Morning Journaling Is A Must
From The Pen's Nib: Edition 70
Topics: Journaling Methods and The Journaling Habit
When I started journaling, I had three main reasons for journaling in the morning.
Because I was journaling gratitude, it put me in a positive frame of mind for the rest of the day.
It was a quiet time in the house, and writing a few sentences took about the same amount of time as brewing my coffee.
My journaling was done for the day, which helped me create the daily habit. (Check it off the list.)
All of these reasons are still true. No matter what my day might bring, journaling first thing in the morning still starts my day out right.
When I recommend journaling, my default suggestion is to start with gratitude first thing in the morning. Now I know gratitude doesn’t work for everyone, but the other two still hold true for everyone.
Then I expanded my morning habit to include morning pages. Journaling in stream-of-consciousness, first thing in the morning, was a huge improvement to my habit. Dumping all of the thoughts that came to mind before I did anything else was like a magic wand for the rest of the day.
I recently came across a social media post that summarized the benefits of morning journaling in one sentence.
Journaling in the morning is a tool to slow down my mind.
I experience this every morning.
I have the day before me and many things I want to accomplish. What will I do first? Will I have time to work out today? Maybe I can work on organizing my desk. I need to make that appointment for the dog.
My thoughts are a jumble of need-to-do and want-to-do. Writing them out on paper doesn’t necessarily guide my decisions, although it can. It is a method that calms my mind so that when I do get on with my day, those thoughts are not constantly swirling in my head.
My journaling routine is still to write gratitude and at least a page of whatever comes to my mind.
A morning journaling session is a must.
Takeaways:
Morning is the best time to journal.
Journaling in the morning is the easiest way to create the habit.
A morning journaling session is a tool to calm your mind for the day to come.
If you journal, try this prompt:
What strategies or tools calm my mind? How can I incorporate them into my daily routine?
Do you have strategies or tools you use regularly to calm your racing thoughts? I would love to hear what you use. Leave a comment, and let’s start a conversation.
Thank you for reading. Keep on writing!
Until next time,
✍️ Susan
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📸I love adding visual interest to my journal. The same is true for my newsletters. Each week will feature a picture I have taken corresponding with the month the edition is published, unless otherwise noted. I’ve taken daily pictures since 2020. I have many to share!
📰From The Pen’s Nib is my second newsletter. My first, Take Pen to Paper, is about gratitude and the good in life. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. It may be for you.
I like to do journaling in the evening as a kind of mind dump that helps me relax. I like to do commonplace booking in the morning as a way to engage with writing that I like and help set my thinking for the day.