Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Psychology of Your Twenties,
Speaker 1: the podcast where we talk through some of the big
Speaker 1: life changes and transitions of our twenties and what they
Speaker 1: mean for our psychology.
Speaker 2: Hello everybody, Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to
Speaker 2: the podcast. New listeners, old listeners. Wherever you are in
Speaker 2: the world, it is so great to have you here.
Speaker 2: Back for another episode as we of course break down
Speaker 2: dive into explore the psychology of our twenties. If you
Speaker 2: have ever had a brush with the self help or
Speaker 2: the wellness community, the wellness space, which I'm assuming that
Speaker 2: you have, considering you're listening to this podcast, someone somewhere,
Speaker 2: at some stage has probably recommended that you journal or
Speaker 2: told you about how amazing journal has been for them,
Speaker 2: whether you took them up on that or not, whether
Speaker 2: you decided to give it a go, whether you saw
Speaker 2: the appeal but you've just never been able to get
Speaker 2: into it. I think journaling is one of the holy
Speaker 2: grails of the wellness community, of the therapy community. It's
Speaker 2: one of the biggest pieces of advice that people like
Speaker 2: to give to others when they are stressed, when they
Speaker 2: are anxious, when they're grieving, heartbroken, even in good times.
Speaker 2: Have you tried journaling? Why don't you journal about it?
Speaker 2: And what is the deal with this? Why is it
Speaker 2: so amazing to be able to write down your feelings?
Speaker 2: Why does it always come up in these discussions? Well,
Speaker 2: today I want to talk about it. By popular request,
Speaker 2: by popular demand from so many listeners, what is the
Speaker 2: magic behind journaling and how can we really embrace it?
Speaker 2: I am going to admit I'm one of those annoying
Speaker 2: people who has been journaling for years and who swears
Speaker 2: by it. I feel myself getting I wouldn't say worse,
Speaker 2: but more or detached from my life when I don't journal,
Speaker 2: and I definitely feel the quality of my experiences and
Speaker 2: my emotions improve when I do. Journaling for me makes
Speaker 2: me very present, It makes me more reflective of my life.
Speaker 2: I feel closer to my memories. I love it for
Speaker 2: so many reasons, but I also get that it's kind
Speaker 2: of hard to get into if it's not something that
Speaker 2: you're a regular at or that you have done very often,
Speaker 2: or if it's you know, not how you necessarily have
Speaker 2: tended to process your emotions. Everyone that likes it really
Speaker 2: likes it, but it's kind of like reading or any
Speaker 2: hobby or exercising or eating healthy. We know we should
Speaker 2: be doing it, we know that we will feel better
Speaker 2: after doing it, but there are always so many mental barriers,
Speaker 2: so many empty notebooks we promise to start writing in
Speaker 2: at the start of the year, so many times that
Speaker 2: we plan to journal in the evening, and then we
Speaker 2: just never get around to it. So today, let's talk
Speaker 2: about the fundamentals and of course the psychology of journaling.
Speaker 2: Why it helps our brains process trauma, why it helps
Speaker 2: our bodies heal faster, how it improves our intelligence, our friendships,
Speaker 2: our memories, but also more importantly, how to actually make
Speaker 2: it an enjoyable practice and one that is actually useful
Speaker 2: rather than a chure. How to actually want to journal
Speaker 2: and where to even start. I'm going to give you
Speaker 2: the fundamentals of journaling and how to actually enjoy journaling,
Speaker 2: and some fun journal prompts, and also really talk about
Speaker 2: some of the myths and misconceptions about this method and
Speaker 2: what it can actually do for our health. And notice
Speaker 2: how I didn't just say mental health. Our health on
Speaker 2: a holistic level, from physical to social to emotional. There
Speaker 2: is a lot to talk about without further Ado, let's
Speaker 2: get into the psychology and the fundamentals of journaling. Journaling
Speaker 2: has a lot of different forms, you know, from the
Speaker 2: tried and tested notebook to a structured gratitude journal or
Speaker 2: a workbook, a blog, I don't know if people still
Speaker 2: blog anymore, maybe an Instagram account, even your notes app.
Speaker 2: Anything that causes you to express your thoughts in a
Speaker 2: written form outside the confines of your mind. To me,
Speaker 2: that counts as journaling. I think we have a very
Speaker 2: narrow picture of what journaling looks like, and it's a
Speaker 2: person at a desk writing page after page, or you know,
Speaker 2: a very Victorian image of a bronze character with an
Speaker 2: ink and a quill penning very beautiful poetry. Not at all.
Speaker 2: Journaling can be as large or small, as romance, antic,
Speaker 2: or practical as you want it to be. And I
Speaker 2: think that's what makes it so incredible. It is just
Speaker 2: so accessible and cost effective. Anyone can do it in
Speaker 2: the way that works for them. It's kind of like
Speaker 2: what running is for our physical health. If you have
Speaker 2: shoes and you have your legs, you can run, and
Speaker 2: if you have your brain and something to write on,
Speaker 2: you can journal and you'll feel better afterwards. Hopefully. Most likely,
Speaker 2: some people like to just like pour their heart out
Speaker 2: every three months when they need it. There are people who,
Speaker 2: like I said, write a page or more every day.
