5 Simple and Easy Journaling Techniques for Beginners

Inside: If you are unsure of where to start when it comes to journaling your feelings, these journaling techniques for beginners are just what you need.

When I decided to get back into journaling to help me process my thoughts and feelings, I had a really hard time. I remember working through this amazing program for introverted Christian women who want to process hard emotions and get back into journaling.

It lasted eight weeks, and I wasn’t able to write anything until week six. This was frustrating because the information was great and helpful, but every time I picked up my pen to do one of the journaling exercises, I could not. I was overwhelmed and overcome with so many emotions.

I’d been numbing them for so long that I was starting to feel everything all at once. I could not figure out how to pinpoint the one thing to start writing about because I was so overwhelmed, so I decided I wasn’t going to write anything.

That got me thinking that many of you may be experiencing the same thing. As HSPs and introverts, you may need help knowing where to begin or struggle with overwhelm when it comes to journaling. Today, I want to share some quick, simple techniques to help you begin your journaling journey.

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Journaling has many benefits, especially for mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. It really helps you clear the fog, get rid of all the clutter in your head and heart, and see what you’re thinking and feeling.

You can examine it, organize it, discard what’s not helpful, and really work through things. Journaling provides a lot of clarity and is a great tool for sorting through all of your experiences. One of the best things I did as an HSP was to start journaling. It helped me begin to distinguish between my thoughts and other people’s thoughts.

As an HSP with a strong empathic gift, I feel what other people are feeling and take that on as my own. This is not a good thing to do all the time, and journaling helped me separate the two. However, it can be really challenging to get started. Sometimes, you don’t know where to start, and sometimes, you’re just overwhelmed by the whole thing, like I was when I started that course.

Journaling 101

What is Journaling?

What is journaling? When I talk about journaling, I mean writing down your thoughts, feelings, and what you are experiencing, so that you can process it all and understand yourself better. It’s a tool that you can use to gain more self-awareness, start to notice patterns of behaviors, emotions, and thoughts, and process what you’re thinking and feeling, what you’re experiencing so that you can have a plan on how to cope and deal with adversity and all the things that are happening.

Why Journal?

There are many reasons to journal, but my favorite is clarity. I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to have clarity when you’re facing difficult situations. Having a clear mind makes it easier to think and make decisions. You can go about your day without feeling like you’re going to lose your mind.

Another reason is emotional wellness and resilience. We hold on to so many things because we don’t know how to deal with them. But when we can write down our thoughts and start working through them, we can release the weight we’re lugging around.

You can also see spiritual growth. When I have the time to journal, I gain clarity, process my emotions, and examine my thoughts. This allows me to experience God’s presence in a way that I couldn’t before because all the other stuff was getting in the way.

It’s also great for reflection, and if you’re an introvert, you probably know how much we love to reflect and think about all the things. As an HSP, journaling is your safe haven. A little retreat or sanctuary for processing your emotions and your thoughts. A safe place for you to express yourself without any kind of judgment, shame, criticism, or any kind of outside pressure.

Types of Journaling

There are a lot of types of journaling that you can do. With free writing, you just write whatever comes to mind. Prompts are helpful, especially when you aren’t sure what to put on that blank page.

Gratitude journaling is a popular option, which I’m sure we all are familiar with. There’s reflective journaling, which is looking back at an event that’s happened and digging in to explore different things.

With my clients, we combine free writing, prompt-based writing, and reflective writing. This approach is great because it allows you to revisit an event with a fresh perspective and begin to notice things: what you were actually feeling, what thoughts were attached to those feelings, and what could have been different.

Those are really great tools for working through things. Next, I’ll give you some techniques to get started to help you deal with not knowing what to write or feeling overwhelmed by all the things that are coming up right as you’re writing.

Are you a highly sensitive, introverted woman who feels overwhelmed by your emotions? Processing your feelings and learning to embrace your sensitivity can be challenging. But what if you didn’t have to navigate this journey alone? Take the first step towards peace. Book your Feel Your Feelings coaching session today!

Tip #1 Start Small

The first thing is to start small. There’s no requirement that you have to journal for a specific amount of time or a certain number of pages. You get to decide what your time looks like. If you’re overwhelmed and struggling, start with 5-10 minutes. I have seen people who journal one line a day, and doing one line a day consistently still has great impact and transformation power for them. Your goal is consistency, not quantity. It’s not about how much you write, it is about building that muscle of writing consistently.

Think of it as a mini-retreat. Time to get alone, to have some silence and solitude, and decompress from all the stuff that you’ve been thinking and feeling all day long. It’s going to help you recharge and process all of the sensory overload that you might’ve had.

