How to journal (one woman's approach)

I was always skeptical and admittedly a bit judgmental when people would tell me that they journaled. To me I thought it was quite childish. The last time I'd kept a journal—besides a few of my travels—was in elementary school, and that's where my associations stayed. It reminded me of a silly thing we had to do in our spiral notebooks after lunch in 6th grade. I never wrote much of anything and didn't understand why we had to do it at all, and never gained an appreciation of the practice. It did, however, get me writing, something I've always done in some form or another (letters, emails, blog posts, published articles).

Flash forward to 2020. Ever since early March I've become a devout morning journaler. I had started reading a book with journal prompts before lockdown, and then as I made my way through the book lockdown solidified the habit. I used a journal I'd never would have bought for myself, but received in a office gift exchange. It wasn't a precious notebook, which made it easier to put my thoughts down. I didn't care about my penmanship either. There was a prompt a day for 45 days so all I had to do was respond.

For some people, having the perfect journal and pen may be just what they need to journal. My only advice is to not use it as a crutch or excuse to not get started.

In late March I started "commuting" to London to join London Writer's Salon's morning "Writer's Hour"—a Zoom room of writers (of all styles and kinds). The format is simple: 5 minutes of a welcome / intention setting / words of inspiration to set us on our way before 50 minutes of focused writing. At the end there's a 5 minute check-in to see how the session went.

A few months in the group started to realize what we were doing was just as much about showing up as it was about writing. Yes, the format of having to show up and write while being surrounded by other writers helped, but what really helped me on the road to journaling was hearing the voices of other writers—not reading their work, but sharing their experience during the session.

It's then that the value of Julia Cameron's "morning pages" became less fluffy to me, as I'd hear from so many writers in the room share their own experiences. The post-writing discussions became living testimonials of how morning pages had benefited them on their own journeys.

As humans we like to assign value to nearly everything we do. If we're going to do something we want to do it well. Writing what author Anne Lamont calls "the shitty first draft" does not come naturally to many of us. Instead of getting something out, we beat ourselves up about the "quality" of what we've written, or worse, procrastinate and write noting. (Writer's Hour lives by Neil Gaiman's rules of "do nothing or write".)

Morning pages are an invitation to be imperfect and human. Cameron frames them as three pages longhand. They don't have to say anything of substance. Mine rarely have paragraphs. Cameron also advises not to revisit / re-read them. She goes into more detail in her immensely popular book The Artist’s Way, which I’ve little by little been making my way through. (It’s another book filled with prompts for days you need it, but she sees it as a full “course”).

You can even burn them if that brings you joy. Neuroscientist Tara Swart argues there’s a lot of value of re-reading journal entries to see what’s bubbling up.

For me, sometimes my morning pages may even become a first draft of a future blog post. Most of the time they’re just how I spent 30 minutes of my day. Still, I know I’m noddle-ing on something…

For many, as soon as they realize journaling doesn't have to be anything of quality or merit it helps take the pressure off. Cameron often describes morning pages as a way to unclog the gutter. When you take the time to write your three pages long hand, you've freed your brain to focus on more pressing matters.

But what if you don't have anything to write?

There are a couple approaches you can take from here.

One is just to start writing anything and don't pause to raise your pen. Consider it free writing. It can be complete and utter nonsense.

You can start with a favorite quote or poem, and write a response.

My preferred approach to days when I don't have much to say—or just need a reminder—is to journal gratitude. I literally write "I am grateful for...." and come up with three pages of responses, repeating the sentence over and over. It's something I picked up from Katharine Woodward Thomas. It really forces you to go deeper and dig into what you're grateful for. Even during lockdown, I never had an issue finding enough gratitude to fill the pages. I also didn't stop at three pages if I was on a roll.

The best part of journaling is that in a world that moves so fast it forces us to slow down. It's also why I also always recommend pen and paper. The tactile nature of getting ideas out of our head and onto paper. It also is a very welcome escape from the screen we spend far too much time in front of these days.

Journaling is how I start each morning (well, at least weekdays). I've recently added the practice of lighting a candle first thing. It's calming, and also something I never I would have done before. I have to say sometimes when we experiment and try new things, it's not so scary. In fact, it can be amazing and life changing. I find it always helps to hear from the experience of others to be able to envision how something may fit into your own life.

Recently I posted about the joy of running out of ink in my ballpoint pen. It's the pen I use exclusively for journaling in the morning starting back in March. It was a highly rewarding experience. For me this pen became a measure of success in showing up for myself, not about the quantity or quality of words. You might enjoy this post which inspired me to start appreciating my progress through the level of ink in my pen.

I’m curious. What’s your experience with journaling? What have you picked up?

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