Speaker 2: There is you know, list form. There is naming what
Speaker 2: you're grateful for, what you know, what happened in your day,
Speaker 2: your highlights and low lights. There is the kind of
Speaker 2: journaling that is very structured and really keeps account of
Speaker 2: what you're going through day by day. My point here
Speaker 2: is that there are no rules. The only condition for
Speaker 2: journaling is that you're finding some way to record your
Speaker 2: personal thoughts, your feelings, insights, troubles or daily life. And
Speaker 2: the final condition maybe not even a condition, maybe not
Speaker 2: even a rule, but the beauty of journaling is that
Speaker 2: it doesn't even need to be good. That's another thing
Speaker 2: that I think sometimes holds us back from writing or
Speaker 2: saying that we are someone who journals. When we put
Speaker 2: something on a page, or we put it down in writing,
Speaker 2: it feels so permanent and so sacred, and I don't
Speaker 2: know if it's just me, but we can't help but
Speaker 2: picture someone reading it back, maybe in the future, and
Speaker 2: getting to essentially appear directly into our lives. So sometimes
Speaker 2: we fixate on making it worth it. We fixate on
Speaker 2: it sounding good or using our need as handwriting, or
Speaker 2: not coming off as to I don't know, to anything,
Speaker 2: not coming off as too loud or too emotional, true
Speaker 2: sensitive in our own journal entries. But the thing is
Speaker 2: is that journaling is strictly for you. There are no mistakes,
Speaker 2: There are no bad entries except for the ones that
Speaker 2: weren't written. There are no wrong thoughts. You know, no
Speaker 2: one is going to give you a mark like it's
Speaker 2: an assignment. As I said before, journaling is a self care,
Speaker 2: self love practice. It's one of the only times that
Speaker 2: everything gets to be about you and you get to
Speaker 2: do it in the way that works best as long
Speaker 2: as you are doing it. Journaling has an amazing reputation
Speaker 2: when it comes to, I guess, healing some of our
Speaker 2: biggest emotional afflictions, whether that is helping us with anxiety
Speaker 2: and depression or grief, or even just managing everyday stresses.
Speaker 2: I don't even think I would be able to count
Speaker 2: the number of therapists that have been or have said
Speaker 2: to me, Oh, have you tried journaling? Have you tried
Speaker 2: writing about these feelings? Have you tried articu them in
Speaker 2: written form. What exactly is so powerful about that, though,
Speaker 2: because anyone can pick up a piece of paper and
Speaker 2: a pen and write about how they're feeling, right, what
Speaker 2: is the big secret here? Well, let's talk about it,
Speaker 2: starting with the science and the evidence, of course, because
Speaker 2: we're not going to be making any claims without some proof.
Speaker 2: Journaling has basically been proven to have everything from psychological
Speaker 2: to even physical benefits, which may surprise some of us.
Speaker 2: It definitely surprised me, and we'll get to why in
Speaker 2: a second. But starting with the more psychological side, the
Speaker 2: moment when I think people really began to recognize the
Speaker 2: benefits of this. What's from a landmark study in nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty eight. And in this study, students were randomly assigned
Speaker 2: to write about either very traumatic experiences or very superficial
Speaker 2: topics for four days in a world. Six weeks later,
Speaker 2: those who had delved into traumatic experiences, who had really
Speaker 2: written pages and pages about how they felt, the meaning
Speaker 2: they applied, how it impacted their life, they actually reported
Speaker 2: feeling a lot better. They reported more positive moods, lesser anxiety,
Speaker 2: fewer illnesses than those who were writing about everyday experiences.
Speaker 2: This is when journaling really began to be recommended more.
Speaker 2: I'm sure when this study was first proposed back in
Speaker 2: the eighties, people were like, you want to measure whether
Speaker 2: writing something down is good for people. But after this
Speaker 2: study was published, I think it kind of said something
Speaker 2: that everyone was already thinking. When you actually find an
Speaker 2: outlet for what is going on in your brain and
Speaker 2: the kind of emotional and cognitive affliction that your problems
Speaker 2: are causing you the mental strain. I guess when you
Speaker 2: find an outlet for that, you feel better. And I
Speaker 2: think that was one of the first times that people
Speaker 2: had put that into words. People had been obviously writing
Speaker 2: journal entries and poetry and novels and stories for as
Speaker 2: long as humans had existed, but this study was when
Speaker 2: someone really said, hey, you know, this actually has a
Speaker 2: really positive impact on mental health, and people started recommending it.
Speaker 2: They were basically like, oh, I better get on board.
Speaker 2: This is such a cost effective method of making people
Speaker 2: feel better. Since then, it's become a huge topic of conversation,
Speaker 2: and so many more studies have been produced around that.
