3 Methods of Journaling Practice to Improve Your Daily Life

Journaling as a daily practice may sound too intense or too time consuming for your own life–that’s okay! You can still benefit from little bits of journaling throughout the day with a one-line reflection or every few days. You can even try seasonally or at crucial and transitional times of life.

Sometimes we feel stuck in life’s circumstances, but we don’t know why. Other times, life is simply overwhelming with endless distractions and endless opportunities, resulting in decision-fatigue. Still other various points in life offer us the opportunity to let go of a certain heaviness or give us a leg up to heal and grow in our own lives. Journaling regularly can improve the quality of your life, your mental health, and help you to make a positive impact on the world as you become who you’re made to be.

Disclaimer: I am not a mental health professional. This article and tips within it are meant to encourage you along the way, but are not a substitute for professional help. If you are struggling with your mental health, please reach out to your general practitioner, therapist, counselor, or spiritual director for the professional attention you need.

I am a typewriter poet, writer, coach, speaker, and visual artist. I know about being in the trenches of creativity and being paralyzed by views of current circumstances (and dreading the days because life isn’t what you’d hoped it would be). I also know about wanting to improve and taking the initiative to move forward and make positive changes, but feeling at a loss for how to prioritize.

In this article I want to offer three simple methods for you to use as a journaling practice to improve your daily life.

This is an original acrylic painting I painted because of how much I enjoy engaged with the seasons, and I especially love autumn. Find out more about my art here.

1. Use your 5 senses: Stay present.
If your mind is full of future worries, anxiety, uncertainty, it can be challenging to stay in present reality. If your soul is heavy from past hurts, shame, or failure, making any change to improve your conditions can be challenging, or even impossible. These non-present states of being can be a strain on your mental health and prevent you from moving forward and slow you down from becoming who you’re truly made to be.

When we engage our five senses, we lovingly force ourselves to pay attention to here and now. It can be emotionally and spiritually grounding to acknowledge what is real and accurate as we experience life in present time: no slower or faster than here and now.

Try this:
Using one line per sense, write a brief present account of your experience right here and right now. This doesn’t need to take any longer than five minutes and can be quicker than that.

Example:
I can hear the morning rush hour traffic heading to work.
I can feel the chilly air on my fingers.
I can smell my hot cup of coffee after it’s brewed.
I can taste my mint toothpaste.
I can see the messy desk in front of me.

Whatever you notice in your five senses is information. There’s no need to make meaning over what you notice, but simply notice and take notes. This is journaling that you can do at any point during the day and with any frequency that you fancy. Becoming present in this sensory manner alleviates past and future anxieties by being focused on here and now. This offers clarity for emotions and for decision making.

Photo Credit:
Used with permission from Pexels || Karolina Grabowska

2. Engage with poetry: Express emotions safely.
If your mind is full and processing at race pace, it may feel like there’s no time to pause for emotions. Emotions at any heightened state (whether it’s elation or devastation) can feel scary, overwhelming, or too much.

When I was a kid, I learned that in order to stay safe and not bring any pain to others, that I should keep my emotions as even as possible. If I was too excited and celebrating, someone who was not celebrating the same achievement my feel disappointed or like I was arrogant celebrating “in their face.” If I was too sad or angry, someone else might become sadder or more angry than they wanted to be, so I should regulate my expression of emotions to not have a negative impact on anyone.

Having grown and healed a lot, having worked with professionals who have helped me identity, experience, and express emotions, and then, express them healthily, I’ve learned that the feelings we have can often be indicators of what our emotions are in our real circumstances. Our emotions can trigger various thoughts and then, prompt certain actions, as a result.

As I’ve grown as a writer, I’ve noticed how poetry is a fantastic and effective container for and carrier of emotion. Lots of poetry is a manageable length, meaning that you can take a moment to read a poem and be curious to notice how you feel, what emotions surface, and how you want to respond as a result of interacting with the poem.

Try this:
Read one of the following poems and journal for a few lines, answering a selection of these questions:
a) “What memories were stirred as I read this poem?”
b) “What fears or shame came up?”
c) “What do I love/hate about interacting with this poem?”
d) “What would I add to/change in this poem to personalize it for myself?”
e) “If I were to complete the phrase, ‘I feel…’ after reading this poem, what would I say?”

Simply allow yourself curiosity in this space with poetry. When we notice what comes up, it’s like taking a deep breath or having a sigh of relief. Sometimes we don’t know that we’re hanging onto something, but poetry can help to loose the grip and unlock insight.

