Keep a Journal

Journaling helps you see yourself clearly. It helps you figure out who you are and who you’re becoming. As you see yourself more clearly, you gain the freedom to start making different choices, to change and grow in the ways you choose.

Journaling is like having a friend you can always trust, someone to share your problems and thoughts with. In your journal, you can step back from the ups and downs of life, and see things more clearly.

Getting Started:

1. Choose a format. Paper? Blog? Vlog? Audio? Letter to a friend? Get yourself set up nicely here – maybe buying a blank journal book if writing sounds good, or recording voice notes, or getting letter paper to write to a friend.

2. Make your first entry. It doesn’t matter what the topic is. Believe it or not, you’ll look back on this entry very fondly in the future, no matter what you write. It’s important just to start. If you’d like some prompts to get the ideas flowing, consider answering one or more of these questions:

   1. In the past month, what has been your happiest moment, and what was your most difficult moment?

   2. What do you wonder about for your life right now or for your future?

   3. If you imagine this journal being read by your future self, who already knows how your story goes from here, what do you wish you could ask them?

   4. What are you worried about right now?

   5. Who is your closest friend right now, and how do you spend time together?

   6. How are your family relationships going right now? What’s it like to be at home?

   7. What are your biggest hobbies or interests right now?

   8. How do you think you’re changing?

   9. Do you have a crush right now, or someone who you’re thinking about a lot?

   10. What is happening in the world right now that seems important to you?

3. Create  a habit. To make it regular, which is when a journal gets really good, start a journaling habit by creating a regular time and place for your journal. Maybe right before bed, in which case, you could keep the journal under your pillow or next to your bed. Or some other time – what matters is just that it’s consistent, at least to get you started.