Are You Journaling The Right Way?

"Am I journaling the right way?" has this thought ever crossed your mind while journaling? Here's the answer: Yes, you are journaling the right way. Um, how do I know? Well, it's simple. I know you're journaling the right way because there's no wrong way to journal. There are only and only the right ways.

A journal is your personal space, more or less like your mind where you have the freedom to roam amidst your thoughts without anyone's interference or disturbance. A journal is a place where you get to be yourself without the fear of any kind of judgement. If you ever find yourself judging what you put on the pages of your journal, stop and ask yourself: "why? How does it matter?"

Photo by Kat Stokes on Unsplash

Make your journal as messy as you want. Keep it as clean and organised as you want. Be it black and white, be it covered only in blue ink or be it covered in all the shades of all the colours, IT IS YOUR SPACE and you are allowed to experiment with it as much as you want to.

If you don't like putting your emotions in clear words in your journal for the fear of someone finding out and reading your journal, don't do it. If you like it, do. There are so many ways to give your emotions an outlet through journaling and it depends on you which way you choose.

Photo by Dan Dimmock on Unsplash

If you don't like messing up your journal, keep it clean and organised. If you like messing it up, by all means, please do. If Instagram's pretty, super-decorated journal spreads entice you, but decorating your own journal exhausts you, don't do it. I mean your journal doesn't need to look good as much as it needs to make you feel good. Washi tapes, stickers, stamps and tons of other stationery are not necessary to make your journal look good or feel good. Seeing yourself becoming a better version of yourself through journaling is important. Using journaling to keep your mental and emotional health in check is important.

I kept telling my friends how amazing the practice of morning pages and journaling turned out to be for me. I asked them to give it a try too. But I loved it more when one of my friends turned to her journal for hand-lettering quotes because that's what made her feel good instead of penning down every thought that's on the mind. Another friend used her journal for sketching, drawing, colouring, writing quotes and a lot more! Because writing is not the only way to pour emotions on paper, every form of art is an outlet for emotions.

Photo by My Life Journal on Unsplash

Journals do not have a specific purpose; they have no purpose other than the purpose you give to them. The right way to journal is the way you journal now and the way that makes you feel good about journaling.

“In the journal, I am at ease.” 

-Anais Nin

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Here's a list of journals that I am using this year on a regular basis.

I have added some products my list of Journaling Tools on my Amazon storefront. You may check it out here. I keep updating it.