Wellness: How to journal authentically....

Journaling has been hailed as life-changing...How can writing words down make me feel better or help me? When done effectively it is a way of recording key milestones and provide a means to look back to see your growth. It is also a good way of making sense of the changes and growth you are going through. So how does one journal effectively and experience the life-changing benefits promised?

Determine the objective/intention for Journalling Anything goes here... Do you want to vent your feelings or do you want to record the events of your day or key milestones. Either of these objectives serve a purpose e.g. venting your feelings creates a safe space where you can fully express your emotions without judgement. Similarly, recording the events of your day or specific milestones is a means to look back at earlier stages of your life and measure how far you have come. Another option would be to record your creative practice and how it evolves. Artists do this all the time in the form of their sketches and drafts to track changes in their style. One of my favourite journalling types is to document my travels and record the tastes, smells and events that stood out from the trip. However you look at it, journalling serves an array of purposes and it depends which one/s works for you. Plural is intentional as you can have multiple journals as you can have multiple reasons for journalling. In the Book, the artists's way the author notes a method called Morning Pages where you fill 3 full pages back to back with any written words that come to mind.

Determine your preferred tool for journalling Now that you have an objective for journalling, you can select the tool for doing this. Will the classic piece of paper/book journal do or a journaling app? Either way the options are numerous and includes anything from journalling apps like blank, bulletted or stylised guided paper journals, e-journals or apps like OneDay or Evernote. The best way to figure out which journalling tool works for you is to try them out and use the one that resonates. For my travels, I use an app like Evernote but for personal journalling, I use the classic book journal.

Determine an outcomes of Journalling If your objective was to vent then you might want to stop here. Another outcomes of journalling can be to process your emotions about a particular event using guided journalling prompts. Or to re-frame a particular assumption or situation. With making big-life decisions, alongside advice from friends and family, I also like to do self-assessment using journalling prompts Overall, journalling can be a great tool to use - it is free and does not require any prior experience. Using the above tips can make it easier to work for you.