Speaker 2: One of my favorite ones is a study that shows
Speaker 2: that people who journal regularly twice a week recover from
Speaker 2: heartbreak faster than those who don't, sometimes even twice as fast.
Speaker 2: That was one of the estimates given by the researchers.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you can really measure how far
Speaker 2: someone gets over heartbreak, but there you go. There was
Speaker 2: another study published only a couple years ago that said
Speaker 2: journaling for fifteen minutes a day can increase our IQ,
Speaker 2: our literal intelligence, and also our EQ, which is our
Speaker 2: emotional intelligence. That makes you a better friend, That makes
Speaker 2: you a better partner, a better coworker, more in touch
Speaker 2: with your own emotions, of course, but also more in
Speaker 2: tune and therefore empathetic to others. This stuff I think
Speaker 2: we all know. Writing about your feelings makes you understand
Speaker 2: them better, which means you understand yourself better, but also
Speaker 2: others people who are also members of the human race.
Speaker 2: That's fairly simple. But when we start looking at the
Speaker 2: physical health benefits, that's when it really starts to get
Speaker 2: so interesting and almost a little bit insane for me,
Speaker 2: and the case for journaling just becomes even greater. So
Speaker 2: let me tell you about a pretty amazing New Zealand
Speaker 2: study from twenty thirteen which basically showed, maybe not showed
Speaker 2: basically suggests did that writing helped our body heal itself
Speaker 2: faster from physical injury. So it's not just that it
Speaker 2: helps people recover from trauma or become more intelligent or
Speaker 2: feel less stressed. It has physical healing properties. So in
Speaker 2: this study, forty nine healthy adults aged sixty four to
Speaker 2: ninety seven, they wrote about either a really upsetting event
Speaker 2: or just their daily activities for twenty minutes after two
Speaker 2: weeks had passed. To make sure that you know any
Speaker 2: initial negative feeling stirred up by recalling those upsetting events
Speaker 2: had passed, all the subjects had a biopsy on their arm,
Speaker 2: basically meaning that a piece of tissue was removed from
Speaker 2: their arms. They had a small wound. That wound was
Speaker 2: then photographed for the next twenty one days while the
Speaker 2: group continued to keep journaling about either upsetting of events
Speaker 2: or everyday events. On the eleventh day, seventy six percent
Speaker 2: of the group that did expressive writing had fully healed,
Speaker 2: with forty two percent of the control group having healed,
Speaker 2: So forty two versus seventy six percent. How has that
Speaker 2: not talked about more? That is such an astonishing study,
Speaker 2: obviously small sample size, it would definitely need to be replicated.
Speaker 2: But if you think that study was just a fluke
Speaker 2: after it was released, even before people were really looking
Speaker 2: into this, And there was another study that appeared in
Speaker 2: the Journal of the American Medical Association, so not a
Speaker 2: small journal, and it looked at patients with asthma and arthritis,
Speaker 2: half of who were again asked to write for twenty
Speaker 2: minutes each day about something that was bothering them a
Speaker 2: stressor a past trauma, and the other half who were
Speaker 2: asked to just write about their daily life. Four months later,
Speaker 2: the patients in the stressful writing group increased improvement on
Speaker 2: objective clinical evaluations about their symptoms of asthma, arthritis, and
Speaker 2: emotional distress. They were less stressed, they had fewer negative
Speaker 2: symptoms of their asthma, and their situation that condition has
Speaker 2: had deteriorated less. So the research is basically concluded writing
Speaker 2: about something that was stressing them out, really engaging their
Speaker 2: emotions through this practice not only helped these patients get
Speaker 2: better in a sense, but it also kept them from
Speaker 2: getting worse. Why is this the case? How is it
Speaker 2: possible that writing could heal a wound or minimize the
Speaker 2: chronic illness? And I want to obviously just state here
Speaker 2: that we're not trying to I'm not trying to claim
Speaker 2: that journaling is going to replace modern medicine and magically
Speaker 2: everyone will get better. But what really comes down to
Speaker 2: in all of these instances is stress. Stress kills ourselves.
Speaker 2: Stress reduces our immune system functioning, Stress shortens our life expectancy,
Speaker 2: It puts our body under strain. All of these things
Speaker 2: obviously have a very big physical impact and can contribute
Speaker 2: to pre existing illness or make us more susceptible to
Speaker 2: new illness. But controlling our stress that helps control the
Speaker 2: physical burden placed on our body. And that is why
Speaker 2: journaling is shown to have these really wonderful, if not
Speaker 2: unbelievable healing properties for physical, not just mental ailments, because
Speaker 2: it basically gets our brain to process heavy emotions and
Speaker 2: experiences that would otherwise manifest in physical tension and physical turmoil.
Speaker 2: I think it's just one of the many ways that
Speaker 2: our mind and our body interact and impact each other,
Speaker 2: and I think we don't explore that enough, especially in
Speaker 2: Western medicine. We're so focused on treating symptoms rather than
Speaker 2: holistically really thinking about the body and thinking about the
Speaker 2: mind and how our psychology and our emotional state contributes
Speaker 2: to how we're basically functioning. The reason that I think
Speaker 2: journaling is so effective at managing stress or processing an emotion,
Speaker 2: any emotion, is that it's an essentially an organizational system.
