Introduction to Journaling Types

Speaker 1 0:11

Hello and welcome to Roots of the Rise with me, sarah Hogan. Today I'm going to talk about journaling, which is something that comes up repeatedly with clients during one-on-one sessions and during retreats. It's pretty common that people ask should I journal, and so I wanted to address that, and in doing this I learned some new tidbits that I'm kind of excited to share. So first let's talk about the different types of journaling. Now, there's many, many, many, but I'm going to just cover four of them today. So one is kind of your stereotypical diary where you write a little bit about your day. Some people write everything about their day. I actually do what's called a line a day, five year journal for both myself and also for my son, and these journals are very small, they're short. You get a single page and the book is small. It's probably, I don't know, maybe a three by five, five by seven, and you get a single page that covers five years. So when you look on a page you can see what you did on that day, on February 20th, for five years, and so I really like those. It gives a little snippet, a little what the highlight was on that particular day. You can also do the regular, like long form journaling, right. So that's one type of journaling.

Speaker 1 1:44

Another is something called morning notes, which is, as the name implies, when you sit down, usually first thing in the morning, and you just write. And it is a tool people use to essentially dump whatever clutter is existing in their brain as they start their day. Clutter is existing in their brain as they start their day, so they use it both as a decluttering tool to get rid of all the chatter, and also clarification. It also is an opportunity to kind of sit down and really think about all right, what do I want to accomplish today? What's important to me today? How do I want to begin and move through today? A third kind is integration journaling, and what I mean by that is something you do after you've had an experience that you're trying to really pull into yourself and understand. So maybe it could be after a difficult experience that you're writing about it just to kind of get the energy of whatever you experienced out. Or it could be a really positive experience, maybe a positive healing experience. Or you know you're on meditation retreat and you have a big aha moment. Journaling about it can really help you get the most important pieces of whatever you experienced and help internalize them in a different way.

Stream of Consciousness Writing Technique

Speaker 1 3:10

One technique that I wanted to highlight is something called stream of consciousness writing. So this is where you set a timer, let's say for five minutes, and you just sit down and write. Now you might have an intention when you sit down. It might be that you are specifically mulling over a particular struggle that you're having or a question, but it's meant to give you space to just kind of follow the stream of consciousness wherever it takes you. Now, likely you're going to get stuck in certain places. So you'll be writing along happily, covering things, and then all of a sudden you get kind of like stuck, that you don't know what to write next. So if that happens, what you want to do is take the last few words that you wrote and just write them over and over again. So if I was writing along and you know, and then I just felt hurt, I felt hurt, I felt hurt, I felt hurt, and then blah, blah, blah, and something will prompt, something will kind of shift within you and you'll be able to kind of continue writing and move on to whatever comes up for you next, and this can be very helpful. It can be helpful especially when we feel stuck in a certain something that we're pondering, when we feel stuck and we can't get out of that set loop of thought, that we just keep on thinking the same thoughts about the situation over and over and over again. Sometimes writing it down can help us come to new insights, can help us see something that we've missed before. So I encourage you to play with that.

Science-Backed Journaling Protocol

Speaker 1 4:58

The last form of journaling that I want to just touch on today is something that I'm not going to go over in detail because there are a lot of nuances to it. That would take far more time than the length of my little episodes. But I'm going to refer you to Andrew Huberman's Huberman Lab podcast and the episode is on journaling. I'll link it in the show notes, but also you can just kind of Google that and it'll pop right up and he goes over in detail this protocol that was developed, that has been proven in you know, over 200 peer-reviewed studies to improve both mental and physical health, and he actually goes into the science of that connection between the mental and the physical. He goes so far as to say it should be included in your repertoire of kind of like essential practices for improving overall health and he's a neurobiologist. He's very well respected. So you're getting it from someone who wouldn't put it out there if it wasn't scientifically backed up.

Speaker 1 6:08

So, again, I would refer you to that podcast to get the full details on how to do this particular journaling practice. But in essence, what you do is basically pick a really traumatic thing that happened to you and you write about it for 30 minutes and you do this on four different occasions, either four consecutive days or once a day for four weeks, and there are nuances to it, to what you're supposed to be thinking about while you do it, to the whole protocol. So I'm referring you to Huberman Lab that journaling episode to get the full kit and caboodle on how to do it. But it is fascinating and I'm actually I'm going to try it out personally and see what happens. So I'll report back when I get that done.

