Over the holidays I developed a new habit of journaling everyday. I was very lucky to get two weeks off. I needed to decompress after a hectic few months at work and thought journaling would be a good way to do that. Only this time I did it a little different (more on that a little later).
Up until that point, I was already journaling casually. I’ve been doing it for over a year on and off. Mostly when I feel stressed. I learned that it was one of the many tools I can use to process my thoughts and emotions. I’ve written about the other benefits I get from it before. Here they are again as a quick recap:
- I’ve been writing almost every day for the last two months. Sometimes it’s multiple times a day. It’s getting easier for me to express myself in writing. This is paying back in my professional life as well!
- I’ve enjoyed getting a glimpse into my mental state at different points of these past couple months. It’s wild how much can change in two months.
- People always say it’s therapeutic to journal. I’ve experienced this first hand and will now be one of those people saying it too. Plus, rage journaling is a thing! It feels so good to get it out.
- The people closest to me aren’t always available when I need them. Journaling feels like having a best friend you can share something with anytime. Sometimes writing something down and reading it over later feels just as good as spilling your guts to your best friend or partner.
- In this fast paced world, it’s easy to get caught in the weeds. Journaling feels like a good way to stop, take a breath, and take a step back to look at things. It creates space for thinking and reflecting. It’s almost like meditating but you’re actively thinking instead of not thinking.
- Since I journal on my phone, I can journal anytime, anywhere. In some cases, I’ve replaced looking at social media with journaling or reading my journal. It feels more productive and is probably better for me.
- It’s become a new way for me to document and explore new ideas.
- A journal is private. Nobody is watching. That means I can write anything and it also means there’s no pressure to write either. If I write, that’s cool, if I don’t… I don’t and that’s cool too.
This time around, it’s been no different. It’s been great for all those reasons. Only I’ve been doing it a little differently.
To start, I switched to journaling in a notebook. Good old pen and paper. It’s been an adjustment. My penmanship has suffered over the years as we’ve switched to computers to do everything. I don’t know how people wrote by hand before. I’m so dependent on undoing, cutting, and pasting. My brain also moves faster than my hands. I’m so much quicker on a keyboard!
One of the reasons I switched to my notebook is because I’ve incorporated sketching and doodling into my journaling. It happened organically. I picked up my notebook to doodle as a way to decompress. All of a sudden, I found myself writing and doodling together. Some of my sketches were a visual expression of the thoughts and feelings I was having. Over the course of the holidays they blended more and more. Now I do both together.
Some of the sketches are related to my journalling but not always. Sometimes I just doodle mindlessly. Creating patterns or letterforms. Yes, I can be a nerdy type designer sometimes too. The process is relaxing and feels like a form of meditation. Especially when there’s some music on. I usually start by writing the date in some funky way. Then the time, my mood, any music play, and then the other stuff just flows.
After I’m done journaling in my notebook, I sometimes take the ideas or thoughts and transfer them to another medium. I have three other journals and this blog. I have two private journals. A work one and a personal one. Plus I also have a public journal I recently started that’s a mix of both. It’s called Now. My own take on the popular Now page people have on their sites. Rather than it being a single page, it’s a live journal capturing moments through my day.
You can check it out here: filipponow.wordpress.com