Speaker 2: It's an organizational procedure. It's a way of cleaning things
Speaker 2: up or making sense of things that we can't work
Speaker 2: out by just thinking about them over and over again.
Speaker 2: That's the curse of overthinking, something that I'm sure we
Speaker 2: all do from time to time. It leads us to
Speaker 2: believe that we are problem solving when actually we are
Speaker 2: just making the issue more convoluted and getting further into
Speaker 2: the labyrinth. And writing about it does something about the
Speaker 2: thoughts and it kind of keeps track of where we've been.
Speaker 2: But also, at a very basic level, it's a circuit breaker.
Speaker 2: Generally gets us out of our mind. It kind of
Speaker 2: removes us from the problem and allows us to write
Speaker 2: about it, not in the third person, but almost in
Speaker 2: a more detached way. We have some form of emotional
Speaker 2: distance that we don't get when we try and process
Speaker 2: all of our feelings about a situation, all of our
Speaker 2: heavy emotions in our brain alone. The more we practice journaling. Obviously,
Speaker 2: in a moment, it can just help us really break
Speaker 2: away from going over and over unnecessary details, not being
Speaker 2: able to find an exit to our thoughts. But the
Speaker 2: more we practice it, the more it becomes a tool
Speaker 2: to reprogram maladaptive thoughts, to reflect and remember our lives
Speaker 2: more realistically, to actually be able to look back at
Speaker 2: journal entries and be like, oh no, maybe my thoughts
Speaker 2: about that situation were wrong. This is how I remember
Speaker 2: it at the time, and it helps us organize our
Speaker 2: life and our thoughts and provide emotional catharsis. That is
Speaker 2: one of my favorite words, catharsis when we really need it,
Speaker 2: you know, like this thing is bothering me, this breakup,
Speaker 2: this heartache, this assignment, this moment when I embarrass myself.
Speaker 2: Let me really spend time trying to think about this
Speaker 2: in a way that my brain normally wouldn't think about
Speaker 2: it by writing about it. And I'm not looking for
Speaker 2: a solution. I'm not journaling to find an answer. I'm
Speaker 2: journaling just to process what I've been through. And that
Speaker 2: is something that we don't always do because we are
Speaker 2: too stuck in our feelings to really detach from them
Speaker 2: and distance ourselves from them for a moment and just
Speaker 2: think about the situation in the grandest scheme of things.
Speaker 2: So basically what I'm trying to say in the most
Speaker 2: convoluted way possible. Journaling is valuable and helps us deal
Speaker 2: with stress and distress because it forces you to put
Speaker 2: complicated emotions about your future, about your family, your friends,
Speaker 2: your trauma, your day, whatever it may be. It forces
Speaker 2: you to put those complicated emotions into some form of
Speaker 2: coherent sentence or paragraph, and through that act you get
Speaker 2: more clarity and you feel like you're getting somewhere. Everything
Speaker 2: else that comes along with that is basically a benefit
Speaker 2: of not being consumed with over analyzing and overthinking a problem.
Speaker 2: We have more space to begin to think about others,
Speaker 2: to really listen to them, to be curious. Our memory
Speaker 2: improves because we're not so caught up in ruminating. We
Speaker 2: sleep better, we enjoy life more, and that is what
Speaker 2: really helps us activate a better version of ourselves through journaling.
Speaker 2: I think it's not just that we are writing about
Speaker 2: something and somehow that makes everything feel a little bit
Speaker 2: less heavy. Yes, that's a component of it, but it's
Speaker 2: that we're using a new part of our brain, not
Speaker 2: just a problem solve, but to really go deeper, to
Speaker 2: apply meaning, to think about things in a different light.
Speaker 2: And here's the thing. It may be hard to start,
Speaker 2: it's really hard to find the time to feel motivated.
Speaker 2: But personally, I have never walked away from writing even
Speaker 2: just like a page or two, less than five hundred words,
Speaker 2: and not felt better, not felt like something has been lifted.
Speaker 2: And I really I don't think I'm the only one
Speaker 2: who has had that experience. Okay, I feel like I've
Speaker 2: gone on and on here about the benefits. Hopefully you're convinced,
Speaker 2: but being convinced is one thing. Actually doing the thing
Speaker 2: is a lot harder. Any of us could tell you
Speaker 2: that so many of us want to be the person
Speaker 2: who journals. We want to have this catalog of our
Speaker 2: life and our feelings, but we feel like we don't
Speaker 2: have the time. We feel like we don't know where
Speaker 2: to start, we don't know what to write about. You know,
Speaker 2: taking ten minutes to write about our feelings doesn't always
Speaker 2: feel as enjoyable immediately in the moment as the instant
Speaker 2: gratification and pleasure that we get from our phones or
Speaker 2: from watching TV. That's how the fast Dope mean of
Speaker 2: our entertainment cycle really works. Another barrier is perfectionism, you know, procrastination, boredom.
