IMG_6512 via Creative Commons
Journaling might sound like something reserved for the emotionally distraught preteen stage, but there is much to be gained from carrying this activity into adulthood. Along with a plethora of health benefits (Physical miracles), keeping a journal has the ability to unlock a writer’s mind to their inner potential.
If you don’t currently keep a journal, start slowly but diligently. Write for 10 minutes a day. Make sure to keep at it. Journaling can feel odd at first because it’s just you spending time alone with your thoughts. Sometimes the roadblock occurs: What is there to write about? The truth is, it doesn’t matter what you write about. Focus on taking your most honest thoughts about anything, and putting them onto a page. Over time you will naturally seek out new words and play thoughtfully with different ways of saying things.
Finding inspiration to write and create is one of the toughest aspects of the craft. Once you get started, things seem easier as the words start to flow. Journaling is something that should help with that initial road block. Here are a few strategies to get over that initial roadblock: Tips to start journaling.
Personally, I have just begun keeping a journal. So far it appears to help my creative efforts. Though I’m only a couple of days in, it feels productive to use words for no particular purpose or goal. Leaving my mind free to maneuver leads the “inner discussion” to several unexpected places. It feel like something is growing in my mind, though still in this infant stage of Journaling. It feels like further practice can lead increased mental agility and vocabulary.
Just a reminder, a large amount of what’s written in my journal is far from polished writing. Several examples would provide cringe-worthy moments for any English professor. For me its all about keeping the words moving, even if it means saying something like “oh well, I don’t really know what to say anymore, I guess I enjoy the color green,” and going from there. Your journal is whatever you want it to be: formal, polished, bullet-list, illustration, messy, unintelligible. Whatever method produces your best ideas is the method you need to use.
One of the most important benefits this activity will have on your writing is that it gives you a voice. Too often as students we can get caught up being academic and bland in our writing because that’s what we’re used to. No one can read your journal but you. By writing for yourself, you lose the urge to write for an audience. It goes along with popular thoughts about mental growth: In order to be loved you must first love yourself. You won’t fully develop something that other people want to read without exploring your motivations to write in the first place. Your Journal will help you find that inner balance and (at the risk of sounding like a yoga instructor) create an inner harmony that helps you identify more with the words you put onto paper.
Diction Diatribe 