Journaling Part 1: Why should I keep a journal?

“The real work you have to do is in the privacy of your own heart. All of the external forms are lovely… but the real work is your inner connection…”

Jon Hopkins- Sit Around the Fire - 2021

Journaling is a healthy, transformative practice and an important tool in your self-care toolbox – whether to cope with difficult experiences in day-to-day life or to inspire change and self-discovery. It can also be a fantastic companion to personal therapy and counselling. I've been reminded of this recently after the privilege of marking the Trainee Counsellor journal submissions for my old University. The inspiring power of reflection has prompted me to write a series of short blogs to help others experience the valuable benefits of journaling.

This first blog offers an introduction to journaling as well as providing guidance and ideas to help you find your way when recording “conversations-with-self” with compassion and purpose.

Why journal?

Your personal journal can be a companion for healing and growth. It can also be used to prepare for a difficult conversation or situation; by sorting through your thoughts and feelings, you can enter a more grounded state of mind and embodied readiness for the encounter.

Most importantly, as you settle into journaling you reveal yourself to yourself. You are not writing for an audience. It is deeply personal. It provides a precious space where we cast off the outward pressures of life and become divinely honest with ourselves.

How can journaling support therapy or counselling?

Alongside counselling, your journal becomes your record of coping, self-discovery and transformation.

Whether you write daily, weekly or reactively to happenings in your life, your journaling practice can amplify your therapeutic journey. You might spend 10 minutes in advance or after your counselling session to prepare for, or digest, your thoughts and feelings. It is a particularly useful tool in capturing those lightbulb moments in therapy and extend the discovery by shedding brighter light on what you want to work through.

As a client, I occasionally brought my journal to therapy. I found it useful to jot down notes, revelations and prompts for reflection after the session. Some clients bring journal entries to a session to explore a theme or to share a discovery. Ultimately, journaling is an exercise in expanding self-awareness, self-valuing and to capture observations about our experimentation with things we’d like to do differently.

Entries can explore painful, surprising or uncomfortable experiences or they might be a space to exercise a piece of work that we arrive at in therapy – letter writing, poetry, timelines and family trees, for example.

Finally, your journal can help you capture and add value to your overall counselling experience. While some people never look at an entry again, I have been known to dive into an old journal from years gone by and feel appreciation for the time I invested in counselling and the effort I made at a difficult time in my life to invest in myself.

How do I journal?

Journaling is as unique as the person engaging with it. The medium, the frequency, the impetus to begin, the breadth and depth of reflection, the length of expression, it’s like a fingerprint. And with the gift of mobile technology, voice recording tech, natural settings and artistic materials, the only limit is your imagination.

However, like getting on the yoga mat, into the gym or onto the meditation cushion, the hardest part is making a start.

Ask yourself – what speaks to me? Words, music, colour, illustration?

What do you imagine when you think of expressing yourself? Perhaps it’s a notebook and pen, a mobile phone and app, a canvas or a sketchbook? Perhaps it’s a video or a voice recorder?

You might collect thoughts, ideas, inspiration from outside of your personal life. You might start with internal prompts such as thoughts or feelings about a bereavement, a life transition, a relationship or a health issue.

Once you have found the right outlet for you and the motivation, take a deep breath and begin…

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This blog is the first in a series of blogs about journaling. In my next piece, I will explore suggested ways of journaling for specific outcomes such as coping with adversity, but in the meantime if you would like to find out more feel free to reach out to me directly here.

Companions to journaling

Conversations with ‘self’ become richer as we balance our journaling practice with other forms of introspection and connection. Here are a few ideas to explore or revisit if they resonate with you

- Meditation – sitting with your present experience

- Volunteering – especially activities that bring diverse people together for a common purpose

- A walk in nature – spaces you haven’t visited before or infrequently

- Trusted friends – without direct reference to your entries, exploring your perspectives of difficult experiences with trusted friends can inspire gentle consideration and bring new perspectives to the table.