Speaker 2: It's kind of tiring sometimes to write all the time.
Speaker 2: But I'm gonna stop us right there and kind of
Speaker 2: give you a heart truth. Life is full of excuses,
Speaker 2: and there is an excuse for everything. You can go
Speaker 2: your whole life is taking the easiest route. But the
Speaker 2: thing about journaling is that it is such a small investment.
Speaker 2: It's basically free. It can take as little as five minutes.
Speaker 2: In a lot of those studies we just spoke of
Speaker 2: people only journaled for ten to twenty minutes. That's shorter
Speaker 2: than most TV episodes, and in comparison, the benefits are astounding.
Speaker 2: From a strictly you know, like pro cons perspective, there
Speaker 2: is no reason not to journal. Ratio of time and
Speaker 2: effort to breakthroughs and mental clarity is like one to
Speaker 2: two million. So how do we build this habit even
Speaker 2: when it feels difficult. Well, I've got you, guys. It's
Speaker 2: a message I get all the time from you. I
Speaker 2: always get people asking me about how to actually get
Speaker 2: into journaling, and I've thought about it a lot. So
Speaker 2: we're going to discuss the four secret ingredients or foundations
Speaker 2: to becoming a good journaler, how to make it feel
Speaker 2: not like a chore, how to actually be excited, and
Speaker 2: more importantly, how to actually integrate it into your identity
Speaker 2: and as part of who you are. We're going to
Speaker 2: talk about all of that and more after this short break.
Speaker 2: Whenever someone asked me on tips about how to get
Speaker 2: into journaling, how to really embrace it, how to enjoy it,
Speaker 2: I always give the same answer, and you guys know me,
Speaker 2: it's never a simple answer, but one that contains four parts.
Speaker 2: So let's break down these four tips I have from
Speaker 2: not only actually feeling excited to write and excited to journal,
Speaker 2: but getting something out of it, getting what you want
Speaker 2: out of it. So my first tip is to, in
Speaker 2: the beginning, only journal when you really feel the need.
Speaker 2: Some people will say the easiest way to get into
Speaker 2: into journaling, or into anything it is through routine and
Speaker 2: discipline and doing it every day and staying consistent. You know,
Speaker 2: if you googled how to start journaling, that is probably
Speaker 2: going to be one of the first tips that comes up.
Speaker 2: But making it a mission to journal every day just
Speaker 2: takes the fun out of it and it's just another
Speaker 2: thing on your to do list. None of us want
Speaker 2: another thing on our to do list, especially when I
Speaker 2: think that journaling should be something that you feel relieved,
Speaker 2: if not joyous, to be doing. So to start off, really,
Speaker 2: journal when you feel like you have something to write about,
Speaker 2: and journal as smaller as big as you would like.
Speaker 2: It could be a single line, it could be something
Speaker 2: you've thought about or overheard. That is where you need
Speaker 2: to begin. Then go from there. When you get the
Speaker 2: hang of it, and when you find out what's important
Speaker 2: to you to journal about, that's when you really, I think,
Speaker 2: start to pick up momentum. So here's my evidence for this,
Speaker 2: here's my reasoning. The researcher who we spoke about before,
Speaker 2: who conducted that first groundbreaking study in the eighties on journaling,
Speaker 2: he basically said, as much as what I just said,
Speaker 2: you don't need to journal every day. So his name
Speaker 2: is doctor pen Baker, and he's basically the pioneer of
Speaker 2: writing therapy as it was called, and he talks a
Speaker 2: lot about recovering from trauma through creative expression. And he said,
Speaker 2: and I quote literally what I just said, I am
Speaker 2: not a big fan of journaling every day. The founder
Speaker 2: of Writing Therapy, said that, and the reason said that
Speaker 2: is because I will try and like reframe how he
Speaker 2: said it. But one of the interesting things about journaling
Speaker 2: is actually sometimes writing too much, especially when you find
Speaker 2: yourself ruminating, and that's kind of one side of the going.
Speaker 2: So you write too much and you find yourself almost
Speaker 2: getting too overinvolved in the feelings associated with an event,
Speaker 2: or when you're going through a really hard time and
Speaker 2: someone says or recommends that you journal, you just don't
Speaker 2: feel like you can do it every day, so you
Speaker 2: don't do it at all. So his recommendation is to
Speaker 2: think of journaling as like a life course correction, as
Speaker 2: opposed to a really intense commitment or practice. The times
Speaker 2: that I always write the most is when I'm going
Speaker 2: through something really rough. You know, I think about my
Speaker 2: first ever heartbreak when I was seventaying eighteen. I don't know,
Speaker 2: I feel like two notebooks in the span of six
Speaker 2: months with bad poetry and us teary passages about you know,
Speaker 2: the meaning of life and love. And it's those moments,
Speaker 2: in those times when you really need it, that you
Speaker 2: should lean in. Think of journaling almost like a painkiller,
Speaker 2: you know, you don't take aspirin or advil every day,
Speaker 2: at least I would hope not. You take it when
Speaker 2: you need it, and that is the premise of good journaling.
