Anyone Can Journal
If you write even just one sentence, period, you have got your thinking process going. One sentence will unlock your creative juices or your thoughts and just get you thinking in a different way. Get any rules you have heard about journaling out of your head and make it yours. Do what you enjoy in ways you can easily integrate into your life.
On this week’s Expedition to Soul podcast, TSE founder and director, Sara was joined by her real-life sister and co-founder, Anna to debunk some myths about journaling and discuss how everybody can journal and there is no such thing as being bad at it.
Why We Love to Journal
For Anna, journaling is ‘checking in with myself ‘. No pages are the same and sometimes there are entries that aren’t finished. Sometimes there are just dates on a page, sometimes a long vent, sometimes doodles or pictures, sometimes lots of reflection on a Tarot card pull. “It is whatever it needs to be for me on any given day.”
For Sara, journaling is a great processing tool, a great reflective tool, a great way to vision cast and say how you want to be.
Journaling can be for manifestation, to explore your goals and intentions and get intentions nailed down, for self care, for shadow work or just as a place to keep your memories. It can be all of those things and it doesn’t have to be prescriptive. It doesn’t have to be a certain way. And there are no rules for you to follow.
There is no such thing as being bad at journaling!
Journaling is something we use and teach throughout all our programs here at The Sisters Enchanted and many of our students and community members have shared how some of their biggest insights and ‘aha’ moments about themselves and their intentions have come through journaling. But we also read many posts by community members who believe they are not good at journaling and are not getting the best from their practice because they are doing it wrong.
Some of the common reasons people think they are doing journaling all wrong include:
Thinking they are not doing enough, or too much
Thinking they have nothing to write.
Thinking they are just complaining – like a teenager in a diary.
Have you ever felt you cannot journal because you are not good enough?
Well, let me tell you, you cannot be bad at journaling, because if you write even just one sentence, period, you have got your thinking process going. One sentence will unlock your creative juices or your thoughts and just get you thinking in a different way. Writing anything down as a form of self-expression is the gateway into journaling, and you cannot be bad at writing down one sentence. You just can’t be.
Three Common Myths About Journaling
1.For best results you need to use a fancy journal.
The truth – absolutely not! You can use anything you like to use. Sara very often journals in 50 cent composition notebooks.
2. You need to journal first thing in the morning, or last thing at night
The truth – write whenever you want to, whenever you have time to, whenever you feel moved to. TSE team member, Sarah Milne, likes to carry her journal everywhere she goes and just writes little snippets whenever they come to mind.
3. Journaling for manifestation should be written in present tense as if I have it already.
The truth – sure, you can journal to manifest in this way, or you can write about what you want in future tense.
A really great way to journal to imagine or manifest a different future, for exploring and setting intentions or for shadow work is to write a letter to your present self from you future self who has all the things, or has worked through the shadows to change the stories you tell yourself. In this letter you can tell yourself all the wonderful things coming your way if you make the changes needed to get them.
Get any rules you have heard about journaling out of your head and make it yours. Do what you enjoy in ways you can easily integrate into your life.
Our Hot Tips to Get You Journaling
Write one sentence on a piece of paper or give yourself one of those little three by three sticky notes, or even the smaller ones and just write one little statement.
Voice record or dictate what you want to say or say it out loud.
Journaling doesn’t have to be in writing. It can be visual art or audio.
If you really feel like you can’t write and you have nothing to say, then we challenge you to go back to your childhood and think about adults that might have put that thought into you. In school, if you felt like you were not good at writing, or you couldn’t organize papers, or you’ve never been good at creative writing or something like that. Get into your little internal time machine and fly backwards to see where that story came from. Then write down who that person is, why they said what they said or made you feel that way and how this influences your thinking and the stories you are telling yourself right now. There you go, you are journaling! That is journaling for shadow work right there! Literally just writing down the thoughts you’re having right now can be a form of journaling.
Join Our FREE Journaling Challenge
So come and join us in our five day FREE journaling for manifesting, self-care and shadow work class. We will be addressing all these ideas and myths and giving you loads of advice, tips and exercises to get your journaling practice really started, or reawakened if you once used to journal but haven’t picked up your book or pen for a while. Or, if you journal frequently come and join us to learn something new to include in your practice.
It’s a class and a challenge all in one with daily prompts to really get your writing.
We can’t wait to get started and hope you will be joining us.
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