my no-nonsense guide to journaling!

the trick to my sanity & how to actually cultivate a fruitful journaling practice!

When I was in 5th grade, I started writing a book.

It was actually in the form of a diary. My main character’s name was Courtney (a name I remember distinctly wishing was my own during that period of my life) and the story was simply her journal entries.

The novel followed this character navigating middle school – my middle school experience; I just changed some names – and I thought it was brilliant. It was fun getting out of my own head and being creative.

But before then, I kept a diary in which I wrote from my * own * perspective which was plenty of fun too.

I have a handful of journals at my Dad’s house from growing up that I look forward to parsing through on my next visit. I love returning to my old journals every few years to get a glimpse into what was going on in my head during a specific time period. 

Ever since I was a kid, I have found the practice of handwriting out my problems extremely cathartic. In my journal, I can fully express myself without having to provide context or filter myself.

Growing up, my journals included my passionate disdain about being forced to attend my brother’s lacrosse games, doing my chores, issues in my friendships and other problems I was plagued with.

Here’s an excerpt from my journal I kept in 4th grade.

I also wrote out a lot of prayers, which are really sweet to look back on, even if they are really silly.

Journaling has been instrumental in my mental health and spiritual journey and honestly kept me sane through a lot of really challenging seasons of my life. As you can see above, I turned to my journal to process grief, sadness and other difficult feelings even as a child.

How a journal serves you, is ultimately up to you. You can take the productive wellness route and plan the meals you want to cook that week, track your spending, and write extensive to-do lists or you can go the angsty route and write letters you’ll never send, scribble with your pen until you tear the page and rip out your writing the moment you fill a page.

It’s a choose-your-own-adventure sort of thing. There’s no right or wrong way to journal, there’s just the way that you like to do it.