Category: journaling

Tap Into the Power of Your Pen

Trauma survivors are learning that a simple pen and notebook can unlock healing, improve resiliency, and bring balance to a haywire nervous system. The beauty of this remedy is that so little is required. You don’t need a background in writing. You don’t even need to love writing. You don’t even need to go anywhere…


Beautifully Handwritten Journals Reveal the Therapeutic Joy of Writing: ‘It’s Very Meditative’

Julie Lafrance-Balian loves inspiring others to start a writing practice and journaling. The 46-year-old novelist and French translator, whose own journals are beautifully handwritten and illustrated, says journaling for her is more like meditation, helping her sort “uncomfortable emotions” at times. “It’s so good for one’s mental health, and to manage the confusion and anxiety…


How to Practice Gratitude Journaling to Encourage More Joy in Your Life

As humans we tend to naturally gravitate toward negative events rather than remembering the positive, uplifting ones. A new study suggests that holding on to negative feelings can trigger long-term effects on psychological well being. The longer your brain holds onto negative events, the more likely you are to develop chronic stress which can lead…


How Journaling Can Help You in Hard Times

As I often do in tough times, I turned to journaling. I decided I’d keep a record of my quarantine life through the month of April, a way to remember this crazy historical moment and process my feelings. Now it’s August, and my daily journal continues. I’ve left my building about two dozen times since…


The Unexpected Joy of Journaling

I was in the bookstore looking for a new journal. I pulled one with Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night painting on the cover off the shelf, assessed how many pages it had, and checked the price. It had lines. An unlined journal is better for drawing and sketching, which I like to do, but other…


The Many Benefits of Journaling

A simple notebook and pen are all you need to begin exploring the many benefits of journaling. A journal is not just a tool for recording episodes of teenage angst. It is an excellent place to jot down ideas, think something through, make a list, make a plan, remember a special (or ordinary) moment, or…