For years, I have had counselors, mentors, and the like ask me if I’ve gotten into journaling. I’ve always told them that I thought it wasn’t for me. It didn’t help, and I was usually frustrated that I couldn’t turn it into a daily routine.
I don’t know exactly what got me back into it. Looking through the pages of my almost-filled notebook, I notice how I began writing more toward the end of last summer. Between living through the pandemic, working, and preparing for my first semester of college, I had so many thoughts racing through my head. Journaling allowed me to channel those thoughts and work through them in a healthy way.
At first, journaling seemed like this big scary commitment I had to make part of my routine. But, over time, I learned how to make it work for me.
Here are some ways to know if journaling will be helpful for you!
- You are an external processor
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I didn’t really understand what this meant until college, but it changed the way I view my thinking. While an internal processor likes to be alone and think things through in their head, an external processor works through things by talking out loud or writing down ideas. By hearing their ideas out loud or seeing them written or diagrammed, an external processor can make better sense of their thoughts. For me, personally, I will sometimes call a friend and talk through a problem only to realize I’ve found the answer on my own. Sound familiar? You’re probably an external processor. Journaling is great for this type of thinking because it allows you to think quietly while seeing your ideas on paper. Oh how nice it is to write what goes through your head and declutter all the noises in your brain.
- You are a person of faith
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Because my mind is so flighty, it is easy for me to get distracted when I am solely praying or reading scripture in my head. I have found that journaling my prayers and questions has deepened my faith tremendously! I like journaling in my quiet time because it gives direction to my thoughts and even validates them. I used to be much more perfectionistic in how I prayed and spent time with God, but giving myself permission to write my innermost thoughts has given me a stronger voice than I knew I had. I would HIGHLY recommend. If you are not a person of faith, try to journal for other reasons, like noticing beauty or finding gratitude in your life.
- You enjoy writing
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While this one seems obvious, I think journaling is a special opportunity to invest in your creative voice. If you already have a passion for writing, journaling will just allow you to do more of it. It’s an opportunity to write for yourself, and when it’s for yourself, you can write about whatever your spirit takes you toward!
- You want to feel freer
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As I mentioned, I used to feel frustrated by journaling because I was not yielding the results I wanted. I was a perfectionist, and I thought I had to do it a certain way and commit to it every single day. When I started approaching it the way I wanted to, I freed myself from the useless rules I put in place for myself. I learned to give myself grace when I was too busy to write. I learned to appreciate the way I wrote beautiful words on a page. I learned to reread my entries and celebrate how I’ve learned and grown since writing them.
If you keep hearing people talk about journaling, but you’re afraid to take that step, that’s okay! You don’t have to know where it’s going to take you or what it will mean to you. I hope that, as a gift to yourself, you can start taking time, little by little, to freely write about what’s important to you. Journaling is more than just a mental health tip: it’s a practice of self-love.