Journaling Is Much More Than Journaling
If you can’t afford a therapist or schedule regular visits to a counselor, you have one self-soothing method that you may have long overlooked and that won’t cost you much: journaling.
You might think that journaling simply means writing down your thoughts at the end of the day – sort of a running journal of your emotions, dreams, worries, and the like – but it can be so much more. Keeping a journal with intent can even serve as a form of therapy – albeit without the hassle of premiums, co-payments, or other red tape.
As we enter a new year full of aspirations and decisions, it is worth knowing that there is a whole world of diaries. Your methods of observing your own free space with the written word can be broad or extremely specific – either assessing the scattered work of your psyche, or focusing on one specific aspect of your life.
Let’s take a look at some of the fun ways you can make the most of your pen and notebook in 2021.
Dream magazine
You probably always wanted to solve the mystery of your dreams, but either you cannot remember what exactly happened during your dream, or you did not have the opportunity to sit down and devote yourself to it. It’s time to decide to keep a dream diary that will be entirely dedicated to uncovering what your dreams mean.
Since dream memories are often fleeting, it is best to write down the details shortly after you wake up. But if you can do it all the time, it can really help with memory retention – also known as dream recall .
Meditation Journal
Meditation Magazine goes in tandem with real-life meditation practices and it is a fantastic compliment to the practice, whether you are doing meditation or want to try it. While it’s hardly a monolithic pastime , meditation is a great way to clear out the clutter and organize your thoughts, and journaling afterwards is a good way to contextualize how you progress towards those goals.
Food magazine
It is now January, which means that you or other people you know may be obsessed (or obsessed with) your diet again. If you are trying to lose weight or eat healthier foods, logging your progress in a nutrition journal can help you keep track of how well you are sticking to your plans, as well as record your progress towards your goals. (And note that you can keep a food diary and keep track of what you eat without counting calories.)
Gratitude journal
This is probably the diary that everyone needs to take into account at some point in their life. It’s probably fair to say that you take too much for granted – even in historically dark times like this one – and it’s easy to lose sight of the things we are lucky enough to have and enjoy. With a gratitude journal, you can focus what makes you feel lucky on each page, which will help you establish and maintain a positive attitude that will hopefully begin to permeate many aspects of your life and personal relationships.
Creativity magazine
The creative process is different for everyone, and you can literally come up with a brilliant idea as you fall asleep, and in the morning you find that it has disappeared. So why not document your creative sparks for posterity? It offers a great way to map out the evolution of your creative process and help you better contextualize ideas that may seem too confusing or difficult to implement at first.
Reading magazine
Too often we read, but we don’t think about what we learned or how we were challenged. Plus, if you’re trying to read more this year, just keeping an eye on how much you actually read can be a helpful motivator as you strive to make reading a more regular habit. The advantage of such a magazine is, in fact, twofold: on the one hand, you take responsibility for achieving your book goals, and on the other hand, you can use it as a tool to preserve the information you are trying. Absorb.