I have always been intrigued by the idea of keeping a journal. Before I was in college, while still living with my parents (and not being independent whatsoever), everything that happened on a day-to-day basis felt so arbitrary. I was a teenager who was not good at articulating her feelings about the world, boys, my family, and everything else a teen could be concerned about. Expressing my emotions is still something that I struggle with doing, especially when I think they can make me look “weak,” but I have definitely grown in the last year in that department.
My senior year, I started regularly practicing yoga. In my transition into college, I thought taking yoga as my health credit at Oxford College would be a great way to help me de-stress and center myself in the craziness and hustle of such busy campus. Something I had heard countless yoga instructors say in a yoga practice is: “Today focus on something you love, someone you love, or something you’re grateful for.” My yoga instructor at Oxford College took it a step farther by asking us to journal how we felt before and after our yoga practice.
She did not make it feel high stress. At least for me it wasn’t because she only required one word to describe how we felt. She made it clear that “tired” before and after a yoga practice was perfectly okay. I found myself writing longer passages and describing how I felt in more detail over the course of the semester. Over winter break, I thought about this for some time and decided that I needed to start journaling and that the only way to achieve this is to make it a low commitment to myself to write a few preset entries. I decided to elaborate in the journal only if I wanted to or had time.
I decided to take the focusing on gratefulness from my past yoga practices to my journal. Especially at a university where every one of us are privileged, it is so easy to get lost in a shallow, materialistic world that revolves around you and your complaints about how difficult something so insignificant is. I found it easier to stray from this mindset, and embrace my introvert-ness by setting aside a little time everyday, whenever I feel comfortable, to list five things I am grateful for, and two things I am excited for. If I have time or I want to document something important, I might make another list or quickly jot down something, but it’s usually not much. It helps me feel grounded and remember who I am and what I enjoy, while also giving me alone time to really think and breathe, which I always need in an environment of naturally extroverted leaders. Sometimes, my entry will take an entire page, and other times, hardly half of a page. One of my entries reads:
July 1st
Things I’m grateful for:
- Friends
- Education
- Health
- Growth
- My abilities
Things I’m excited for:
- The beach (and NO work)
- To do my laundry- REALLY need to do that
This was a shorter entry but this is the main set up of all my entries. This was also in the midst of my summer job, where I felt like I was “on” a lot, considering that I am somewhat introverted. I used the small bit of free time I had to myself to go out on the docks late at night to journal under a light (and not do laundry). It helped calm me and get me ready for the next day of planning events for a hundred gifted middle and high school students. I loved it, but it was tiring.
At college, I don’t have the same kind of scheduled free time, but I am in a high stress environment, especially around my peers who also mostly have pre-professional intentions. If I find a relaxing spot on campus, or I know that I am alone and it’s not going to happen again for a while, I sit down to fill in my prompts, and maybe fill my journal in on how I’m feeling about something or a funny first date I went on (or a fling I am hopeful for) or even something I found out that is interesting, like something in class I’m really excited about. If I don’t get to it one day, I usually have more free time the next day and I just catch myself up after filling in my prompts.
I found I, like many others, need to create my own kind of structure now that I am away from home, and journaling has become an important part of my day and the structure within my schedule. Journaling definitely isn’t for everyone, but it might be a more popular medium for de-stressing when structured and simplified.