Journal Like a Rebel
by Keri Emme
photo by Bradyn Shock on Unsplash
I am an absolute nerd when it comes to marking the passage of time. Whether it’s a new month, new season, or a new year (I see you 2024!), I get high on taking time to acknowledge transitions.
During these transitions I like to reflect on what has passed, and give focus to what I hope to create moving forward. As 2023 winds down and we start to welcome in 2024, I find myself reaching for an old, familiar habit:
Journaling! Have you heard of it?!
If you said yes, then you are in 100% of the population. It’s impossible to scroll through social media and not see at least 1 journal prompt being offered up by a coach, therapist, or influencer. Even though journaling is now in the mainstream, I still meet loads of people who claim to hate journaling, or who desperately want to journal but just can’t figure out how to make the habit stick. If either of those apply to you, don’t worry! I’m here to help.
As someone who has been journaling for almost 30 years, here are the top tips I’ve found to help you get started and make the most of your journaling practice.
Don’t Be a Writer
Stay with me here; you don’t have to write to journal. The act of writing can be very therapeutic but the real magic isn’t in moving your fingers. The magic of journaling happens when you take time to tend to your thoughts.
One of the reasons journaling is so effective is because it helps move your thoughts from inside your brain onto the paper, so you can literally see them in front of you and start to process them. But you can get that same effect from talking out loud. Instead of seeing your thoughts, you can hear them.
If there is a topic you want some clarity on but you hate sitting still to write, start talking. After a few minutes, you’ll have refined your initial thoughts and you’ll be surprised at what you were able to uncover. The great thing about this is you can multitask! You can journal while you put away laundry, drive to work, go on a walk, etc.
You don’t have to write to journal.
Be Inconsistent
This is not a suggestion. Inconsistency is crucial. Forcing yourself to do something when you don’t want to is a surefire way to guarantee that you’ll dread doing it in the future. We live in a culture that expects perfection and I have seen too many articles out there offering tips on how to make journaling a daily practice. I promise you, no one journals every day.
Having a rigid daily routine can actually harm your mental wellness. When you inevitably have a hard or extra busy day, you also send yourself on a guilt trip because now you’ve ruined your journaling streak.
It’s time for a hard truth: When you set a goal to do something every day, you will fail.
So how do you combat the perfectionist within that keeps telling you that journaling daily is the only way to properly journal? Ditch the idea of a streak and look at each day as its own entity. Some days you simply won’t have time to journal. Other days you’ll forget because there are higher priority tasks on your mind. On those days, instead of trying to squeeze in journaling between meetings, give yourself permission to skip journaling completely. Remind yourself that you can always journal tomorrow.
When you let go of the all or nothing mentality, you’re letting go of the idea that you “suck at journaling.” You don’t suck at journaling, you just didn’t get to it today. But you can make time for it tomorrow. The all or nothing mentality discourages you from trying. Allowing yourself to skip days as needed provides the grace for you to keep trying over and over again.
Be Boring
“I don’t know what to write about.”
This is probably the number one hang up I hear from people who want to start journaling. There is an annoying myth that journaling “correctly” means you need to be working toward some therapeutic breakthrough. Or that journaling is only valuable when you are actively uncovering layers of trauma and digging deep into your inner child wounds to figure out why you behave the way you do.
These myths are bullshit.
Some days I will write a short paragraph pretty much about nothing before running out of steam and putting away my journal. Other days I’ll start writing about how I like juice and suddenly I am four pages into a rant about how I don’t have the time to devote to my hobbies because capitalism is slowly killing us all.
Your brain will take you where you need to go. Sometimes it’s nowhere interesting. Not every journaling session has to have a deeper purpose. Make your peace with that. If nothing of interest comes up for you while you journal, it doesn’t mean you journaled wrong, it just means nothing of interest came up for you that day.
Be Uncomfortable
I’m no monster, I love scented candles, comfy pillows and soothing music as much as the next woo witch. But you don’t need those things to journal. There is too much advice out there encouraging you to create a sanctuary around your journaling practice. So often people think they need to curate the perfect conditions before they can start journaling. Journaling doesn’t need to be a sacred ritual.
If you are privileged enough to have a space dedicated to journaling, then go ahead and keep all your candles and pillows out round the clock so they’re waiting for you when you are ready to journal. But if you are like most of us, creating a sanctuary requires extra work to set up, and then break down.
Telling yourself you need these ideal conditions to journal adds a barrier between you and journaling. Creating a sanctuary gives you a buttload of extra tasks to do before you can get started, plus it adds resistance because you know you have to clean up afterward.
While you might be inclined to occasionally go all in on creating a sanctuary, more often than not you’ll likely just scrap the whole idea and give up on journaling to avoid the extra work.
When you have time and/or the desire to journal, do it where you are. Worry less about making yourself comfortable and more about releasing the thoughts from your head.
As the new year approaches, I hope these tips inspire you to take some time to reflect on what you accomplished in 2023, as well as what you hope to create in 2024. Happy (almost) New Year my lovelies!
