Beginner-Friendly Guides to Help You Start Journaling
5 easy prompts that will make you reflect on your thoughts.
Have you ever thought about starting a journal, but don't really know how? Imagine 60,000 thoughts swirling in your head every day, with 95% of those thoughts on repeat, and not having a place or outlet to release them. Hint: the negative thoughts comprise around 80%!1
It just seems like everything that makes life more interesting would have to start with something difficult.
After my mom's passing and graduating from college, I didn't have someone who would listen to or talk with me. My relatives were ships and planes away from me, and my friends from university are all having their own paths in life. I also wasn't close with my dad enough to talk about personal things, even though we see each other almost 24/7 now. I have mental health professionals whom I talk with regularly, but it's clear they're not always available.
At the end of the day, I had the responsibility to take good care of my life. The same goes for everyone else--we are all left to rely on our capabilities.
I use journaling mainly to document the events in my life. I like to be detailed with them. I even extended the time of making them because I found myself enjoying it.
Of course, the benefits are beyond documenting events. And that's what I want to highlight.
Even though journaling might seem boring to do, it's just one thing to use.
I wanted to create a workable guide that can be revisited and adapted to one's needs. I'll be sharing my structured guide-heavy journal prompts to aid in beginner-level journaling and self-awareness. Our end goal is to have a space in the day for self-reflection and self-awareness.
With currently seven years of seeking help for my mental health, I've gathered some of the guides or worksheets to share with you. Compiling them all in one story might be too much, so I'll be making a part two of this.
Speaking about journaling, though, it just seems like old and classic advice.
If you think about it, there are many benefits to get from making a journal, that's why it isn't surprising to work well as a classic advice.
Besides, there is a difference in knowing oneself on a deeper level than on the surface value.
But it's not easy to do!
It wasn't easy for me to start too. I always crammed and procrastinated on the important things. I had to commit to the practice, if I really wanted a positive change to happen.
Like all things, you start small.
Then, you keep on doing small things daily.
The next thing you know, a year has passed. You made 365 small things! **That's a lot.** Isn't that considered a win? I hope you can start this journey of knowing yourself better, and if you're already a pro at this, keep it up!
The key when starting small is to do it consistently. I learned that doing it frequently makes the skill more pronounced and makes application to real-life scenarios faster.
You can find that when words are laid in front of you, they're no longer incoherent thoughts that swirl in your head. They now have letters formed together that you know have meaning!
When I create my digital journal, it feels like I'm creating magic and sealing it in a place or app that I can visit anytime. I write down the events from morning to evening and detail my experiences alongside my thoughts about them. This helps me notice the progress I'm making in life.
Even though I regularly journal now, sometimes writing something still becomes difficult to do--even more, if you've just recently started on the practice.
In times like these, having a guide around can be a lifesaver.
The good thing about it based from experience of using every single guide and journal together is the potential for some thoughts to arise and directly answered than when using just the journal itself.
Most of the time, they didn't have a name. (But, please feel free to think about one if you are planning to personally use them.) The guides were literally made for the purpose of self-reflection.
Seven years ago, a counselor told me to make a journal for my thoughts with the following guide, and I named it the "Automatic Thought Coping Mechanism".
1. Automatic Thought Coping Mechanism
The format is as follows: -->
Rate:
Situation:
Automatic Thought ( - ) :
Is automatic thought valid? Yes / No
Evidence that it is not valid :
Capability:
Positive Thought Learned:
Rate:
A few years later, and two psychologists after, I acquired new guides.
To speed up anxiety recovery at present, and better understanding of myself, I dug into my emails sent by my psychologist, another way to analyze my thoughts, which I named just for that purpose.
2. Analyzing Thoughts
The format is as follows: -->
Maybe we start by answering these questions:
What thoughts do you have today that seem to be too strong?
Is this thought mean? Disabling?
Is this intrusive? How strong is its intrusiveness?
What is the effect of these thoughts on you?
What character do you think you have that can protect you from breaking down?
Because I often have irritable shifts in mood, I was told to reflect on my behavior.
3. On Aggression or Irritation
The format is as follows: -->
Event:
Emotion:
Thought:
Urge:
Action:
I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder for a long time. When I'm having low moods and explain some symptoms interfering with daily activities, the therapist suggested I use this guide to shift my thinking in a more positive way.
4. On Depression
The format is as follows: -->
Activity:
Benefit:
Purpose:
Experience:
In many of my therapies, I remember having constant problems with being anxious. My thoughts were very often irrational and felt uncontrollable. I was given a guide that helped with that.
5. Automatic Thought Coping Mechanism (updated or revised)
The format is as follows: -->
Rating my mood when starting:
Automatic thought:
Evidence that it is true:
Evidence that it is not true:
Potentials:
Rating my mood now:
If you noticed, the above guide is similar to the guide my first counselor gave me. In light of redundancy, I merged the two and added only the new ones in my worksheets, but you can also choose one for simplicity.
Hi! If you reached this far, thank you for reading, and thank yourself too for allowing change in your life.
I'll be posting part two sooner.
🥰happylivin9soul
Loder, S. (2023, March 10). The impact of 45,000 negative thoughts (via Passle). Passle. https://insights.peak-dynamics.net/post/102ia4i/the-impact-of-45-000-negative-thoughts