Speaker 2: I guess some people might really benefit from writing every day,
Speaker 2: but sometimes I can make it really tedious, right when,
Speaker 2: as doctor pen Baker suggested, you need a life course
Speaker 2: correction and a second component to this. When you feel
Speaker 2: the urge to journal or to write, especially at the beginning,
Speaker 2: please please, please just do it. Drop everything anything that
Speaker 2: you're doing, and put those thoughts that are basically begging
Speaker 2: to come out, put them down somewhere. That is the
Speaker 2: secret to any to beginning kind of any creative or
Speaker 2: expressive endeavor. Not ignoring inspiration when it randomly emerges, because
Speaker 2: sometimes that desire is not something that we can consciously
Speaker 2: call on. And so when we finally, you know, do
Speaker 2: get around to having the time to sit down and
Speaker 2: write in our routine way and our time that we've
Speaker 2: put aside during our day to do it, you know,
Speaker 2: sometimes the inspiration is gone and then it just feels
Speaker 2: kind of boring. So take advantage of the moments, even
Speaker 2: if they're just a second, when you really feel the
Speaker 2: urge to write something down, even if it's in your
Speaker 2: note app notes app, just like get in the habit
Speaker 2: of letting that be expressed. And that kind of brings
Speaker 2: me to my second tip. Experiment and find what works
Speaker 2: for you, and beyond that, try and make it fun
Speaker 2: or find you know, a reason, a story, a quote
Speaker 2: that motivates you to see. Journaling is more than just
Speaker 2: a writing exercise. So let me explain this a little
Speaker 2: bit further. Firstly and quickly, because we spoke about this before,
Speaker 2: but writing big entries by hand every week may not
Speaker 2: work for you. You Instead, you may, like you know,
Speaker 2: want to start an Instagram that you keep private and
Speaker 2: you post photos or screenshots from your notes app, or
Speaker 2: a scrap book, even a trash diary. Some people call
Speaker 2: them of receipts and pictures that you write on and
Speaker 2: stick them down into a notebook. That actually reminds me
Speaker 2: of a quote I read the other day. Let me
Speaker 2: pull it up because it's just so beautifully. It's just
Speaker 2: so beautifully captures this for me. Here it is. If
Speaker 2: you feel like you don't know yourself, I recommend keeping
Speaker 2: one notebook that you put everything in. Thoughts, quotes you
Speaker 2: like call postcards to do list, diary entries, your favorite song, letters,
Speaker 2: dried flowers, brain dumps, gratitude lists, sticky notes, pictures, literally everything.
Speaker 2: And while in the process of feeling this journal, you
Speaker 2: will get a sense of who you are, of all
Speaker 2: the things that you like, your sense of self, especially
Speaker 2: when you get to look back in a few years
Speaker 2: and you have this snapshot. Just because the image of
Speaker 2: journaling is one thing, it doesn't mean you can't be
Speaker 2: expressive in other ways and that you can't find a
Speaker 2: way to make the suit how you like to express
Speaker 2: your emotions basically right like, it doesn't have to be
Speaker 2: typed line after line after line, and that is something
Speaker 2: that I really stand by. Just find a way to
Speaker 2: journal in a manner that suits you, and secondly, find
Speaker 2: your reason that really came up for me at the
Speaker 2: end of that quote, you know, the desire to have
Speaker 2: a snapshot for your future self. One of the big
Speaker 2: reasons I journal when I know I need to but
Speaker 2: I don't really want to, is because I like to
Speaker 2: think about how interesting it's going to be to read
Speaker 2: back those old entries in the future, and how much
Speaker 2: present day me really enjoys looking at fifteen year old
Speaker 2: me's entries, and you know, I often contemplate how I
Speaker 2: won't get that opportunity if every time I get the
Speaker 2: urge to journal, I just do something else, and if
Speaker 2: I don't just spend ten minutes putting pa and to paper.
