 Journaling never came natural to me, which is a little ironic considering the fact that I have a degree in broadcast journalism. It's not something I ever was like, oh, let me go journal today. It was something that had to kind of implant itself in my mind for something that I desire to do and something that I enjoyed doing. If you're new here, I'm Sarah and I created this channel to help you build a more positive and fulfilling life through self mastery and spirituality. And today, I'm gonna give you some tips on journaling whether you are a beginner or you're a profesh. So first I wanna explain to you guys, like I said, journaling was never my thing. Until about two years ago, when I began my spiritual awakening journey, something in me just told me like, hey, I gotta capture this stuff, you know? So from two years ago to now, this is what I've got. Pretty freaking crazy. So I wanna start off by saying the rules of journaling. And there is only one rule and that is there are no rules. There are no rules. And I feel like you really gotta abide and stick by that because if you start putting pressure on yourself about journaling, I have to journal 10 minutes a day. I have to do this at a day, blah, blah, blah. It becomes a chore and not something that's actually beneficial for you because it's just another thing to check off your to-do list, okay? So I want you to have ultimate freedom when you're journaling. So you wanna journal in a way that works for you. So what do I mean by that? Personally, I always recommend to journal in as you could see a notebook or handwriting your journals. However, that doesn't work for everyone. You could type on your phone. You could type on a laptop. You can do video journaling, which I do every once in a while when I'm going through something really emotional and I just have to get it out and process it. So I'll get into that, but basically all that video journaling is is taking your phone out, putting the video camera on yourself and just go. Just talk about whatever it is that you have on your mind and you will be blown away about what comes out. So I do love that and the reason that I don't do that all the time and I prefer to stick to journals is just because it's not necessarily something that I'm going to go back and watch and I would prefer something that I can kind of flip through and see like, oh, how was I doing it this time in my life? Where are my thoughts here? What were my beliefs at this point? But it is something that's a little uncomfortable but incredible, so I highly recommend that. But as I said, the biggest thing I recommend is doing a handwritten journal. But again, it's up to you. There are no rules. I'm just giving you some tips and tricks and just sliding in there what I do as well. Okay, journaling should be fun and it should be enjoyable. So how do you make it enjoyable? Well, little things for me is I go out every time I need a new journal and I look for something that really catches my eye, that catches my mood and that's something that I really want to write in. So for example, I love mermaids, I always have and I found this journal and I was like, oh my God, it's so cute. I wanna write in that. Or I have this one. I needed something a little motivational that day. And then another thing is that you can do to make it fun. Hopefully I can show you guys this. I have a basket full of different colors and writing utensils and things like, ah, and things like that because I like to write according to what my mood is. Now, you don't have to make your journal pretty. You know, like there are sometimes when I use one color for a week and then other times when I change every other line in my journal, like it's literally up to you and what you want to do. But you want to keep in mind, you're writing for you. You're writing for your eyes only. This isn't to show anyone else, you know. So it doesn't have to be pretty. I mean, hell, you don't even have to have the right grammar in it. Like it really doesn't matter. So just take that pressure off yourself and have fun with it. You can draw, you can make charts, you can make lists, you can do literally anything you want. And I feel like sometimes it's so limitless that that's why people have trouble getting started with journaling. So you can do a few different things. Now I started off with just one journal. So these four, these journals are finished, okay? So I've already filled them out, they're done. So what I did after that was I have so many different things I like to write in general about and I'm very anal-retentive when it comes to organizing. Now some people will just write everything in one journal and that's totally fine, that's up to you. Other people will section off their journals kind of like we did when we were in grade school for our different subjects and have a different section for each thing. Now what I do is like I said, I'm a little psycho, I know, I have, these are all the journals I'm doing right now. So these are the three that I have right now. I'm going through something very personal. I've not shared it on this channel, I'm not going to share it today. But it's some shadow work I'm going through and so I chose this, you got this for that one. I have my gratitude journal which has journal prompts actually in it. So that's definitely something that you guys can do if you're having trouble coming up with what you want to write about. You can always get a journal that has prompts in it. So in this gratitude journal it says, you know, I'm fortunate because today I'm grateful for, I will choose kindness by, express joys, you can draw, I usually write affirmations there and something I'm looking forward to tomorrow. And I like to do this before bed because it really just makes me reflect on the day I had and even if it wasn't the best day, I can still pull some goodness out of it and also start to look forward to the next day. This one is my work journal because sometimes I get cranky at work and so I wanted something bright and pink which is my favorite color and just saying, hey, it's all good, just be you, everything's fine. This one, which you guys have probably seen in my other video and if you haven't watched my video about dream journaling, I'll link it right here. But this is my dream journal and this is where I copy down all of my dreams. And I got this one because I was like, oh, dreams are so abstract, you know, they're so colorful, they don't make any sense. So I got a journal that kind of reflected like that to me. Then I have my YouTube notebook where I tend to write down YouTube ideas and sometimes I script YouTube videos or put little bullet points or things like that. So that's that one. So you can really do anything you want. What are you right about? That's probably the most important question. What are you right about? And I know you're gonna get annoyed, but like anything, you know, you can look up, like I said, journal prompts, you can go on Google, Pinterest, anything and just save journal prompts and just scan it until you find something you like. You can write about great things that are happening in your life. Maybe you had a really good day. Maybe you spent some time with someone that meant a lot to you and you just want to like capture that memory. So you write that down, write that down. Maybe you're going through something really emotional and the thing is with journaling is that we have so many vague and sporadic and crazy thoughts that are just constantly ping ponging all around in our head that when we put it out on paper, it can often give us clarity. So if you're going through something very emotional or some type of depression or anxiety or anything like that, get it out on paper and you can kind of find some clarity in the way you're feeling or it's not all jumbled up in your head and you can just spit it out. If you're out somewhere and you don't have a journal on you, pull up the voicemail memo in your phone and get it out there. And if you need to write it down in your journal later, that's what I do with my dream journaling. I wake up in the morning, I record everything I can remember and then later in the day or whenever I copy it down. You can write a letter to yourself. You can write a letter to someone else, maybe that hurt you in the past that you may not get the opportunity to speak with and to let your feelings out. So write a letter to them. You don't have to send it. Just write it out. Get those emotions out on paper and transform them out of the clutter in your brain and get them out on paper. Burn it, do whatever you wanna do with it. Send it if you want. Not my recommendation, but you can. You can do whatever you want. It's supposed to be very freeing and journaling is very therapeutic. It's just something that I never realized the importance of until I actually started doing it. And what's so beautiful about it is that you can look back and you can see all of the growth that you've gone through. But you can't do that if you're not journaling, if you're not writing your thoughts and beliefs and emotions and whatever down. So how are you supposed to look back and see how far you've come if you didn't do it? So that's another beautiful thing about journaling. The last question is how often should you journal? What's my answer? However, what you want? For me, I journal sometimes more than once in a day. Sometimes I'll go 10 days without journaling. Again, you just want to relieve all that pressure. Sometimes I'll do my dream journal and other times, you know, I'll do only my gratitude journal, which takes me five minutes. Sometimes if I'm really in the mood, I'll go through and brighten all of them. Sometimes it'll be a sentence or two. And other times it'll be six pages. You know, it's really up to you, but it is just such a therapeutic and releasing thing that I just would highly recommend and that if you haven't tried journaling yet to try it and just, again, release the pressure on yourself, don't put any rules in yourself, just do whatever you feel like doing. I hope you guys found some value in this video. If you did, don't forget to like it and subscribe so we could hang out again next week. I love you guys so, so much and don't forget, be limitlessly yourself.