My mentors have told me year after year to journal my feelings, prayers, joys, uncertainties and everything in between. In some seasons I have taken their advice more seriously with serious gains, but other seasons I find myself striving to make journaling work. Here are 5 conclusions I have come to for more meaningful journaling entries.
Don’t force it
I have spent hours of my life staring a blank page, not knowing where to start my journaling exercise only to get more frustrated that my journaling “wasn’t working”. If you find yourself with writer’s block, maybe try another time in the day, or after the meeting your boss or before you have intense feelings.
Only give yourself five minutes... at first
Sometimes if you commit 5 or 10 minutes, then the time crunch will flood you with thoughts and topics that you could benefit from journaling about. Other times, setting the time restraint increases your commitment to the activity because after all, it is only 5 or 10 minutes in your day. Later, when you find you need more time, add more time! You don’t train for a marathon by running a marathon the first day of training. As a point of reference most marathon training programs suggest you start running distances between 5 and 7 miles at the beginning of the training- that’s only 19-26% of the max distance the runner trains to run. Give yourself grace- 5 minutes will eventually turn into 30 or even 60 minutes with practice.
Go to your favorite spot
Sometimes physically being in your favorite physical location can be therapeutic in itself, but try integrating journaling to being physically present. Besides, your feelings of relaxation and/or excitement for being in your favorite place may set your mind up to recall and process other similar or dissimilar feelings.
Write it down even if it doesn’t seem important at first glance
In movies the directors sometimes show you a clip that means nothing until the final shot of the entire movie, which sometimes brings perspective to what you first saw. Perhaps your mind and/or the Lord wants to do this in your journaling activity. Trust the process that your mind and soul are leading you on, and watch its purpose unfold as you spend more time writing and reflecting.
Don’t write it down
I have found that some of my most intimate prayer times and journaling reflections have not been written down. Sometimes I don’t have the emotional bandwidth to go through the motor activity if actually writing words on a page, so instead speaking them instead of writing them out can be a equally as meaningful practice and more helpful because it’s not an assignment that you completed, but a form of being compassionate towards yourself and being honest with your loved experiences.
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