Typing vs. Handwriting Debate

Speaker 1 7:00

But the other really cool tidbit that I picked up from listening to that podcast that like I had to stop and go back and listen to it again is that there's actually no discernible difference between handwriting and typing out your journaling, which was mind blowing to me because I was under the impression I don't know where I was told this, but that you really needed to write things out in order for it to be you know, proper journaling, so to speak. But apparently they've done research on this and that is not the case. So if you keep your journal in a word document and you type in it, then you're good to go, which is kind of great. And you know what, the more I thought about it I was talking about it in a class today the more that I think about it. I think it has more to do with whatever you are most comfortable with. So if you really like writing, if you, you know, are someone who enjoys sitting down and writing in your journal, then that is absolutely what you should be doing. But if you're someone who finds it way easier to type, then do that.

Speaker 1 8:13

You know, I think so often we get hung up on like the quote unquote correct way. And I'm not saying that we shouldn't be mindful of protocols, and you know, knowing the nuances of different techniques and processes but I think we also need to recognize that. You know, the hope is that we're just going to be successful in doing it, and if typing it out is something that you know, you can sit down and spend the first 10 minutes of your day typing something out, but you're never going to sit there and actually hand write it, then type it, be successful. I mean, personally, I said, you know I have my line a day journals that I do every day. But when it comes to my learning, when it comes to integrating experiences that I have on retreat or in classes or in healing practices, whatever I type it, you know it started, oh goodness, during my Ayurvedic training, so over a decade ago. My mentor had a Google Doc that I could type in and then he would make comments on, which is a practice I've continued on with my clients because I find it to be really effective. But I just kind of kept going with that same document. And so I can go back, and I love that. I can go back and just, you know, type in the find box a particular phrase and then see, you know, where that pops up. You know I can go back and just type bliss and I can see the first meditation I had and when it was that I experienced bliss. So there's something to be said for that, and there's also something to be said for the journals A little tidbit about the handwritten journals that I picked up somewhere along the line is that you know, often we buy pretty journals but there can be this kind of subconscious resistance to writing in the pretty journals.

Speaker 1 10:13

I can't tell you about how many people are, you know, hoarders of the pretty journals. You ask them do you have a journal? And they'll be like oh yeah, I have five, but they're just sitting on my shelf. I just I can't bring myself to use them Because you know we think, oh, they're so pretty. That means the inside needs to be as pretty as the outside is and we have this subconscious resistance to using them. Because you know what the truth is.

The Pretty Journal Paradox

Speaker 1 10:37

Journaling, especially if we're using it as a tool to process our inner belief systems and patterns and dysfunctions well, that's messy, that, that isn't always pretty. It comes out in scribbles and with incorrect grammar and bad spelling and eligibility and all of that, and it's to, it's supposed to be all of those things. You know, journaling, any of these, any of these different types, should not be about what it looks like. It shouldn't need to be pretty, it is just for you. No one else is going to read this. At least you know that's not the intention, unless you're working with someone and they are going to be reading it. But those situations aside, you know, journaling, generally speaking, is a solitary practice. It's just for you to process. So go ahead and be messy, cry all over the pages, scribble all of the things. It doesn't need to be pretty.

Speaker 1 11:37

And if you're realizing that you are one of those people who has the pretty journals and then isn't really kind of allowing everything out in them, or maybe aren't even using them because of the subconscious resistance that you weren't even aware of until now, go out and get some plain composition notebooks that are just simple lined notebooks and if you just leave maybe a couple pages at the beginning of them blank, you can go back later and write okay, this is when it started. Here are the pages that highlight certain big moments that I talk about in this notebook and then put the finish date and that's it, and that's great. So that is all I have for today on journaling. If you have any questions or have anything you want to share with me about it, please feel free to email rootsoftherise at gmailcom.

Closing Thoughts and Resources

Speaker 1 12:34

As I said before, I will link below in the show notes the episode of Huberman Lab on journaling. I highly recommend it because he does talk so much about the legitimate you know, peer reviewed science that supports this particular protocol that he goes over and the long lasting effects that it has and the long lasting effects that it has. So it is a very valid practice that I really encourage you to check out. I just I won't do it justice in 10 minutes and it's definitely something that you want to do correctly and really listen to the whole episode so you get a good understanding of what the potential is for doing this practice and what you need to be kind of careful and aware of if you choose to give it a go. So I will link that in the show notes and so, if you try that out, let me know. I'd be really curious to hear about your experiences.

Speaker 1 13:33

So that is it for today. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and I will be back tomorrow. Until then, know who you are, love who you've been and be willing to do the work to become who you want to be. Just a quick reminder this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. I am not a licensed therapist and nothing shared here is meant to replace the guidance of a physician, therapist or any other qualified provider. That said, I hope it inspires you to grow, heal and seek the support you need to thrive.