Example Poem 1:

“I Feel Happy”
By Molly Ovenden

I love to run in yellow-flowered fields
When leaves of tall trees
Tickle blue skies.

I love to smile at yellow petals
When the outdoor ceiling shines
Brilliant blue between branches.

I love to imagine a day when
My yellow flower friends
Go on walks
And tell jokes
And giggle with joy.

I love to imagine a day when
My arms stretch as high as
The trees to feel the fluff of 
Clouds between my fingers.

I love these happy days when
My heart wraps around
The blue sky full of trees and
The yellow flowers full of sunshine

Because…

I want to hug them!

Example Poem 2:

“When the Ice…”
By: Molly Ovenden

Ice cracks a gunshot echoing
Shattered silence speaks
The roaring waters beneath
Shards of ice float piled high
Pushed relentless by the Lake
Obscuring the view until
Waves dance, swaying to melt
To music of ice chimes
Waters ebb and flow along the shore
Keeping time to the rhythm of spring
Such beauty once dappled in winter freeze
Of Lake glass
With winter tears to grieve its death
Say farewell with April’s breath
Whose soul, watered to explode
With greens and purples and
All colors bright,
Shares light of suns rising
Mornings earlier, perhaps its farewell
To the long winter’s night
All the rage of the inland sea
All the rage of all that sinks so deep
All the rage of what’s withheld
Crashes free, drawn from leagues beyond
The ice breaks, the dawn awakes
The ground quakes with a surge of new life

Poems For My People: Community, Volume 1 is a collection of poetry I wrote that captures a broad spectrum of human emotion, featuring 100 poems written for 100 individuals–mostly spontaneous and in live settings with my typewriter. Find out more here.

3. Morning Pages: Daily Reflection and Brain Dump
The concept of “Morning Pages,” or three handwritten pages of stream-of-consiousness writing, done first thing in the morning was popularized by Julia Cameron, particularly in her book, The Artist’s Way and elaborated on with more detailed descriptions in her newer book, The Listening Path.

Morning pages are everything and they are nothing at all. They are everything that you can possibly think of in the morning when you’ve just woken up and they aren’t necessarily about anything in particular.

Example:
I’m annoyed that my back hurts because my mattress and I wish I wasn’t allergic to dogs and we have to take the laundry out of the dryer before our landlords need to use the laundry room and I can’t remember what else I need to do before my trip next week and my muscles on my rib keep twitching and it’s weird and what does weird mean? And I wish I had straightforward answers to…etc.

Morning pages can clear the cobwebs of your waking up mind and offer permission for the day and clarity for prioritization. But, they also can be a map for the direction to go with a project or where to unearth a solution.

Morning pages can often demonstrate what you care about deeply. When we journal first thing in the morning (or even, last thing at night), we are tired enough to not edit or censor ourselves from otherwise telling the truth of what we think and feel. We can dump out all of the stuff of life that feels bigger when we leave it to constantly remind us that it’s there. When we put our thoughts or worries on the page, they are allowed to be the size that they really are.

Morning pages allow small things to stop being obnoxious in our brains, bouncing around for attention. And this tired form of journaling gives voice to the big things that our conscious mind tells to be quiet and shuts down when it’s awake and trying to keep us safe.

It may feel intimidating to start journaling Morning pages, but you can always use a variety of prompts, like questions to answer or to finish a sentence.

Try one of these prompts:
Today, I feel…
I wish I knew what to do about…
What would happen if I finally said yes to my dreams?
It’s really scary that…
What if good things happened instead?
If I’m honest with myself, the thing I’ve been avoiding is…
I remember…
My favorite…
I love…
The worst/best thing I remember happening to me…

Reading your journals as another practice can be beneficial to notice patterns, to express gratitude, to celebrate progress and overcoming. When we slow down long enough to pay attention and notice, our mental health and our growth overall in daily life improves.

Why? We’re no longer stuck in our heads catastrophising or being lonely and unrealistic. Putting words and thoughts and emotions on the page help us to identify what actions we might take toward health and growth–that, without writing it down, we might not have noticed.

May you be inspired today in your journaling practice whether you’re starting for the first time, trying again, or a seasoned journaler. Happy discoveries and happy healthy growth to you on the page!

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Would you like a few prompts to get you started in your journaling practice? Sign up here for creative journaling prompts to nudge you toward growth and health in your everyday creative life.

Disclaimer: I am not a mental health professional. This article and tips within it are meant to encourage you along the way, but are not a substitute for professional help. If you are struggling with your mental health, please reach out to your general practitioner, therapist, counselor, or spiritual director for the professional attention you need.