5 Types Of Journaling I Highly Recommend For Beginners

My journaling journey started in 2015, or that's what I thought.

The truth is, I have been journaling since my childhood. I just learned the term 'journaling' in 2015.

When I was a kid, I used to scribble all day in my notebooks because I found peace in running smooth pens on paper. I have been oddly attracted to stationery, especially notebooks for as long as I can remember. I was teased by my cousins to scribble those odd lines in my notebook. Little did I know, it was my shy-little self pouring out her emotions unknowingly.

I am the kind of person who stops doing something I am teased about but that scribbling? I never stopped that. Maybe I didn't choose journaling, journaling chose me.

When I was in 7th grade, my dad gave me a thick-fat yearly diary and it was so enticing, I wanted to use it for good.

We used to receive newspapers in school daily. So, I started cutting out poetry and beautiful cuttings from it and pasted in my journal. I still have that journal with me. Fun fact is that my surname’s spelling was ‘Goel’ before marriage but the innocent, little me had decorated that journal's cover & wrote SHILPA GOYAL with silver glitters on it in huge fonts on the front. 14 years later, I got married and my married surname's spelling is 'GOYAL'. How things manifest in our life is seriously wonderful.

Anyway, I will list what a journal / the habit of journaling did in my life in some other post.

Let's get to the list of 5 Highly Recommended Journaling techniques:

1. Gratitude Journal:

It was the first type of journal I started after I learned the term journaling and learned about gratitude journaling in the book The Secret series by Rhonda Byrne.

It doesn't have to be a full page of journal. You can write only 'one' thing you're thankful for today and you will gradually see your life shifting.

I also created a 2 minute gratitude Journal which you can fill in 2 minutes each day.

Check out here: Life-Changing 2 minutes Journal (printable)

2. Morning Pages / Stream Of Consciousness Journaling:

It is invented by Julia Cameron in the book The Artist's Way. In this, upon waking up, you free-write 3 pages of journal without censoring your thoughts.

Now, we all can't find time in the morning, so I do them often in afternoon.

I also created a morning pages journal (along with some prompts to help you initiate write). You can check it out here.

3. Page-A-Day / Line-A-Day Journal:

It's best for busy people. You can use either prompts or just free-write one page in your journal every day. You can also try one-line-a-day if you are too busy to write in a journal.

The best journal you can buy for this technique is Neorah's Page-a-day journal. It is available in 4 different sizes and you can buy whichever size suit your need & time you have for journaling. You can use code 'SHILPA GOEL' for an additional 10% sitewide.

This journaling technique made me develop habit of journaling daily.

4. Letter To God / Universe / Higher self:

One of my favourite types of journaling. All you have to do is write Dear God/ Dear Universe / Dear Higher self ( whichever you believe in) and pour your emotions flow on the paper. You will be amazed how your letters get answered in the most wonderful ways. For this, you can check out my Tell God About It Journal.

5. Junk Journaling / scrapbooking / Art Journal:

Not everyone express with words, so many people express with paper-cutting, em images, colours, paints and markers.

If you relate to this, you can try this form of journaling and Pinterest & Youtube are full of junk journaling inspiration.

The poetry & cut-outs journal I talked about in Intro is my one-such example. I didn't know how to express in words back then, so I used the words of others. I cut out poetry from newspapers, pasted it in the journal & decorated it with crayons & markers. It felt good.

You can check out Journaling kits on Amazon to get started.

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No matter what technique or how you choose to journal, all that matters in the end that journaling relaxes your mind. There's no right or wrong way to journal. You experiment and see what suits you needs.

I launched my ebook Journaling Journey to help people get started with journaling along with 50+ ways to journal. You can use BLOG25 to get 25% off on my Gumroad Store (Only for my blog visitors)

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If you still want help in learning how to create heal through journaling, contact me at authorshilpagoel@gmail.com to schedule a consultation chat for text-based 1:1 Journaling coaching.

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