How to Journal Without Trying to Convince Your Journal That You’re Cool

A busy life creates a busy mind, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with disorganized thoughts, emotions and mental to-dos floating around in your mind. Putting these thoughts down on paper can be a very useful form of meditation and emotional regulation for those feeling stressed or for those who want to regulate their emotions. However, it can be easy to get distracted from the root of journaling in an effort to come across as chic. 

Journaling is trending on many social media platforms as a self-help mental health tool, but often journals shown online are extremely visually appealing and well-written. This image of what a journal is “supposed” to sound or look like can create barriers for anyone interested in pursuing the hobby. Maybe you lack artistic skills, or are insecure about your own writing. Either way, it can be difficult to journal purely for your own self-evaluation. 

Pinterest-Worthy Pages 

Most of the journal entries you see online are probably color-coded and aesthetically decorated, featuring pages of well-thought-out and reflective writing. As a new journaler, these expectations can make the activity seem daunting and complicated when it is supposed to help you relax and unwind. If you are a creatively-minded person, these methods may work well for you, but otherwise, none of them are necessary to the effectiveness of journaling. 

You may be tempted to start journaling in a way that comes off as performative, hoping to show off how mindful you are by uploading thoughtful pages onto social media. The point of keeping a journal, however, is to chronicle your own thoughts. If other people have access to them or if that is your subconscious intention, you will not write truthfully and vulnerably. 

Ditch the Prompt, Embrace the Chaos

Many companies and influencers have begun trying to market off of the journaling fad taking the internet by storm. Popular beginner journals might prompt the reader with a reflection question, and many times, a word or line count, to appeal to the busy and hardworking buyer. Sometimes these prompts are a daily writing exercise to encourage consistency. While these guidelines may be helpful as a touchpoint for many beginners to journaling, they can, in fact, be limiting and cause a bit of writer’s block 

Instead of following a guided journal, try writing to a blank page in whatever form is comfortable to you. You can start with a prompt, but don’t let it hold you back. Write in lists, run-on sentences or completely unintelligible giant paragraphs.

Allow yourself to write about the foremost thoughts in your mind, and if they are completely unrelated to one another, embrace the variety. Your hand writes much slower than your brain thinks, so journaling acts as a kind of meditation where you slow down and process your own thoughts as you isolate them one by one onto a page.

Do you journal? Tell us about your experience @VALLEYMag on Instagram!

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