Hey Love,

I hope you are doing well. When I posted about my journey of journaling and what it taught me, some of my friends asked me to write about how to start a journal. So in today’s post, I will talk about some simple tips which helped me in starting journaling.

• Why do you want to journal: The first step is to ask yourself, why do you want to start journaling. Is it for self-improvement, is it to manage your time effectively, or is it for fun, a hobby? What is your reason? There are so many types of journals, productivity planners, journals for manifesting your dream life or gratitude journals. In my last post, I talked about journaling for self-improvement, so in this post, I will mainly talk about that.
• Fix a time for journaling: Scheduling your journaling time will help you immensely. I can swear by this habit. I first started writing at night before sleeping, but now it is the first thing I do in the morning. The problem with writing at night (for me) was that instead of writing what is going on in my mind, I would start writing what all happened in my day. And that was not the motive, I wanted to know myself more, understand myself better. And for that I thought early in the morning will be better as at that time our mind is fresh, and this is the time when our subconscious mind is most active.
• Keep your journal at an accessible place, a place where it is easiest to pick up and start writing: Every night I keep my journal on my bedside so that when I wake up in the morning it is easily reachable for me. Once you have scheduled your time, let’s say you planned to write at night before sleeping, keep it by your bedside, so that there is no chance of forgetting about it. Or what you can do is after finishing your work or studying in the evening, keep it on your bed at that time, so that when you reach your bed after dinner, you find your journal and pen there waiting for you.

• Keep it simple: I have seen many beautiful Pinterest photographs of journals, and I was so enticed to keep a journal like that where I would draw something or paste cutouts from magazines, and I tried it once, but I failed. I forgot that my motive was self-improvement and for that my pen and journal are more than enough. Of course, you can do it if you want to do. But in the beginning, keep it as simple as you can. Remember that you are trying to form a new habit, and your mind will find excuses to not change. So you better tell your mind that this is an easy task, you don’t need anything apart from 2 basic things.
• What to write: Now, let’s talk about the real part. The biggest problem I faced in the beginning, and what everyone does. What to write in my journal? On days when you are filled with emotions, write them out. There are some days when we are emotional, sometimes, we are happy, sometimes extremely angry and sad (and that’s the time when we want to write the most or not write at all). Write out whatever is coming in your mind. In my last post, I gave an example of what I write when I am angry. So let me continue with that. On the days when I am very angry, I write out all that which comes to my mind. Even if it means abusing someone, (LOL, am I giving too much information?) but do that, if that makes you feel better. Write out without any filters. Sometimes, I get so angry that I don’t even want to write a word, at that time I just scribble. But after scribbling pointlessly, I make sure to write. When you are done with releasing all your emotions, start talking to yourself. It is only after letting out your emotions when you would be able to have a meaningful conversation with yourself. At this moment, start asking yourself questions. Why? Why are you feeling angry? Is there any point in all this? Am I assuming things? Will the other person with whom I am angry can understand all this? If yes, how can I make them understand this? Is there a way I can convey this with love? Keep asking questions until you are satisfied. This is the best technique I have ever used. It not only helps me in understanding the situation but also understanding that most of the time when I am angry with someone, it is not because they are wrong or I am wrong, it is mostly because of miscommunications. So this will be the most important tip, ask yourself questions.
• Use journaling prompts: There are days, there are more of these kinds of days when we are not emotional. Especially in the morning. So, if I cannot think of what to write, I will look for some prompts. I don’t use the internet in the morning, so what I do is always keep screenshots of some journaling prompts. Some people write out the prompt on the top of the blank page. There are so many blogs on journaling prompts, you can check them out. Or tell me if you would want to me make a post with journaling prompts, I will try my best to do that.
• To read it or not to read it: If you are coming out with your emotions, my suggestion would be to not read your journal entries. That will only make you judge yourself and then more miserable. But if you are going for some prompts, then you can read it. I don’t read my journal entries just after writing it, this works for me.
• Do not focus on grammar or language: Write your journal entries in the language which you are most comfortable with. Remember that you are writing for yourself, and if it is making sense to you, then that’s all which matters.
• Your handwriting does not matter: There are days when I write so beautifully in my journal, and then there are days my handwriting is really bad. But it does not matter. When a lot is going on in my mind, I want to write to it out fast so that I don’t skip anything. Because of writing fast, most of the time my journal entries are not in good handwriting. But as I said earlier, I am writing for myself. If it is making sense to me, it is making sense to the Universe, that’s it. End of the discussion. (In Amitabh Bachchan’s style, keh diya na…bas keh diya).
• Give yourself and this new habit enough time: I see people who start journaling and after few days say that it is not for them. I understand if you do not want to make this a habit, or you are bored with it. But if you truly want to make it work for you, then give it some time. Your journey of self-exploration will not start in the first week, it will take months. I remember I was so fascinated by Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages. In this kind of journaling, we have to write 3 pages, write out whatever comes in our mind. I started it, and what happened was I started writing about my daily plans, what tasks I will do that day, and as usual, I would overestimate what I could do in a day. And then, in the evening and the next day in the morning, I would feel bad. I hated thinking about that the 3 pages I wasted in writing and how much I was motivated and how this one task is in my plan for several days, I would dread it. And this made me hated this time of journaling. So one day, I decided I won’t do it like this. Writing 3 pages, was too much for me. It can be that I am doing it the wrong way because I haven’t read Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way, in which she has talked about it. But I realized that this was not working for me. Similarly, you have to find out what is working for you and what is not. We all are different and our journeys will be different too, so give yourself time, and try out different things if one is not working. I am sure if you will work on it eagerly, things will fall into place for you.

And with this, we have come to the end of this post. That was quite a long post. But I hope that these tips will help you in starting your journey with journaling. I will see with you with the next post, till then keep celebrating life.

With Love,

Komal

Tangled Tourista

Tangled Tourista is an online diary, which is about travel, food and books. Here you will read about book reviews and suggestions, tested travelling tips and about new cafes and restaurants around and their reviews.