Styles of Journaling for Tough Times
There are lots of reasons people journal. It’s a way to record experiences, express inner thoughts and even capture memories. In times of life changes keeping a journal is a useful tool and a gift for someone who is going through difficult times. So, today we talk about 11 styles of journaling for tough times.
Not every journal need be a blank page book that you write in for hours sharing your innermost thoughts. Some journals take minutes to update. Others use no words at all.
Depending on the outcome you desire from journaling, you can design a journal practice that accommodates your needs. You can keep track of a self care goal, work through difficult times, express yourself creatively, or simply catalogue your dreams and memories. Whatever your need, there is a way to journal it.
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Let’s look at some traditional journal ideas:
Traditional Journals
- Blank notebooks
- Electronic notebooks
- A writer’s pad
- Fill-in-the-blank prompting journals
- Gratitude journals
Traditional journals are great for people who enjoy writing and spending time laying out their thoughts. This is a blank page style where thoughts, feelings and ideas are written with minimal prompting. For those more comfortable at the keyboard, an electronic journal may be ideal to record their thoughts
Here are some unconventional styles of journaling to use in tough times
Unconventional Journals
- Bullet journals
- Video journals
- Bible Art journals
- Art journals
- Vision boards or boxes
- Mind maps
These unique journal styles usually appeal to men and women who prefer alternatives to longhand or traditional journaling.
Busy people who don’t have spare time may find bullet journaling an effective way to stay on track with their creativity without sacrificing too much energy.
Artists may love expressing their thoughts, ideas, and dreams in a doodle journal or through a series of painted pieces in a collection. Sometimes the mere activity of making the art opens the mind to new thoughts while it is distracted by the art activity.
For those who prefer no-nonsense and practical methods of journaling, a mind map may be just the ticket.
Mind mapping takes ideas and thoughts and creates compartmentalized areas for each thought. Then the ideas that match that thought are neatly assigned to the thought. This is a very unique way to organize anything from starting a new business to writing a book.
The take-away about journaling is the fact that there are as many ways to express ourselves as there are ideas in our heads.
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Some people benefit by writing longhand gratitude notes before they go to bed. Others take time and engage in journaling about their tough times. But if handwriting is not for you there are electronic notepad on ways to make notes on your smart phone that you use to jot down bullet points on ideas or thoughts that pop into your head.
Concluding Journaling for Tough Times
Having more than one journal is as common as journaling itself. Journaling isn’t so much about how someone ou do it as it is that you do it with frequency and consistency.