For example, you can consider why you walked into the store at 8 p.m. and told everyone good morning—I do that all the time, LOL. You can also process all those things that might be plaguing you. You can sit down, address them, and let them go so that you’re ready to get up and do something new the next day.

Tip #2: Use Prompts

I do not believe in just telling somebody to go and journal without giving them some direction, because I know that blank screen is terrifying. When you are trying to dig into your emotions, it’s always helpful to have guidance. This is why, when I work with my clients. I have prompts that I give them.

You can do simple things. What are you feeling right now? What emotions have you experienced today? Make a list of those things. Write about your highs and lows for the day. What’s something that you wish you did differently? How did you see God show up in your day?

Use prompts to help you get the juices going, because once we can get started writing, it’s easy to keep writing. As an HSP and introvert, you’ll want to find prompts that are going to let you explore your inner world, because you’re probably doing it anyway. We tend to be in our heads and our own little world, reflecting and being introspective all day long.

So lean into that and find prompts that let you do that. Ask yourself what felt good today. What sensory input did you want today but didn’t get, so that you can look for tomorrow? How can you create more peace in your day? Ask yourselves those deeper reflective and introspective questions and journal them out.

Tip #3: Let Go of Perfect!

Next, let go of perfection, please. There’s no right or wrong way to journal. It’s a process, and everybody’s process is going to look different. Your process might look different depending on what day of the week it is, what time of the month it is, and what you have going on in your life. Do your best to let go of this idea that it has to be perfect. I

f you make a mistake, keep writing, cross it out, and move on. Don’t get hung up on all those details. Remember, this is a form of self-care. It’s not a thing on your to-do list to check off and say, oh, I did it. Let yourself write without judgment and silence that inner critic. This is your safe place to express yourself and process and write down whatever it is that you want to.

Tip #4: Create a Peaceful Space

Find a cozy, peaceful, relaxing, and distraction-free place. I know that if you have a family, you can’t just make them disappear. However, you could disappear yourself and go write somewhere outside of your house. I like to sit in the backyard and journal.

Figure out what that looks like for you. Consider the sensory elements: the lighting, the smells, the sounds, etc. Keep those things in mind and address them.

Tip #5: Reflect and Review

Make sure to give yourself time for reflection and review. Set aside a time, once a week, once a month, to go through your entries and read old entries. Look for patterns and insights, because sometimes, as you’re writing every single day, you’re so focused on that day that you’re missing the big picture.

You might not notice that you gained insight this week into something you struggled with on Monday. However, taking time to read through your entries and notice those things is really helpful. It allows you to see that journaling is actually working.

You can see that it is actually helping you process things because a month ago, something completely derailed you, but today, you’re handling it so much better. Tiny changes will help you feel less overwhelmed. The more you write about things, the more you process them, and the more you dig into and explore them, the more insight, clarity, and awareness you’ll have.

You don’t have to sit down and pull out every single journal that you’ve ever written in and take a five-hour trip down memory lane. Every now and then, just look back and see the progress you’ve made.

Prompts to Get You Started

Before we wrap up today, I want to give you a couple of quick prompts and things to consider as you get started. The first thing I want you to write about is to ask yourself to name and explore your emotions. “What emotions am I feeling right now?”

A gift of being introverted or highly sensitive is that we often can pick up on emotions that people other people will overlook. Try to think beyond the mad, sad, and glad go deep. Did you feel abandoned? Did you feel hurt? Did you feel disappointed? Did you feel disrespected?

The next one is to think through your highs and lows. What went well today? What challenges did you face? Look at how well or not well you managed your energy for the day. As an HSP and introvert, interacting with other people can be really draining. Being able to identify what drains you the most is helpful because you can either make choices to avoid those kinds of situations or put things in place that are going to help you rest and recharge when you have to be in those super, super draining situations.

The last one that I’m going to offer you today is to it’s a gratitude prompt. I want you to go beyond three things that you’re grateful for today. Remember, one of your gifts is that you are going to notice small things that people are not going to notice. So think about things that brought you comfort and helped you find peace throughout your day.

Maybe it was the warm sun on your skin as you stood outside for five minutes just to get some green time in and take a breather. Maybe it was the sound of rain. I love the sound of rain. It’s so calming, it’s so soothing for me. If there’s a storm and I can be at home with either my paints or a good book, I am in heaven.

Think about those small things that you can be grateful for that brought you some joy or brought you peace during your day. If you notice what those things are, you can then seek them out when you’re having rough times or having rough moments.

Those are my tips. If you are feeling overwhelmed or need help with how to get started, please, try some of these. Pick one or two, try them out, and see how it goes. Remember, journaling is about consistency. If you could make it a regular habit, make it part of your regular routine, you’re going to have so many benefits.