How To Journal: A Guide

January 25, 2021 Liam Hopkins

Welcome back!

For the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at the effects and utility of journaling. If you missed those, you can find them on the article page here. This week, as the final piece for January, I’d love to leave you all with a sample of a guided journal entry and to briefly summarize the research on journaling up until this point. You can find the link to download the sample guided journal entry at the bottom of this page.

I believe that some people will have no trouble in finding things to journal about, we all have stuff that we can look a little deeper into, but I also believe that there is a large majority of you out there that may not know where to start. Self-reflection isn’t exactly the easiest thing to do for someone whose never done it before, but you may surprise yourself at how easy and enjoyable it is once you’ve got your foot in the door.

So what do we know about journaling from the current state of research?

Self-reflection can be:

A source of self-discovery regarding your own thoughts and feelings
A place to find solutions to chronic and/or newly arisen problems
An antidote to anxiety/panic/depression/rumination
A component of increasing your ability to self-regulate mood and situational emotional and cognitive reactivity
An act of self-care; a daily/weekly/monthly personal “check-in” is an act of taking care of yourself
A source of expression (highly needed during periods of isolation/lockdown)
A great place to record memorable life events
A voluntary intervention that leads to positive effects on mood, well being and life satisfaction.

Can you think of any other uses of journaling? Leave a comment!

So we know that there are many benefits to be had from a simple journal practice. But for those of us who have never journaled before, it can be a little difficult, or even intimidating when trying to start. Or, like myself many moons ago, you think that journaling is silly and won’t be of any help to your life. I know exactly what that feels like. You’ve tried all sorts of things to change the way you feel about certain situations in your life, and you’ve begun to develop a bit of what psychologists call “learned helplessness”. After a few (or hundreds of) failed attempts at finding solutions, you give up hope and any effort in continuing your search. If this is you, I believe that you haven’t landed here by accident.

One of the strangest perspective adjustments I’ve had from journaling was around journaling itself. I have always been very doubtful of the utility of journaling, I saw it as something that children do, not adults, let alone adults who are aimed at developing a resilient and stoic psychological framework. I can now see just how vital a journaling practice is in achieving these qualities. Ironically enough, a brief examination into the lives of stoics will show you that most, if not all stoics adhered to a journal practice.

“You will rarely find a better person to bounce your ideas, thoughts, feelings, or situations off of than yourself”.

I sincerely hope this series on journaling has got your interest peaked. I know how many times I had to be exposed to the idea of journaling before I actually started, so let this be one more piece of exposure to the idea. And if you already have a journaling practice, even if its a weekly or monthly check-in, I hope you are really getting something out of it; if you find that it difficult to start journaling, or you’ve noticed that your entries have become more of a to-do list than a reflection, check out the download I have below for you. I’ve arranged a really simple word document that will help guide you through a series of questions or considerations that you will find useful. I will make a more robust, and impressive journal guide within the next month or so, but I wanted to get something out for those of you who are eager to begin.

Although the word document will have space for you to write and reflect, I highly recommend jotting the questions, or your own heuristic prompts, down into a notebook; printing it out would also work well. I find my reflections on computer vs paper are always better when I actually write it out; perhaps as a product of the timing differential between thought and transcribing mentioned in a previous article this month. If you think you’d prefer it on your computer or phone, I’d recommend saving each entry as a new file so that you don’t have to keep coming back here to download a fresh template. Alternatively, once you get a sense of what reflection is trying to get at, make your own questions! This template is merely here as a guided first step into your discovery of you, and once that journey begins, you will always know the best questions to ask.

So be curious, honest, and forgiving as you begin this journal journey, you have a lot to learn. Be sensitive to the changes and things you feel. Let those feelings be the guide for you. Like how it feels? Do more of that. Don’t like how something feels? Why does it feel bad? Work with it or leave it.