JournalCast: Common Reasons We Avoid Journaling and Why we Shouldn't
I have this jar on my table in my office that is filled with journal prompts. It’s leftover from a creative journaling group I hosted a few years ago. I have held on to them, not knowing quite what to do with them. Then it occurred to me that they would be perfect to use as a way of interacting with people on social media and also to promote mindfulness, mental health, and self-care through journaling. In my “JournalCast” series on my Instagram page, I will be posting prompts semi-regularly from my prompt jar, which if you have been in my office before, you are familiar with them. I want to encourage you to just take these for a test drive. You don’t even have to WRITE about them, you could just reflect on them, use them as a conversation starter, respond directly through comments or responses to my stories, etc. The object of these is to get you thinking and moving into being more mindful and exercising your brain a bit. ALSO, each of these posts has an ASMR flair that I really enjoy.
In my practice as a counselor, I can’t tell you how often I talk to clients about the benefits of journaling, and often times I hear the reply, “But I don’t even know what to write about” or at the very least a half-assed “ugh”.
ummmm, you write about ANYTHING. EVERYTHING.
I usually refer people to the idea of “Magnetic Poetry”, do y’all remember that? I remember having these as a kid, and how fun (and funny) it was to rearrange all the words on the fridge to make sentences, leave messages, or poems. Consider the tin that the words all come in to be your brain. ALL these words floating around in there in total chaos, making no sense, being trapped. And journaling is like taking them ALL out and putting them on your fridge. Once they are out there, you can sort them out, and make sense of them like you never could have if they were still in the tin.
I do meet a decent amount of apprehension about getting started with journaling, for several reasons, and let me be honest and say, even I don’t journal as much as a should! (yes, just as doctors make terrible patients, therapists make terrible clients).
Common reasons people resist Journaling:
I don’t know where to start
To this, I say, ANYWHERE! literally, just start by writing how you feel about the process,
“I don’t even know what to write about, and I’m not even sure this will work, Bethany told me I should but I have always felt weird about spending time with myself, I guess that all started back when…” etc. Consider it just writing your stream of consciousness. start with your apprehension about journaling in the first place and go from there. It will surprise you how much you will end up with once you get started.
I don’t have the time
How much time do you spend being worried? feeling overwhelmed? feeling stuck, confused, hurt, tired, irritated? All of these emotions are things you could be trying to sort out through the journaling process. Remember the Magnetic Poetry reference? Do you want to continue to add stress and tension to yourself by keeping all those words and feelings trapped inside? It may be worth it to you then to invest in your mental health by taking even just a few minutes a week to spend some time with yourself and try to sort through what you have been dealing with. Carrying around all that stress can cause long-term damage. Investing in your mental health is NOT something you are likely to regret spending time on.
I feel awkward
Pfff, y’all quit. let me say confidently, SO WHAT?! You don’t have to read it ever again if you don’t want to, and you don’t HAVE TO share it with anyone. The feelings of awkwardness will wear off pretty quickly, like anything else you are giving a shot, you may feel silly or awkward at it at first, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth doing. AWKWARDNESS BE DAMNED!
I hate writing
Okay, so you may want to try a different avenue than the traditional journaling format. EASY! consider art journaling, typing it out in a document on your phone or computer, speaking it out loud to yourself in your car, in the shower, what about talking to a trusted friend about how you are coping? Shit, talk to an imaginary friend, or a pet, or an inanimate object you drew a smiley on. I find that a lot of men like the option of typing it into their phones or using speech to text to sort through their thoughts, or even just talking into your voice recorder.
There are SEVERAL options here, you DO NOT have to adhere to traditional methods of journaling to get something out of responding to journal prompts or sorting through your current situation, feelings, etc.
I feel the pressure to make it perfect
okay, go ahead and don’t. Just like I wrote in number 3, you don’t have to revisit this stuff, you don’t have to show it to anyone, journaling is just the vessel. Quit judging yourself and just get to work.
I write so messy/hate my handwriting
hey, just go ahead and re-read 3 and 6
