How To Respond To A Journaling Prompt With Ease

So you want to start journaling…Amazing!

Journaling is a cathartic and creative practice that can be incredibly beneficial to your overall wellbeing. Studies have shown that journaling can reduce stress and lessen symptoms of anxiety and depression, but that’s not all journaling does. Additional benefits to journaling include:

• Helps put your feelings into perspective

• Improves both your mood and your memory

• Organizes emotions and fress up headspace

• Improves communication skills and empathy

• Promotes personal growth and provides clarity

• Increases self-awareness and sparks confidence

As great as these benefits are, journaling can also feel intimidating, especially if you’re new to the practice or self-expression in general. If a blank page has ever made you feel nervous, if you’ve struggled to put a name to what you’re experiencing, or you’ve found yourself stuck like a stick in the mud on a prompt, you’re not the only one. Just as it takes time to open up to new people in your life, it also times time to open up to yourself (and I’ve found that sometimes the latter can be even harder). It’s my hope then that the following tips can give you a bit of guidance to help you start the process.

How To Write A Journaling Prompt

1. Exhale. Are you holding your breath right now? Sigh it out, and do that again when you are ready to start journaling to clear the way for your answer.

2. Have a 2-way conversation. Think of journaling as talking to yourself. For example, when was the last time you asked yourself how you feel? Do you even know how you’re doing today? We’re so used to looking for answers everywhere but within ourselves—from friends to Google to social media. So, use your journaling prompt as a way to check-in with yourself and get a pulse on what’s going on, what you need, and what you want.

3. Befriend your inner critic. Rather than ignoring your ego, tap into it during your practice. Consider using your journaling practice as a way to make sense of the your inner commentary. Stuck on a prompt and annoyed? Ask yourself WHY you’re stuck—that insight could be even more powerful. Think what you just wrote down is dumb? Consider a situation in the past that’s made you feel that way for expressing yourself. See the pattern? Don’t pretend judgement isn’t there, and try to use journaling as a method to understand why it’s there in the first place.

4. Detach yourself from the page. What you write isn’t homework, going to be read by anyone else, or published in a literary journal. Free yourself from the expectation that what’s in your journal needs to be poetic or perfect. While reading back on old prompts can sometimes be insightful, chances are you will never read what you write again. So forget about your handwriting even being legible and use the blank page as a place to explore and let go.

5. Try not to overthink it. Tough, I know. This one takes time because there’s this weird block you might feel in the beginning like a bunch of jumbled words are stuck in your throat and you don’t know which one to choose first. My advice? Just start writing—anything. (Think of it as letting go of your mind junk before you get to the “good” heart stuff.)

Once you get used to expressing yourself, there’s a good chance you’ll become obsessed with it—and want to make a habit out of it. (Or perhaps you use to have a journaling habit but somewhere along the way you fell out of it—that’s okay too.) Even as a writer, I constantly fall out of writing habits, but it’s never too late to pick them up again. So, to help you keep it up once you’ve begun, these are my top tips based on my personal experience.

How To Maintain A Journaling Practice

1. Find your sweet spot. Try to journal at different times of the day to see what feels best (and most sustainable) for you. Is it right when you wake up? As you’re preparing for bed? Or the perfect pairing to your afternoon coffee to break up the work day? Explore each, and then pick one.

2. Get a really cute journal. Seriously. I’ve noticed that when I get a cute, new journal and display it on my nightstand or desk, it also acts as a visual cue that reminds me to journal and gets to excited to journal. Keep your journal in sight and think of it as an added incentive (and decorative).

3. Let yourself skip days. This sounds counterintuitive to maintaining a practice, but when you let yourself skip without feeling guilty, it’ll makes it easier to come back to the practice. (But when you put yourself down about it, there’s a higher chance you’ll then avoid it.) So whether you choose a daily practice or a weekly practice, let yourself let go of the practice when you need to—and come back when you choose to.

4. Use guided prompts. You can Google a bunch of different prompts online, find prompts from your favorite writers on Instagram, or use a journal that has guided prompts backed in. These are great for when you want to explore your creativity and takes the pressure off of thinking what to write. I also suggest trying both expressive (self-reflective and personal) and creative prompts (imaginative and neutral).

   • Example (expressive): Write about the last time you felt completely at peace.

   • Example (creative): Write about two people seeing each other for the first time.

5. Make journaling an experience. Pair your practice with at least one other thing that brings you ease. Maybe you find a go-to playlist for your journaling sessions or you light your favorite candle before writing. Or perhaps you pour yourself some coffee or tea before you begin journaling. You could even have a special spot in your home to journal or use your practice as another reason to get outside. Whatever you pick, have fun—and ease—with it.

And that’s it!

So, what do you say, are you ready to start journaling? Join an upcoming Journal Your Way challenge (a new one each season) or explore journaling prompts to help you write away your worries in one of my PsychCentral articles. Still have questions about journaling? Email me!