Speaker 2: It's not just about how I'm feeling in the moment
Speaker 2: and my motivations or my level of boredom or inspiration
Speaker 2: to write, but also it becomes about what my future
Speaker 2: self is going to get out of it. And I
Speaker 2: spoke to someone the other day that said, you know
Speaker 2: what really inspires her when journaling feels tedious is thinking
Speaker 2: about her journals ending up in a museum, or her
Speaker 2: kids reading them when she's gone and learning about how
Speaker 2: it felt to be in your twenties and twenty twenty
Speaker 2: four when they're reading them in twenty eighty four. So
Speaker 2: that's my second instruction for getting into journaling, is to
Speaker 2: really think about why you want to get into it,
Speaker 2: whether it is just purely the benefits for your mental health,
Speaker 2: whether there's a fun story, a fun meaning that you
Speaker 2: can attach to the practice that makes it a little
Speaker 2: bit more romantic, I would say, or glamorous. Okay, moving
Speaker 2: on to my third foundation, fundamental for good journaling. Let
Speaker 2: someone else do the initial thinking for you, especially in
Speaker 2: the beginning stages, and the way that you can do
Speaker 2: that is by using journal prompts, by purchasing a structured
Speaker 2: journal looking for inspiration online. One of the biggest barriers
Speaker 2: to starting anything is the anticipation around how much effort
Speaker 2: we think will go into it to begin with, and
Speaker 2: that makes it so much harder to start if you're
Speaker 2: not accustomed to writing down what you're feeling, to entering
Speaker 2: that reflective space, and you're finding it daunting. Make it
Speaker 2: easier for yourself by following how other people may be
Speaker 2: doing it. One of my favorite journals I have ever
Speaker 2: used was a five minute gratitude journal that was it
Speaker 2: was really really popular a few years back. And what
Speaker 2: was another example, like they had these one sentence a day,
Speaker 2: one page of day books. These kind of structured journals
Speaker 2: take the thinking out of it. You have like a
Speaker 2: format upon which to ride in. You know, I'm trying
Speaker 2: to think about what the Gratitude journal was structured at
Speaker 2: as I think it was. It had four sections. It
Speaker 2: was all you had to say was, well, you're grateful
Speaker 2: for that day, what did you enjoy that day? Some
Speaker 2: positive affirmations and what you learned that day, and it
Speaker 2: made it so easy, and there's still like a depth
Speaker 2: and wealth of knowledge in doing that, and it's a
Speaker 2: really great place to start. Some of my favorite journal
Speaker 2: prompts that work every time for me include just five
Speaker 2: things that I'm grateful for, and I can expand if
Speaker 2: I feel like it, or I can keep it in
Speaker 2: that list format. Another one that I love is just
Speaker 2: writing about just doing a brain dump about three things
Speaker 2: that are really weighing heavy on my mind. And the
Speaker 2: beauty of these is that you can make them as
Speaker 2: short or as long as you like. And like I
Speaker 2: said in the beginning, you want to make it work
Speaker 2: for you. You don't want this to feel like a
Speaker 2: chore or like it's tedious. There is also a book
Speaker 2: called five hundred Journal Prompts. It's by Robert Duff, who's
Speaker 2: a I think he's a psychiatrist, and it's amazing. Some
Speaker 2: of the questions are so good and they're so unique,
Speaker 2: and you just pick one and you reflect on that.
Speaker 2: Some of my favorites were like what is your favorite failure,
Speaker 2: what a great journal prompt that is? Or how well?
Speaker 2: One of them was like write me the story of
Speaker 2: how you and your friend became friends, Like how you
Speaker 2: and your best friend became friends? Really reflective. It makes
Speaker 2: you think about so many things what I'm trying to
Speaker 2: think of others. One of them was like, what is
Speaker 2: a question that you were really scared to know the
Speaker 2: answer to? Which songs have the most vivid memories for you?
Speaker 2: And you're just doing one a week as you're getting
Speaker 2: into it. It's an afternoon activity, it's a self care activity,
Speaker 2: and you just write for as longer, as little as
Speaker 2: you want. This is kind of unrelated, but note how
Speaker 2: I said do it in the afternoon. This is such
Speaker 2: a random tip. But just don't journal before bed, or
Speaker 2: don't say that you're going to journal before bed, because
Speaker 2: you will eight out of ten times not end up
Speaker 2: doing it, and you will get distracted or you will
Speaker 2: fall asleep. So choose your prompt in the morning or
Speaker 2: in the mid afternoon, and then find that moment when
Speaker 2: you have a moment, not before bed. I know it
Speaker 2: feels like the urge to that it is a natural one, right,
Speaker 2: It's like when we're most reflective, it's when we have
Speaker 2: the most free time. But if you really want to
Speaker 2: integrate journaling is like a mental health or an emotional
Speaker 2: practice for you try and find a time when you're
Speaker 2: actually a bit more conscious and a bit more present.
Speaker 2: So my final of the four ingredients, right quickly and
Speaker 2: without judgment. I save this for last, but it's probably
Speaker 2: deserves to be first on this list. One of the
Speaker 2: biggest barriers I find for people who want a journal
Speaker 2: it's not time, because we all have time. It's perfectionism.
Speaker 2: It's perfectionism. It's getting caught up in our own head.
Speaker 2: And when we write quick and we don't worry about
Speaker 2: being succinct, but just about getting as much on the
Speaker 2: page as possible, we have less time to worry about
Speaker 2: how we're coming off. We don't worry about whether that
Speaker 2: was exactly how we wanted to say it, how we
Speaker 2: wanted to word it, because it doesn't matter. There is
Speaker 2: no audience right now, there is no I've said this
Speaker 2: so many times, but there is no final grade. I
Speaker 2: often think like one of the last times a lot
Speaker 2: of us right is when we're in school. You know,
Speaker 2: that's probably one of the last times we really had
Speaker 2: to write thousands of words or hundreds of words with
Speaker 2: a pen and paper. So it can feel very much
Speaker 2: like a task. But journaling is one of those beautiful
Speaker 2: things where the simple act of doing it, even badly
Speaker 2: in our minds, is still really really good. In fact,
Speaker 2: I actually think sometimes doing it badly is better because
Speaker 2: you aren't preoccupied with judging your emotions. You're just letting
Speaker 2: yourself feel and reach that Catharsis and I think when
Speaker 2: we journal badly is when we feel most in tune
Speaker 2: with the need to express and the need to process.
