Journaling to You (Part 2)

In case you missed it, in my last article I talked about the benefits of journaling and shared a simple practice of timed writing that can help you get started right away. I hope you had a chance to try it out, but if you didn’t here it is.

Even though I’ve journaled every day for years, I still set a timer when I write. I do this for two reasons:

The first is that I am committed to writing a certain amount of time every morning, and I want to make sure I write for at least that amount of time.

The second reason I use a timer is that it helps me to know whether I need to start drinking my tea before it gets cold! This is a real thing because there have many days when I was so engrossed in the writing that by the time I had my first sip of tea it was room temperature, which makes me very unhappy :-(.

If you begin and sustain a journaling practice, it will become something you can’t imagine living without.

Your journal becomes a reliable and trusted place for you to go where you can be who you are, speak your truth, brainstorm options for dealing with current challenges, and so much more. How many other places like that do you have in your life? If you’re like most people, not many.

And if you’ve started journaling in the past but didn’t keep up the habit, you’re in good company. I’ve done it, and most people who have ever embarked on a journaling habit have quit too.

This leads to one of the most frequent questions I get about journaling:

“How do I keep up my journaling practice?”

There are two primary reasons people don’t sustain a habit—whether it’s journaling, eating more nutritious healthy food, or a hobby.

The first reason is that they weren’t fully committed to their goal, and the second is that they haven’t yet discovered the right system, structure, or schedule to support them in building the habit into their life.

So let’s talk about commitment as it relates to journaling.

I invite you to ask yourself, “Do I truly want to journal?” And stay silent for a moment to hear your answer. (You may even want to journal about it:-))

You may not have ever asked yourself if journaling is something you want to do.

Maybe your best friend is an olympic journal keeper and has been putting pressure on you to get with the program. Or maybe someone famous said that journaling is The Thing to do, and because of that you berate yourself with the “shoulds.”

But if you go inside and ask whether YOU really want to do it and your answer is No, then please give yourself permission to let it go. (And by the way, you can save some time and stop reading this article too!)

But if you truly want to journal , let’s talk about how you can sustain the practice.

The two best ways to sustain a journaling practice are:

Commit to the shortest amount of time you possibly can. Five minutes may be perfect.

Second, pair your journaling practice time with something you are already doing.

For example, as soon as your kids head out the door to school, you can sit down for 5 minutes and write. Or, you can take your notebook with you to work and when you finish eating your lunch you can write for 5 minutes.

In my case, journaling happens immediately after I’ve made my bed, prepared myself a cup of tea, and before I do anything else. This pattern is so ingrained that if something happens to disrupt it, it has a huge negative impact on the rest of my day.

Where are two possible places in your day where you can pair journaling with something you’re already doing—either before or after?

​​Once you identify a potential time, try it out. It may work perfectly, or it may need some adjustment. You’ll also need to experiment with the setting, the structure, and your schedule to discover what works for you.

In my next article I’ll talk about how to put it all together, and share the five key components of a solid journaling practice.

Until then, please leave a comment below and tell me what your biggest challenges are when it comes to journaling. I look forward to reading them!


© Victoria Tidwell Palmer (2022)

victoria-priya

Hi, I'm Victoria!

I love guiding my clients on a journey of Returning to the authentic truth of who they are, Reclaiming what is theirs, and Receiving everything that is meant for them.

6 Comments

  1. Christina on August 13, 2022 at 11:48 am

    I have a new commitment to journaling now that I haven’t had before. A couple weeks before you sent out this info (I must have felt your wavelength!), I realized how helpful journaling is to my mental and emotional health and that it allows me to enjoy my evenings once my kids are asleep instead of continuing to have the issues of the day rattle around in my brain. I have realized, after many start and stops of journaling, and journaling because “it’s good to do,” that I feel the desire to journal from the inside out. Journaling makes me feel so much better. It’s like my last dishwasher loading of the evening: getting everything put away and cleaned and ready for the next day. I don’t feel right in the evenings now if I don’t journal! I am excited for this encouragement and the new ideas from your posts.

    • Victoria on August 13, 2022 at 12:23 pm

      Hi Christina, I love how your desire for journaling is coming from the inside out. It’s so important to learn how to live this way, rather than reacting to other people’s (or our own internal) “shoulds.”

      I completely agree with you that journaling is vital for mental and emotional health, and I’m so happy to know that the practice makes you feel so good. Keep going, you’re doing great!💙

  2. Barbara Smith on August 17, 2022 at 7:30 am

    I’m not committed yet but I’m working on it

    • Victoria on August 17, 2022 at 8:09 am

      I hear you Barbara, and isn’t it great to know it’s not a “have to?”

  3. Barbie on August 25, 2022 at 10:18 am

    I have found I enjoy writing in the mornings & in the evenings to wrap up my day. I don’t set a timer BC I will journal any & everything. Thank you for offering this class on journaling so I will learn to get the most of my journal time.

    • Victoria on August 25, 2022 at 11:28 am

      You’re welcome Barbie, keep journaling!💙

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