If You Hate Journaling, You're Not Broken—You're Ready for Deeper Truth.

The page isn’t the only place to find yourself—sometimes your truth lives in movement, sound, or silence.

Journaling is a frivolous mind game that I make time for every day.

I put it at the top of my day as the most important thing to do.

Not doing it has worse consequences because my brain is stuffed as if I had overeaten.

Everyone’s “best” journal

There are as many ways to journal as there are people.

Everyone tells you their way is the best. You can journal your gratitude, write your morning pages, use a bullet journal, or create a listicle journal.

I prefer to call my type of journaling ‘vomiting over a page’.

It's not pretty. It's not poetry or beautiful prose full of insightful wisdom.

It's an ongoing conversation I have with myself. Some days it's an argument, and other days it’s how awesome I am. It's never the same.

“Journaling is like whispering to one’s self and listening at the same time.” -Mina Murray

Most people dislike keeping a journal.

They get a bored look on their face when you mention it. I always hear the reasons why they can't be bothered to journal.

Here are some of them:

• "I am not a writer."

• "I don't have the time."

• "I can't physically write."

• "I don't care."

• "I have more important things to do."

So I ask, 'How do you make sense of the world and yourself if you don’t journal?'

“Write hard and clear about what hurts.”- Ernest Hemingway

Not everyone needs reflection time

I get it.

Not everyone needs to slow life down to understand it. Or understand themselves. People like to be confused.

However, not spending time with yourself to understand who you are is a crime.

How will you ever get to know the amazing person you are? How will you know where you are afraid or hurt? How will you tap your inner wisdom or intuition?

Journaling gives you a way.

I have watched a friend journal over the years. She does it for a few days and then stops. She was shocked by what she wrote. Then she walked away from it.

It was too much.

I have felt this way. I journaled my way through sexual abuse, relationship issues, and a few dark nights of the soul. I also wrote about my successes and my gratitude.

I even burned part of the journal to release things I didn't want to hold onto.

It was a heck of a bonfire.

When words are not enough

There is no right or wrong way to do this.

“To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky

No one is going to look at it. It's for your eyes only. It's taking what is inside of you and putting it somewhere you can look at it.

But there is a downside to this.

If all you do is write a journal, then you are cheating yourself. Humans are multifaceted beyond their minds and emotions. We also have energy and body memories.

There are things that words can't express or tell you.

I learned this the hard way.

My healing journey over the last 35 years has been marked by journaling. I put everything into words. I thought it was enough.

However, many emotions and other aspects were overlooked.

Now I get to go back and find all of it and express it in ways that words can't. Finding different ways to express myself.