The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Journaling – Part 1
“Dear Diary…”
Is this the opening part of your journal entry, right after the date?
I used this phrase in my childhood diary. Anne Frank used the opening ‘Dear Kitty’. Now, I don’t have a name for the lucky (or bored) beneficiary of my thoughts. The only recipient and the only one who benefits is me.
Journaling is an exercise in freedom so you can open your entries as you please, without constraint, ceremony or reserve.
A journal or diary is usually a written record of activities and events organized by date. But there are so many ways of journaling as there are people. This is an extremely personal activity.
Journaling is also a record of our thoughts, feelings, goals, and anything else you want into a journal or notebook, to gain many different emotional, mental, and physical benefits.
People participate in journaling for many different reasons: Some people prefer to journal because it helps reduce their stress and anxiety, while others are interested in finding more clarity and self-awareness.
There is only one rule about journaling: it should be a daily exercise (there’re people that disagree even with this one rule and believe in occasional journaling when the need arises). There are no other rules. It’s a very free activity Do it freely. Do it your way. However, there are some methods worth exploring.
Methods of journaling
If you want to master journaling and become an expert who does it every day, that doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. Some people want more conventional journaling methods, while others just want a gratitude or travel journal.
Here are some different types of journaling you might want to explore:
Stream of Consciousness
Daily Journaling
Art Journaling
Gratitude Journaling
Travel Journaling
Health Journaling
Bullet Journaling
Let’s start with the Stream of Consciousness journaling. I’ll talk about the others in the following posts.
Stream of Consciousness Journaling
When you open your journal (your favorite blank notebook) to start writing you are left frozen, without knowing what and how to write. The first word is always the most difficult.
You must speak from your heart. Express yourself without fear of others judging you. You are writing for yourself, nobody else is going to read it.
To benefit from journaling, you need to practice. By writing. And the best way to do this is through a stream of consciousness journal.
When writing stream of consciousness, you’re simply writing your thoughts as they come to you. It’s done without the filter that typically hinders people from writing period. You can expand your mind by expelling thoughts that have been taking up space.
Prepare yourself to be surprised by what pours out of you. You’ll find surprising things coming out of you. Things you didn’t know you had inside. Things you didn’t believe you could write.
It Often Brings Clarity
When you make an entry in a stream of consciousness journal, you’re simply writing what you think. It could be how you’re feeling. It could be something you’ve noticed. It could also be a thought that suddenly came to your mind even if it’s something that has impacted you in some time, if at all. There are no rules when it comes to the stream of consciousness journaling.
It Becomes Natural
The further you go with stream of consciousness journaling, the more natural it will feel. Initially, you might want to think more than you must or go back and correct what you’ve written to sound more pleasing. This type of journaling is not about being poetic or even “good” as a writer. You can use unimaginative phrasing or even grammatical errors. Your thoughts can bounce around in a way that makes no sense to anyone, not even you.
Don’t think about grammar, don’t care about spelling mistakes. Just let it flow. Fast. Don’t stop. If you don’t know what to write, repeat the same sentence until a new one comes out. The beauty of this kind of writing is how generous it is, especially to beginners.
This is all about writing for the sake of writing. Embrace the process of simply letting words out without hesitation.
Write the First Thing That Comes to Mind
While there are no set rules as far as stream of consciousness journaling goes, you may want to give yourself some boundaries to not feel overwhelmed. After my serious advice “write about whatever”, I leave you with some suggestions.
Perspective is part of why people journal, stream of consciousness or otherwise. When you’re thinking about what to write about, just reflect on what you’re thinking. You want to consider how circumstances have been affecting you. Look inside your mind and examine what’s been ruminating inside.
Record Your Experiences
There might be experiences that have been affecting you in a way you can clearly and easily define. Others will be much less tangible. You might only be starting to understand them when you journal about them. Don’t think that you need to reach some kind of epiphany. This is your opportunity to let your thoughts come to life in a way to might ultimately surprise you.
