I didn't develop the habit of journaling overnight. It took me time and a lot of different journaling styles until I found my most suitable journaling technique.
I first learned about the term 'journaling' in The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. She emphasises a lot on the importance & power of 'gratitude journaling'.
And I started my daily journaling journey with 'gratitude journaling'. I already used to write poems and short stories in my journals at that time.
I also had a notebook for 'letters to God'. I had always been journaling, I just didn't know journaling was such a powerful tool. And that the mere act of putting words on paper could be life-changing. Because that's all I have known how to do all my life — embrace my true self on the pages whether in the form of scribbles that made no sense, doodles and now words.
I was 13 years old when the wrist bone of my right (dominant) hand broke. The ortho put on a plaster for 40 days. Everyone was worried, how will she write now? Imagine your entire joint family wondering about the same thing. That's how obsessed I was and I am for pens and journals. (I learned to write with left hand and managed with it for a few days)
Anyway, coming back to the topic. Let's learn 3 easy ways to start a consistent journaling routine. Please don't undermine them for their simplicity. After a few months, you will start noticing the effects of journaling in your life.
A Word A Day Journaling
It is as simple as it sounds. Every morning after you wake up or every night before you go to bed, write just one word in your journal. Obviously, you can write more if you wish to but the goal truly is 'one word'.
It can be anything. Like a feeling you have, something that happened that day, a feeling you wish to carry & experience throughout the day, something/someone you are grateful for or simply 'Thank you'.
It may seem like pointless but it isn't. I cannot explain how because you have got to experience it yourself.
One thing I know for sure is, you'd want to return to your journal each day without it seeming like a chore.
Today, you can begin with a word: 'Trying'
A Sentence-a-day Journaling
Just like a word-a-day, this practice is also very simple. Instead of stopping at just one word, you complete the sentence — no matter how simple or how non-sense.
A journal doesn't have to make sense to anyone, not even yourself. It's to meet our most confused self on the pages and see where this meeting takes us every day.
Your sentence today can be as simple as 'let's see where this journaling journey takes me'
Page-A-day Journaling
This is one of my favourite journaling techniques. It was 2016 when I found monthly journaling prompts on internet I was just gifted a 2026 planner diary.
The diary was thick, one page for each day of the year and one for each Saturday and Sunday. The weekend shared half each of one page.
Every month, I printed a list of daily prompts. They were titled January prompts, February prompts, etc.
In 2016, I journaled every day of the year and I journaled each day from then to October 2020. I got engaged then and became inconsistent in journaling.
The goal of this journaling technique is to write one page daily even if that means filling an entire page with 'I don't know what to write'
Just write one page daily. Anything and everything.
I have also published a guided journal with 365 prompts: one page & one prompt for each day of the year. You may find it here
Or you can download journaling prompts from our online store: http://store.shilpagoel.com
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