📖 8 Tips For Journaling 💭

Journaling is a great tool to implement alongside your wellness journey. From helping out with easing stress, to processing emotions, expressing yourself, exploring your curiosity & wonder and sparking self-discovery. Journaling helps you meet your own needs and tend to yourself in new ways as you listen to your inner voice and learn to follow your intuition. As you journal, you also start to look at yourself with self-compassion and start to become your own best friend and treat yourself with kindness.

Despite knowing all these benefits and even getting ready to journal, it’s a habit that many of us struggle with. Whether the struggle is because of intentionality, consistency or simply not knowing how to start and keep going, here are some tips that will definitely help you along the way.

‍

1. Start Small & Keep Your Expectations Low

Whenever you’re building a new habit, it’s best to keep your expectations realistic. If it’s your first time journaling, writing one or two pages might feel difficult. Give yourself some grace and allow yourself to work on the habit slowly. It doesn’t matter whether you write a single sentence or a couple of pages – what matters in the beginning is that you form the habit. Make journaling a part of your daily life and anchor it to another habit that you’re already used to like your morning coffee. Keep at it until it becomes routine and automatic and until you’re no longer fighting with yourself about how badly or well you’re doing it. Just do it, and then refine how you do it later.

‍

2. Schedule It Into Your Day

Since this is a habit you want to make part of your lifestyle, scheduling journaling into your day is super helpful since you’ll have made a set time for it in your day. Otherwise, you might hardly make time for it. Relying on when you’ll feel inspired or in the mood to write won’t also work. Journaling helps lift your mood whenever you’re feeling off and that means sometimes you will have to journal when you’re not feeling like it or feeling uninspired. By scheduling journaling into your day, you’ll be less likely to make excuses or rely on sheer willpower alone. Inspiration will find you – but only when you’re writing.

To make journaling a part of your daily routine, set aside a time for it and anchor it to another habit you’re already great at maintaining. If you drink tea or coffee every morning, make it a habit to write a few lines when you get halfway through your cup. If you unwind with a show at night, make it a point to scribble down a few lines before you hit play.

3. If You Have Writer’s Block, Write About Gratitude

Writing about gratitude will definitely lift your spirits and get your thoughts flowing again on the days you’re tired or filled with self-doubt. And it doesn’t have to be complicated. Start with what’s in front of you – your cup of coffee, the plant in your room, or the laptop on your desk. Then describe your emotions in detail. Instead of trying to fill up a page with all the things you’re grateful for, try focusing on a few and really let yourself feel the emotion of gratitude. Gratitude journaling can be life-changing when you use it in difficult situations. Ask yourself, despite all the bad, what can you learn from a difficult day? What qualities do you admire in your boss – even if you don’t want to be around them right now?

4. Try A New Environment

If you’re feeling uninspired, you might just be bored with writing in the same space every day. Change your surroundings. Step out onto your balcony, grab a chair in your garden and journal from there. Take your journal to work and jot down a few lines on your lunch break. Pick it up in the evening and write as you watch TV. One of the best parts about our app is that it allows you to journal anywhere or on the go since it’s a dedicated space on your phone. Trying a different setting will definitely gets your senses going and inspire thoughts. Remember, there’s no right time and place for journaling – what matters is to find whatever works for you.

5. Make Journaling A Pleasure

Journaling should be a pleasure and a treat, not a chore to knock off your to-do list. Buy some cute, colorful pens to journal with. Brew your favorite herbal tea infusion and settle back in a comfortable corner or turn on your favorite playlist. You’ll begin to associate these little indulgences with journaling and they’ll make your writing time a real pleasure. But don’t overthink it. Expecting the journaling process to be impossibly cosy & comfortable will only disappoint when reality hits - remember the point on keeping realistic expectations.

6. Keep A List Of Journal Prompts For A Speechless Day

Writing about a variety of topics and prompts keeps your journaling fresh and interesting. Lucky for you, the Natrella App has a couple of journal prompts for the days you’re at a loss for words. Once you’ve exhausted our prompts, you can find others online. Pinterest is a gold mine for journaling prompts for any mood and occasion. Create a board for your journaling and gather some prompts.

7. Write For Your Eyes Only

Journaling is wonderful therapy but it’s difficult to write honestly unless your journal is absolutely private. When you write in hope (or fear) that others will read your words, it becomes harder to write truthfully and express your real emotions. You won’t write for self-awareness but to impress others or to prove a point. At Natrella, we’re big on privacy so all your entries are end-to-end encrypted meaning even we can’t see your thoughts.

8. Download The Natrella App For On-The-Go Journaling

When you’re stuck on the bus in traffic or in a waiting room, just pull out your journal and jot down your thoughts or vent your anxieties. Journaling can also be a great substitute for social media scrolling. Whenever you find yourself restless and reaching for your socials, journal on the Natrella App instead.

Remember, journaling is not about being perfect. It’s not something you have to sell—you are not selling yourself to anyone. And it will take time to build the habit and journal like a pro. Stay safe & all the best as you practice journaling!

‍