Make it Enjoyable
This is also your opportunity to have fun. Writing shouldn’t feel like a chore, and stream of consciousness journaling allows you to unwind and enjoy the process of sharing your thoughts, even if it’s just with yourself.
Don’t Be Afraid to Dream and Fantasize
While journaling is meant to reflect reality, you can give your own version of reality. Discuss what you like to imagine. Think about how things you want from the future. It could be completely ridiculous or fantastical, but it can still hold meaning to you.
When deciding what to write about, just remember that you aren’t being judged by anyone, but yourself. If you find yourself feeling much too self-conscious to write about your thoughts, you can write about exactly that. Conversely, you can also write about how you feel about what you’re feeling.
It’s a truly unlimited chain of things to write about. Don’t let yourself stop yourself from writing. The great writer is one who doesn’t feel discouraged by anyone, let alone themselves. Instead, they plumb the depths of their potential and realize things about their talents and themselves.
Tips for Stream of Consciousness Journal
If you’re looking to start a stream of consciousness journal, there are things you should know (aside from just knowing about writing about your thoughts as they come to you). How you keep up the practice is just as important as the practice itself. This should be your chance to express yourself consistently.
You should purchase a journal/notebook/diary and use it specifically for stream of consciousness writing. Buy a brand-new one and find a quality pen to use. Label your notebook and your entries by date.
Writing, rather than typing, your thoughts are greatly important. While so much is written on a computer screen (like this article), journaling has a certain inherent intimacy that can only be fostered through the power of the pen to a piece of paper. There’s so much expression to be found in the touch of the ink to the paper. Your handwriting, kerning and more can reflect so much on your thoughts. It’s also a way for you to feel much more mindful when writing.
Habit is the name of the game when it comes to any type of writing. You want to be practicing stream of consciousness writing on a consistent basis. Every day, you should set time aside for journaling. It could be when you wake up. It could also be right before you go to bed.
Whenever it is, you want to make sure you’re focused on your thoughts. If you are having trouble getting centered, you might try mindfulness breathing techniques to zero in on your thoughts. When you are a friend of your thoughts, you become a friend of your writing.
You also don’t want to overwhelm yourself with unreasonably high expectations, especially when it comes to stream-of-consciousness writing. Don’t tell yourself that you’re going to write for one hour at a time. It can be a frustrating process to put your thoughts on paper like this. Doing so in small doses is for the best.
Set a timer for about five minutes and then just write. You might want to stop even after two minutes or less. That’s fine, just make sure that you are getting the most out of the time you’re setting aside for stream of consciousness journaling.
Prompts to Help You Get Started
If you don’t know where to start with stream of consciousness journaling (even with the above advice), don’t worry. We have some prompts that will be of great benefit to you.
- What are you thinking about when you wake up?
- What are you thinking about when you go to bed?
- If you could have anything right now, what would it be?
- How are you feeling at this very moment?
- What do you want in the future, if not necessarily now?
- What do you need to get done soon?
- What made today different from yesterday?
- How have you changed for the better?
- How have you changed for the worse?
- How are your senses being stimulated right now?
- What is something you want to learn more about?
- What is something you were wrong about?
- Who’s someone you haven’t seen in a long time that you think about?
- Where would you like to travel?
- What was the best experience of the past week for you?
- What was the worst experience of the past week for you?
- How has your life up to this point surprised you?
- Would your past self be happy with your current life?
- What is something you haven’t shared with anyone else?
- What’s your biggest fear?
- What do you think you’ll be like in ten years?
- What do you think is going on for someone who lives halfway across the world?
- When did you start feeling like an adult?
- What do you want out of your friendships or romantic relationships?
- What are you imagining in your mind at this very moment?
These prompts can branch off into other ideas. You might find yourself going back to certain prompts as your thoughts about them deliver. This is wonderful and could lead to you writing something that you want to share with others. You can also feel free to share your journal entries with other people. Even though they are intimate writings, you can let others into your world. This is all up to you, of course.
When starting a stream of consciousness journal, you want to remember how special your mind is. Everyone has their own unique point of view that needs to be expressed. By keeping up a journal of this kind, you can show how much strength is within your thoughts.
