3 Tips to start journaling
Journaling helps you discover your voice, so you aren’t just echoing someone else’s or AI’s voice, the content it produces.
Tip 1: Stretch your writing muscle daily.
To really help your brain process information, try stretching yourself a bit. If you can only write for five minutes, try 10. If you can sit still and write for 10 minutes, try 15. It might feel like a stretch, but it is worth the investment. Do you know that your brain carries a lot of information? An average American consumes about 34 gigabytes of data = 100,000 words heard or read daily (UC San Diego Research). With AI helping people write more content, you may consume more data than you can imagine. You have a lot stored up in your brain. A lot of the information you have is raw data. Information you have not processed. To process them. The easiest way is to write for 15 minutes daily so you can put your thoughts on paper. Because your writing speed is slower than your thinking or speaking rate, you will force yourself to capture the more important information in your brain.
You also don’t want your journaling session to be too long. It will be more difficult to maintain the habit. You can also lose steam if you journal beyond your capacity. You will just be wasting time. Start small and build up.
Tip 2: Keep moving.
Many people face a common challenge: “what do I write about?” Anything really. Even if you are writing down, “I don’t know what I am supposed to write.” That is a complete thought. You are literally putting your thought on paper (or on a computer). Keep your finger or pen moving. Just keep moving, and you will find yourself coming up with more thoughts or feelings to write about.
A popular journal method is the morning pages. It is the practice of writing 3 long pages nonstop for 15 minutes. You keep on writing until you hit 3 pages or hit 15 minutes. Whichever comes first. The idea is to write down everything you can think of in the morning, assuming that your brain has processed all the information the night before while you sleep and leaving you with the most important thoughts.
This is a great way to overcome writer’s block for many young writers. Many people choose not to write because they feel their thoughts have to make sense the moment they start writing. After all, this is what schools have taught children to do. Knowing that you can write whatever you want, even repeatedly write, I don’t know what to write, is freeing, and it will help you put words on paper. You can edit it later, but keep moving.
Tip 3: Engage your senses.
We experience the world through our senses. So write about them. Help your brain process the sensory information that your body receives. Write about the smell of your coffee and the loud noise your kids make when they wake up in the morning. Write about the temperature, the sound of rain, or the sunlight coming through the window. Engage your senses. You will find yourself becoming more aware of your surroundings, more aware of the space you inhabit, and more aware of what your body experiences. Knowing your senses will help you articulate your voice better and tell more engaging stories.
Journaling is a great way to discover who you are, your thoughts, and your feelings. It allows you to use words to articulate your perspectives. Journaling also helps you decompress and make sense of the world.
However, journaling is not the only way to find your voice. There are many other ways, such as singing and speaking. I hope you find your voice through the medium that is right for you. So you will discover yourself and know yourself better.
