Photo by Renáta-Adrienn
According to Collins Dictionary, journaling is the act of keeping a journal or diary, especially in order to express an individual’s thoughts and feelings surrounding certain events of one’s life. As the pandemic continues to keep us all locked up at home, it is no surprise that most people would start to get bored and want to find new hobbies to pick up. Journaling not only helps fill up free time, it also comes with various benefits.
Let’s start off by talking about how journaling can benefit an individual. First of all, journaling is greatly helpful when it comes to improving your mental health. According to University of Rochester’s Medical Center, journaling is one of the healthiest ways you can express yourself, as it helps with managing stress and anxiety. You can use journaling as a way to track your moods and symptoms on a day-to-day basis so you can recognise your own triggers as well as learn to better themselves during the process. Journaling also provides an opportunity for positive self-talk as well as a chance to identify negative thoughts and behaviors.
Moving on, journaling is also an excellent way to keep yourself organized as you keep track of things that you need to do. Keeping yourself organised is definitely important as it helps you increase your productivity level. This is because you are able to save time looking for things, which means you have extra time to work on the important tasks instead. By keeping yourself organised, you are also able to ensure that deadlines are always met. By jotting down your to-do list in your journal, it will be hard for you to forget any tasks as the chances of you getting sidetracked with less important tasks will decrease. Ensuring that deadlines will be met also means that you will always be on time and do things in a more time efficient manner as well.
Journaling is also helpful when it comes to improving an individual’s communication skills. As you start to journal, you will find yourself being able to express yourself better, whether it be through the form of written words or even small doodles. This allows you to become better when communicating your feelings with others. One study discovered, people who write down their tasks for the next day actually fall asleep significantly faster compared to those who write about activities that they have completed. So, if you ever find yourself turning around in your bed, unable to fall asleep, just grab a piece of paper and spend an extra 5 minutes writing the lists of tasks that you need to complete the next day!
Now, at this point, some might start wondering: “How should I start journaling?”. Well, all you need in order to start is something to write on. It could be a journal, a RM5 notebook that you bought from Daiso or even a piece of A4 paper! And of course, you will need a pen as well. Something I wish I knew before getting into journaling is to not rush myself. When starting off, feel free to start off small and take it slow. There is no rush for you to find your own style just yet, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with taking inspiration from journaling accounts from Instagram or Pinterest. There is definitely no need to rush to fill in a whole page as well since some people can find it hard to do so instead, start off by writing at least one sentence each time and slowly work your way up.
What kind of content can you fill their journal with? You can honestly journal about anything you want to write! You can write about how your day went, your to-do-list for the week ahead, or even your favorite celebrity. Some of my personal favorite prompts to write about are what recipes I want to try out in the future, my personal opinions about new song or film releases, as well as memories I would like to cherish for a long time. Your journaling has no limitations; feel free to write just about everything and anything you’d like.
Let your creativity run wild. Feel free to get a blank notebook with a blank cover, a bunch of stickers, washi tapes and colour pens. Start decorating your notebook the way you like, make your journal scream ‘you’ and make it as unique as possible! Making your journal feel like ‘you’ helps with staying motivated to continue instead of stopping after a week or two; it doesn’t have to be extremely pretty as long as you like it.
Of course, journaling is definitely not limited only to those who are good at designing. Designing your journal to be how you like is definitely a good thing, however you can also leave your journal to be plain as well. Journals can also look amazing, even if left with minimal to no design. Again, make your journal unique and fitting to your own personality.
To end off this article, I will be recommending some accounts on Instagram that I usually take inspiration from for my journal spreads. First off is @milkyystudy as their spreads are usually extremely colorful, and they mainly do weekly spreads that are decorated with cute washi tape and stickers. If you are a fan of cute and colourful things, you will definitely be a fan of this account as well. However, if you prefer something more simple but still colorful, you willl love @kiki.bujo as they usually post journal spreads that look clean yet still colorful at the same time. Lastly, if you’re a fan of minimalistic spreads, then @celfstudies is definitely someone you should check out.
By: Loong Leyi