Journaling has become a very popular self care practice in the last few years, many of my friends and peers have told me that journaling has been a game changer for their personal wellbeing. However as someone who works within the wellness/wellbeing space it’s never been something that I’ve particularly felt drawn to though, until recently when I reframed it for myself.
I’ve always seen it as a practice for better wellbeing, read most guides or how-to’s on looking after yourself and journalling is always featured there but for me it just felt hard, pointless and just not my thing — yes I did just say all those things!
Now as I said I’ve been able to reframed the idea and started up a gratitude journal a few years ago and focusing in on using it only for gratitude has been the turning point for me, and I also only do it once a month because when it comes to your personal wellbeing practice YOU get to make the rules.
If you didn’t know I’m a fan of following the moon cycles and spend time on a new and full moon focusing my energy on what’s happening for me at that time and how I want to move forward each month. It was when I really started to focus my energy at these times that I felt compelled to start writing down the things in my life I felt thankful for at that time as a way of gaining perspective, building resilience and letting go of the things that no longer served me.
This became a turning point for me and I now really look forward to my bimonthly journal time.
So if you’re on the fence about journaling too or want to try a new focus on yours here are my thoughts on how to get started and how to get the most out of it:
- Dedicate a time and space to it - so when I say time I mean looking at regular slot in your life when you know you can commit, this doesn’t have to be daily if that feels too much (which it does for me), it can be weekly, monthly, yearly even. And when I say space I’m not talking about clearing out a whole room in your house to devoted to your writing practices I simply mean the book your write in by either choosing a blank notebook you already have or picking out a new one to buy.
- When focusing in on gratitude it’s easy to recall the great, exciting events and opportunities that have happened but also remember the micro like a hot cup of coffee, a sunny day or a new plant for the house. Other examples could be finishing a book or watching a film that challenged your opinion or taught you something new. I also include the people in my life I’m grateful for and personal things about myself, like when I was pregnant I always gave thanks for my amazing body for growing a healthy baby or when I listened properly to my child when they were upset.
- Don’t forget to include the bad stuff too, and I know this might feel counter intuitive but learning to feel gratitude for the things that go wrong or makes us feel uncomfortable is an amazing way to learn how about failure and how we manage it and it also helps us to build our resilience and discover what we don’t want in life so we can put in more of the stuff we do want. I would include people in here again but it has to be constructive and not malicious because this just creates a place of anger instead of learning. So for an example I’m grateful for this person because their negative actions/feelings towards me have taught me x y and z or I’m thankful for this person because this negative situation has helped me to understand what’s most important to me.
So hopefully you now have a starting point to help you get going, also remember to take the time to look back at what you wrote occasionally, having a record of what has been a positive influence in your life over time and a memory of what keeps you grounded is a powerful thing to keep by your side.
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