it’s every day, sometimes
I don’t write anything for an entire week.
Should you listen to music while writing? Music is really powerful. It influences our
emotions and it might make you feel things or exaggerate feelings that you might not
even really have. BUT. Sometimes it does help us get in touch with those really really deep
emotions. So, if that’s what you want, it might be a good idea. But other than that,
I skip the music.
Alright, there you are. It’s 11 am, you’re sitting in your room, no music, just you,
the sound of birds and a blank page. What do you actually write about?
Start with the date. Date everything. Even if it’s only going to be a one sentence
journal entry. I also include the time of the day, because our thoughts might differ
from morning to night so it’s always interesting to know… was this morning thoughts? Or was
this midnight thoughts? Big difference.
I then like to briefly describe my setting to really capture the atmosphere of today.
Where am I sitting? Who am I with? What’s the weather like? What sounds do I hear? Can
I smell anything? I do this with most entries. Not necessarily answering all of those questions,
but at least something on what’s going on around me.
Something I do less often, more like once every few weeks or months, is to add any information
that gives a clearer picture of what my life is looking like at the moment. What music
am I currently into? What book am I currently reading? Who’s my role model? What podcasts
am I listening to? Who’s my best friend?
The describing of the atmosphere part is actually a great way of getting the ball rolling. You’ll
go from “the sky is blue” to confessing the kidnapping of your neighbor’s hamster
in no time. But if you don’t, just start with a “hello” and start sharing how you’re
feeling. Think of it as sharing something with a friend that you can fully trust. One
that won’t judge you or criticize you. You might judge and criticize yourself once you
get to see what’s really going on in your head on paper. You know, sometimes I’ll
write and I’ll feel worse about myself, I’ll be like wow…do I really feel all
of this? But sometimes I’ll write and feel the complete opposite, I’ll be reminded
of how grateful and happy and excited I am about life.
It’s all important parts of self-growth.
Just remember to be honest. Some things can feel embarrassing or cringe or it might be
something we don’t really want to admit to ourselves because once you write it down
it becomes real somehow and that can come with mixed emotions, regardless if it’s
something negative or positive that you’re writing about. But that’s important, because
only when it becomes real can you begin to really try to understand it and make something
out of it.
Now, although I’m a journaling pro at this point, I still think it’s always important
to be open to different ways of doing things, which brings me to today’s sponsor – Skillshare.
In case you don’t know about Skillshare, it’s an online learning community with thousands
of inspiring classes for creative and curious people, like myself. You can explore new skills,
develop existing interests, and just get lost in creativity. Or you might just be bored
or feel stressed and want to try something new. Regardless of reason, I think it's a
great community to be part of and they have classes on everything from creative writing
to video editing (which is something I get asked about a lot) to productivity and marketing—they
got something for everyone.
I recently took the class “Writing for Self-Discovery: 6 Journaling Prompts for Gratitude and Growth"
by Yasmine Cheyenne. Whether you’re a beginner or professional journaler, I really think
you can benefit from this class. I highly recommend you check it out.
If you decide to do so, Skillshare is giving away 2 free months of Premium Membership to
the first 1000 people who click the link in the description box to help you explore your
creativity. And after that, it’s only around $10 a month.
And that was all for today. Please share any tips and tricks that you might have on journaling
or any other habit that has stuck with you for a long time. Thank you
so much for watching. I will see
you in the comment section.