As part of our blog post series about the benefits of a morning routine, we previously covered bullet journaling and how it helps us turbocharge our day and meditation: the daily exercise for your mind. It is now time to dive into another routine we’ve been experiencing: long form journaling.
In this post, I will be talking about long form journaling and provide you with resources to get you started within minutes and hopefully let you calm your mind, and get more focus and clarity for your day.
What is long-form journaling?
The idea behind long form journaling is to help you find obstacles in your life and address them.
The goal is simple: write non stop for an extended period of time.
You would need a pen and paper (or use a device like the reMarkable tablet which is a wonderful device to take notes without the distraction of our smart-devices that are always connected).
Set up a timer for 20 minutes and basically write down every thought that goes to your mind non stop. If you are thinking “Mmm” then write “Mmm”, if you are thinking “Ehh…” then write “Ehh…” if you are thinking “I don’t know what to write”, write “I don’t know what to write”.
What does long-term journaling bring you?
By having a physical thing to do, your thoughts are less likely to wonder. And by forcing yourself to write down the words you are thinking about, this will start slowing down your mind. As your mind will start to slow down, you will start to connect both your conscious and subconscious minds together. And as you start asking yourself questions, your subconscious is going to start talking to you.
I’ve been experiencing long form journaling for about a week and I definitely find the experience quite relaxing and insightful.
Tips to help you get started
Here are a few tips to help you get started:
- Don’t think too much. It’s amazing how easy you get in the flow of writing once your mind is calming down.
- If you don’t have a timer, aim to write about 2 US-Letter size (or A4 size for our non US readers) pages.
- It’s okay to use a keyboard to practice this exercise. Though make sure you close any windows and turn off wifi (& notifications) so you don’t get distracted
- If you need help to get started use a prompt like: “what is working in my life? What is not working in my life? Where am I going to hang out? Where am I having a hard time figuring out what is not working?
So this is all about it really. Is that something you would like to try? If so, try it for at least a week and definitely let us know how that experience went and definitely leave us a comment in the comments section below!
0 Comments