Recently, I have been in my journaling era, and it has been so refreshing. I first started journaling in high school, and I have continued journaling throughout my time in college. I love journaling because I can write about whatever is on my mind, including my opinions, goals, and observations. There are no rules when it comes to journaling, which is why I highly recommend it to others. Usually, I only journal when I need to vent about something that is on my mind. I even have my own venting journal. Don’t get me wrong, I love my venting journal because I can express any negative thoughts and feelings without dumping them on others, but I wanted to try something different. I recently discovered “what is going well” journaling when talking to my roommates, and I wanted to give it a try. Luckily, I was just gifted a journal, and I decided to take this opportunity to try “what is going well” journaling.
“What is going well” journaling allows one to focus on what is going well in their daily life. It is similar to gratitude journaling, which prompts an individual to write about things they are grateful for in their overall life. However, this type of journaling differs since it focuses on daily events in a person’s life, so it is meant to be more consistent.
Whenever I am stressed out, I tend to dwell on the inconveniences in my life, so I wanted to shift my attention to recording what is going well in my life with this journaling technique. I want to look back at positive events in my daily life, and I can’t quite do that with my venting journal. So, this week I got to writing, and I had some pretty good results.
I started off my nightly journaling routine by playing some chill music and turning on my mood lighting. Once I got in my bed with my pencil and journal, I thought of all the positive events that had happened that day, and I listed everything that had gone well that day whether they were big or small while including all of the details of my day. I also listed out my plans and goals for the rest of the week, and I even gave myself some advice.
But, I didn’t force myself to journal every day because I didn’t want it to seem like a chore, so I spaced it out throughout the week, which I found to be quite helpful. Sometimes, I would change up my journaling routine by adding it to my morning routine instead, but I found out that I prefer journaling at night.
Overall, I found it helpful to keep track of the daily events in my life because now I can look back and relive these happy moments. From now on, I am going to make this a regular part of my routine because it helped me grow more appreciative of all the good things going on in my life that I often take for granted. It can be so easy to focus on the stressors in life, but with this journaling technique, I was able to put those aside for a moment.
If you struggle with coming up with your own journal prompts and exercises, I recommend buying the “What’s Going Well? Journal: 90-Day Companion Journal” by Greg Bell.