How To Journal For Mental Wellness

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A journal can be whatever you want it to be. For some people, it’s a record of each day. For others, it’s a creative outlet. For others, it’s a way to manage their mental wellness. Journaling for mental wellness has gained a lot of focus over recent years (especially since the pandemic). If you’re thinking of trying it, here are three points to consider.

Journal on paper

You can journal electronically if you really want to. It is, however, a good idea at least to try paper journaling. Many people find it a very different experience from journaling electronically and a better one for mental wellness.  

Apart from anything else, journaling on paper, by definition, takes you away from screens. It can also help to force you to slow down. Even if you’re a slow typist, using a keyboard is still often much quicker than writing. That’s fine if you just need to get a job done but sometimes there’s a case for going slowly and mindfully.

Journaling on paper also provides a high degree of privacy and security compared to journaling electronically. You don’t have to deal with tech fails or cybersecurity issues. There’s also less danger of you accidentally publishing something you meant to keep private.

Balance structure with freedom

Even though the names are similar, bullet journaling and regular journaling are different. You can, however, draw inspiration from bullet journaling. In particular, you could look at its balance of structure and flexibility as a guide for your journaling. For example, you might want to include prompts and trackers alongside blank space for you to use as you wish.

You can also keep a “temporary” journal as well as a proper one. Your temporary journal can essentially be your “catch-all” for whatever thoughts you want to record. This can literally mean anything from basic to-dos to your thoughts on the Yelp extortion issue. You would then distill these down into your proper journal.

This approach is particularly useful when you’re still figuring out what you want from your journal. Even once you do have an established journaling process, it can still be handy to have an “overflow” notebook.

Push your creative boundaries

As previously mentioned, your journal can and should be whatever you want it to be. If, however, you’re journaling for mental wellness, then you may find it very helpful to push your creative boundaries. At the very least, it’s worth trying and seeing how you feel about it.

Pushing your creative boundaries will mean different things to different people. Basically, it will depend on where your starting point is. If you’ve never considered yourself to be creative then you might want to start with the likes of stickers and stamps and doodles. If you are more artistic, then use your journal to try out new techniques.

Regardless of your previous artistic experience (if any), you might want to try exploring neurographics. This is a technique for drawing out your inner feelings and expressing them on paper where you can address them. Many people find it very soothing and relaxing.

The Real Way To Get Into Crafting

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Crafting is one of the best ways for people to spend time indoors. If you have often thought about getting into this yourself, then there is no good reason not to.

5 Activities That Encourage A Calm Mind

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In this day and age, it’s natural for you to feel overwhelmed. Very much so. And when this is the case, you’re going to want to make sure that you’re able to can manage yourself well. Because if you’re disorganized in life, and you’re not all that intentional, chaos can occur. Our minds are strange places. Naturally, they’re programmed to cause problems. They worry, they fear, they’re negative. And they’re exhausting too! So, you have to go the extra mile to keep your mind calm. To quieten your thoughts and to promote peace and positivity.

In a busy world, that’s tough. So it’s always good to know ways to deal with anxiety and stress. But when you’re dealing with both, it’s the hardest thing to do. To help you, let’s consider five activities that can encourage a calm mind.

Writing

To start with, there’s writing. You don’t have to want to pen the great American novel or even have anything to say to write. You could just start by journaling and emptying your thoughts onto a page. Or you could make up stories - anything. The process of writing is like therapy. It’s calming and allows you to escape your mind for a while.

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Running

Exercise is so good for us. And not just for your body - mainly for your mind. Running, in particular, is one of the forms of exercise that gives you immense mental clarity. If you find that your thoughts consume you and you cannot escape them, hit the road. Just start running. It weirdly clears your mind and allows you to focus. It’s a great way to force yourself to breathe and to be present, whether you’re listening to music while you’re doing it or not.

Meditation

And then, of course, there’s always meditation to think about here too. Meditation is one of those things that you can easily think is hard work or not for you, but most of the time you may not even know what it involves. The idea is that you’re calming the mind. And anyone can do that. So much so, that there are different meditation apps that you can try to see what works for you. By making your mind still and controlling your thoughts, you’ll always be able to encourage a calmer mind.

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Reading

Next up, there’s reading too. Because it’s escapism. Whether you’re an avid reader or not, there’s always going to be a kind of book for you. And it allows you to take your mind off of whatever it’s thinking about and diving into a new world that allows you to feel calm.

Drawing

And finally, there’s also drawing too. You may not realize it, but drawing is a great stress reliever. Even if you don’t think you’re all that creative. Or you don’t you think can draw, it’s pretty calming. Here, you could even look to get one of the adult coloring books. Because spending your time coloring things in is just as therapeutic as drawing something from scratch.

Reasons to Keep a Journal When You’re a Creative Person or NOT!

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Whether you’re a writer, graphic designer or artist, maintaining your creativity can sometimes prove to be a real challenge. So, what can you do if your creativity starts to falter?   Really though who cares if you characterize yourself as a "creative"?  We all need help sparking our creative juices sometimes.

A journal is an excellent tool you can use to keep your creativity alive. This isn’t the type of journal you use to write your innermost thoughts and feelings (though you could use it for that purpose if it helps). Instead, a creativity journal focuses on helping you to solve problems, brainstorm ideas and practice creativity.

Here, you’ll discover just some of the reasons to keep a journal when you’re a creative person.

Helping you to practice and refine your skills

One of the best reasons to keep a creative journal is because it helps you to practice and refine your skills. Creativity doesn’t always come naturally. In fact, it often takes a lot of practicing to maintain it.

There’s always something new to learn and existing skills need to be maintained. By writing your ideas down, or practicing your drawing technique in the journal, you’ll continue to develop your skills.   

They have multiple uses

Creative journals tend to be disorganized in comparison to standard journals. This means they can be used in many different ways. 

You can turn it into a sketchbook, notebook, scrapbook or day planner. Whatever function you need it to meet you can use it for that purpose. 

Ideal for brainstorming ideas

One problem you’ve no doubt faced many times is coming up with new ideas. 

For example, a writer often struggles with “writer’s block”, finding it hard to know what to write. In this instance, a journal could be used to write down ideas, in no particular order. Free-writing can really help to get the creative juices flowing and help you to overcome that mental block.

You can use the journal to draw your ideas. You may find after doodling your ideas down, it all starts to come together. 

Silencing your inner critic

If you tend to be a perfectionist when it comes to your creativity, it could really be holding you back. That inner critic can literally kill creativity, with everything you create seeming to turn out wrong. 

A journal can help silence that inner critic. There’s absolutely no rules as to what you can and should put into it. There’s no wrong thing to write, plan or draw. It’s a safe space where your creativity can flow without being judged.


These are just some of the reasons to keep a journal when you’re a creative person. They really can help you to not just maintain your creativity, but nurture it too.   

Bullet Journaling 101: The Fundamentals of a #Bujo

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Bullet Journals 101

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past several months, you have probably heard of bullet journaling. However, understand exactly what it is and what is involved is a little trickier.

Boost Your Creativity with These Journaling Ideas

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Boost Your Creativity with These Journaling Ideas

Are you looking to boost your creativity through journaling?

While a creative journal can really help to develop and nurture creativity, it can be difficult knowing where to start. There’s also going to be times where a certain journaling method may stop working for you for a while. Whether you’re looking to start a creative journal, or you’re simply looking for a new method to try out, below you’ll discover some awesome journaling ideas.

5 Styles of Creative Journaling

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5 Styles of Creative Journaling

Did you know there are several different styles of creative journaling?