Effective Journaling
Make the most of your time between therapy sessions by journaling in an efficient and effective way
Think about why you want to journal. Is it for mental health, creativity, food focused, a dream journal, goal focused, or a way to organize thoughts?
Try to write something each day, this will create a habit and help build consistency. I recommend putting your journal on your pillow so you actually need to touch and move it in order to get into bed! Or perhaps scheduling time on your calendar for journaling or setting a reminder on your phone could help as well.
You don't need a structure; try writing a stream of consciousness, which is basically anything that comes to mind in an informal and unstructured way. This can help work through the things that seem most relevant or top of mind. Don’t worry about spelling, neatness, or grammar.
If you would prefer structure, maybe start with what you are currently feeling and what you think might be behind those feelings.
To help increase the positive benefits from journaling, build in positive affirmations, gratitudes, and/or appreciations. This will help rewire your brain to seek out this information more readily on a daily basis. Unfortunately, our brains are better at picking out and remembering the negative things that happen to us (to keep us safe), but it does not lend well to feeling happy.
Keep track of mood changes and use it to process stressful moments. This can also help in therapy as well, since it can be hard to remember details after a few days have passed and you can take a look back at what you wrote with your therapist.
If you want to work towards a goal, use it as a time to check in on how you did today, if there were any barriers or hurdles, and what intention you want to set. Or what changes you might want to make to your goal so that it is achievable.
Another focus or way to add structure/effectiveness could be practicing a skill you’ve learned from a counselor or therapist in the journal. For example, if you notice that you have negative self-talk, you could write down the thought and then talk back to it and try replacing it with a more neutral or positive thought.
Feeling like you’re in a journal rut? Spice it up; if you aren’t feeling like writing, try doodling or coloring or scribbling the whole page until it’s covered. Try bullet journaling or using colored pens/ pencils.
Decrease resistance to doing it by making it more pleasant by drinking some coffee or tea while you write, do it in the sun, or put some enjoyable music on.
Increase effectiveness by looking for patterns or themes in your content. This can be a good way to focus energy on what is continually coming up for you and may be good to talk to a therapist about.
You don’t have to finish what you start! You can make the rules here and it doesn’t need to be wrapped up in a nice bow or a thoughtful sentence.
Just jump in! See what happens.
Doc Hotz