I have been journaling since about age of ten with intermittent consistency, more regularly in the last few years. Recently I have been exploring this practice more as I discovered how many successful or just interesting people journal. It is often quite cathartic and could be done in so many different ways – it’s fascinating. Through my training I learned a lot about narrative therapy and some evidence-based protocols of dealing with trauma (there is even one on Huberman Lab’s Podcast), rescripting nightmares and other applications of writing out our stories in a certain way. But there are also so many different types of journals and inquisitive journaling prompts. I really found them helpful in opening up to curiosity and maybe viewing my life and meaning of life’s events and future from a new perspective. Moreover, having some narrative practice in my evening routine allows me to notice my own life, slow it down, zoom into it, and really adds more joy and satisfaction with it, even in the hardest of times.
Today I wanted to share my three journaling practices I have started as new habits in the last year and was able to keep it up (in 80/20 rule consistency – each of them I do at least 80% of the time, and I do at least one of them every day). All of them actually take less than 2 minutes each, although if I feel up to it I can make it longer. I find it makes me feel very accomplished in the evening if I quickly do one or all of them and tick “Journaling” habit off on my habit tracker app (I know, dopamine addiction – but better this than mindless scrolling through other people’s life’s facades).
Journaling Practice 1: Apple Journal
I used to be a very “paper based” writer and still love my beautiful journals, but sometimes I just need to channel my emotions or am stuck in the airport with some time to kill, not feeling up to consuming new information. That’s when online journal became first handy and after a few entries I developed a small habit of picking a picture from the day (or finding something online that reflects my mood, or a poster from the show I watched, anything memorable or what made the day special) and will write a small blurb about my day. It looks like my own private Instagram feed except I can be very honest, vulnerable and don’t need any filters or masks – this will only be viewed by me. I can now go back weeks ago and quickly find who I saw that day (as I will often take a picture from any meeting with friends or family) or if I did anything special. I might write a reflection or just list what I did for the day. No hard rules. I just like that I can attach an image to describe my day. This practice takes about 30 seconds.
Journaling Practice 2: Paper Journal
I still treat myself to “diary entries” except I don’t always write a whole page or a complete story. I just put what comes to mind: sometimes it’s a reaction to a conversation with a friend or patient, sometimes it’s questions to myself ( “How do I stay organised?” “How do I make time for all of it?”). It helps me process those events or get the answers I am looking for (eventually, sometimes in sleep). There is a large amount of evidence that gratitude practice is very beneficial for our sense of wellbeing and perceived quality of life and I take advantage of it from time to time. No, I don’t begin every morning with 3 things I am grateful for: I am a real human working a hectic job and it’s not sustainable for me. But I do this periodically: think or write about a thing, or a privilege I have that cannot be bought with money. I often feel grateful for people in my life, my mentors, even strangers who did random acts of kindness and that I am able to do what I love and help people, fulfilling my childhood dream of being a doctor. Then I pause and allow myself to experience the positive emotions and bodily sensations that come with it. Our bodies can’t be tricked, and they are very true to us: the “gut feeling” never betrayed me in my whole life. So I listen to it when the times are bad and when the times are good. And I can create those “good moments” by going into a “gratitude mode” for a few minutes. I often do this in a parking lot before my hospitalist shift, especially if I catch a negative narrative nagging how tired I am, how broken the system is, and how the management does not care about doctors. The gratitude practice is my rescue that allows me to show up radiating positive energy to the team and the patients, it bounces back at me from them, feeds on itself and becomes a positive circle for the day.
A new practice I came across is journaling on what I need help with. In a series of books by Austin Kleon on Stealing Like an Artist, he talks about his journaling on gratitude and things he wants help on. I thought that was such a brilliant idea that instead of complaining how life sucks, or relationships with someone are draining, one can ask “the universe” for help with these. So instead of writing something “I don’t like so and so”, I can write “I need help connecting with this person”, or “ I need help forgiving this person” and it feels much lighter and more positive to write and think of it.
Journaling Practice 3: Homework For Life
My new favourite journaling practice is borrowed from the book by Matthew Dicks “Storyworthy”. The book is about how to become a better storyteller and this is one of the exercises to find inspiration for your stories. But I find that even without the need to do any content creation, reflecting on your day and intentionally looking for a moment in a day that was meaningful, or changed you in a way, or made you understand something is so profound. I love doing it on an Excel sheet (on my google drive so I can access it from my phone). All of a sudden I start seeing that my life is so much more interesting and that every day I discover something about the world inside and outside me. I think it helps to build better self awareness and for me that’s the ultimate goal of all the journaling and reflective practices: to get to know me, who I am and how do I choose what serves me and the world around me best, how do I separate egoistic desires from kind and benevolent intentions? I think only through studying self one can achieve self mastery, and although the outcome would be hard to measure, if you focus on the daily habits and input, I know tomorrow, a week, a month, a year from now you will be a better version of yourself.
I hope you found these few ideas helpful. I am curious about what other people do and think. Do you journal? What reflective practices and how often do you use them?