Speaker 2: Because we aren't waiting for the perfect time, or we
Speaker 2: aren't waiting for when we think we're going to be
Speaker 2: able to say things the best way. We're just writing.
Speaker 2: We're just going for it. So let's do a little
Speaker 2: summary of the four tips to journaling, our four journaling fundamentals. Firstly,
Speaker 2: journal the way that works for you and when you
Speaker 2: feel the urge. Make it fun, make it unique, make
Speaker 2: it work for you, and find a deeper meaning to
Speaker 2: apply to the practice. Let someone else do the thinking
Speaker 2: for you. And finally, write fast, just get it out.
Speaker 2: No perfectionism, no overthinking. We do that enough elsewhere, So
Speaker 2: express in whatever form works for you. Something to remember,
Speaker 2: journaling is honestly one of the biggest gifts that you
Speaker 2: can give your future self because time goes by really
Speaker 2: really fast, and sometimes we are not great at remembering
Speaker 2: who we are the moment. You know, in this moment
Speaker 2: right we feel very present right now maybe, but in
Speaker 2: like two, three, five years, we kind of lose the
Speaker 2: perspective of who we were on our earlier, our mid
Speaker 2: or our late twenties. And that is a final blessing
Speaker 2: that I think journaling really gives us, is the ability
Speaker 2: to know us from the inside out at the time
Speaker 2: of writing, and not everyone gets to experience. That's something
Speaker 2: I'm really grateful that I have kept journals for so
Speaker 2: long because I have this like beautiful, I don't know,
Speaker 2: like beautiful timeline, this beautiful like family tree of myself,
Speaker 2: like I don't know, really know how to explain it.
Speaker 2: Hopefully you're getting what I'm saying, Like I have this
Speaker 2: beautiful timeline. I'm gonna I'm gonna land on that. I'm
Speaker 2: kind of like losing my words here, so yeah, I
Speaker 2: just want to say one final thing here. I know
Speaker 2: I feel like I've been talking about I'm in this
Speaker 2: like cult of journaling. I'm one of those annoying people
Speaker 2: who won't shut up about it. But in all honesty,
Speaker 2: I do want to say, sometimes it just doesn't work
Speaker 2: for certain people, and that is okay. Not everyone processes
Speaker 2: or imagines or articulates and thinks in the same way.
Speaker 2: You know. For example, I have friends who really need
Speaker 2: a physical release and that's how they manage stress, and
Speaker 2: that's how they process their emotions is through running and
Speaker 2: through a physical expression. And some of my other friends
Speaker 2: like something less cerebral, you know, they like art, or
Speaker 2: they like talking rather than working through things in a
Speaker 2: solitary way. So whatever it is, pick your poison, pick
Speaker 2: your cure. I should say. If journaling doesn't work, that's fine,
Speaker 2: you know, I've given it my gold style of approval.
Speaker 2: But sometimes it's just too boring and it just doesn't
Speaker 2: work for you, and you don't have anything to say.
Speaker 2: What I really want you to do is just find
Speaker 2: your way of expression of expressing, find your way of processing,
Speaker 2: find your catharsis, find a way of getting any everything
Speaker 2: that you're feeling out of your brain and into your environment,
Speaker 2: into your environment or into some physical form. And that's
Speaker 2: what all those ways of expressing, from physical to artistic
Speaker 2: to verbal, have in common. It gets the thoughts and
Speaker 2: the feelings and the worries out of your brain into
Speaker 2: the open. So I just want to say that as
Speaker 2: a final message, but I really do hope that you
Speaker 2: have learned something. I hope this was up your alley,
Speaker 2: that you journal better, that you journal more, or that
Speaker 2: you know you journal less, you journal more effectively, and
Speaker 2: that you really have kind of maybe greened, and your
Speaker 2: appreciation for why it is so beneficial, and even some
Speaker 2: of the history of this practice that you may not
Speaker 2: have known. As always, if you enjoyed this episode, please
Speaker 2: give us a five star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
Speaker 2: wherever you are listening right now. It really does help
Speaker 2: the show grow and it helps us reach new people,
Speaker 2: which is always delightful. If you have an episode's suggestion,
Speaker 2: if you just want to get in touch, if you
Speaker 2: want chat, if you have feelings about this episode, please
Speaker 2: feel free to DM me at that Psychology Podcast. And
Speaker 2: as always, we are going to talk soon. Until then,
Speaker 2: stay safe, stay kind, please be gentle with yourself, and
Speaker 2: we will be back on Friday with another episode.