Your Guide for Writing in a Journal

How many times have you thought to yourself: There should be a book written about my life? If you’re thinking about starting a journal, we think that’s a great idea!

Why? It’s the one place you can purge your innermost feelings and be completely raw and honest. No matter what you say in your journal, it’ll never judge you.

If your 2011 resolution is to start recording your thoughts, check out our guide to writing in a daily journal:

Choose Your Journal

Where do you want to store your entries? Do it the old-fashioned way and write in a spiral notebook (that’s how I like it), or use a binder with tabs to separate themes like dream and nightmare recordings, rants about issues in life, etc. And if you’d rather type your entries, make use of free sites like Penzu. Sign up for free and have a completely private place to type and organize entries.

Date Your Entries

Dating your entries lets you go back and read how you solved past issues in life. It’s inspiring to see how much you’ve grown and changed. Better yet, if you’re in a rut and can’t think of what to write for the day, going back to past entries can help you come up with new journal writing topics.

Techniques

Starting is sometimes the tough part; you’re not sure where to start. Here are some journal writing tips and techniques that help get the ball rolling:

Letter Writing – A technique in which your entries are addressed to the issue or concern: telling your boss you’re not feeling appreciated, apologizing to your parent for disrespecting them, etc. This is a great way to get feelings off your chest and avoid building things up – so that you end up unleashing on your boss one day – doh!

Mirror – Write an entry about how you think you’re perceived by someone else. When I ran out of people, I even used my dog! Sure, it’s weird, but what I realized after that entry is that all he really wants from me is my attention; he could care less about dog treats. These entries often help you learn about yourself and how you can grow.

Visualizing – This idea can also be considered fantasy. These entries are about what you want to happen and how you see it happening. Whether it’s asking your boss for a promotion or what it would be like to sip espresso at a cafe in Paris while people watching. Play around with these entries and have fun with them!

Collage – Feeling pretty chaotic and can’t focus? Draw a picture of the first thing that pops into your head! Don’t worry; your journal understands that you’re not Picasso. From that picture thoughts might pop up, so start writing around the picture and just go with it.

It’s Just Your Journal

Your journal’s the pal who will never giggle at a thought you think is silly or betray you if you tell them a big secret. And it also doesn’t care how neat you are either. What a relief!

What techniques do you use for journal keeping? Care to share some ideas for journal writing?

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