There are as many creative styles of journalling as there are personalities and moods. You don’t need to stick to one particular style – and in fact, having some variation in your style could actually help to overcome that intimidating feeling when facing a blank page. Journalling is a beautiful tool for developing self-awareness, improving clarity, regulating emotions, working through conflicts or simply documenting the mundane, so it should be something we look forward to.
Here are five creative ways to start your journalling practice. Whatever your style might be, just remember that there are no rules; simply getting started is the key to unlocking creativity.
1) Art Journal
You don’t have to be a professional artist or even an emerging one to carry an art journal. Filling a notebook with doodles to process daily musings is a great way to express your creativity and work through emotions. You can even start by creating collages with images cut out of a magazine and gluing them on the pages of your journal and take it from there. The sky is the limit!
2) Plant Journal
A notebook is the perfect tool to track the growth of your plants or to plan your garden for coming years. Whether it’s documenting garden activities and results, drawing flower bed plans or recording observations, keeping a plant journal to write down even the subtle changes is a great way to preserve the journey as you look back on the evolution of your garden.
3) Recipe Journal
As we are spending more time at home these days, some of us have taken to cooking more homemade meals or obsessively baking the perfect sourdough bread. A recipe journal can help you jot down new ideas for meals, archive recently tried recipes, track the growth of your sourdough starter or document variations to that perfect blueberry galette. And if you are lucky enough to get that coveted recipe from Grandma, a journal is the perfect place to transcribe the family’s culinary jewels for safekeeping.
4) Dreams and Motivations Journal
We like to believe that writing down dreams and goals gets us one step closer to devising a plan to meet our objectives. From a healthier lifestyle to mindful practices to travel goals, a craft you want to master or a longtime dream career, write down the things you want to achieve and it will be easier to then follow through.
5) Classic Journal
A classic journal is a space to ponder feelings, untangle moods, celebrate successes or vent complaints. There is no right or wrong method, but a common way to do this journalling style is freewriting, a loose unstructured form of writing in which you simply record everything that comes to mind without stopping to focus on conventions of grammar.
So, now you have a few ideas to start journalling. Which one are you eager to try? Let us know in the comment section below; we’d love to hear about your favourite style!
