Journaling is a simple yet effective way to understand yourself and your personal growth through various experiences. Although the core of journaling remains constant, there are various types of journaling to meet individual objectives and preferences. No matter if you are a novice trying to start with it or a seasonal journal writer, writing a journal helps you in various ways to lead to a better personal growth journey.
Paper or Digital Journaling
Before we dive into the types of journaling, let’s explain to you that there are two major mediums for writing a journal. One is an old way i.e. writing a paper journal. And, another is the new-age digital journal writing on digital apps.
Paper journaling is a conventional form of journal writing using a notebook and pen. People often use paper journals for sensory writing experience while enhancing their entries with doodles, sketches, and stickers.
But for those who don’t want to indulge in the tangible and physical space-consuming paper journaling, digital journaling is a way to go. With a digital journal, people can easily record their feelings, experiences, and thoughts via electronic devices like laptops, smartphones, etc. Using a digital app, one can easily access journal writing on the go or anywhere they want.
Types of Journaling
Given below are the most common types of journaling to consider for keeping your thoughts, memories, and emotions as a record:
1. Bullet Journaling
This is one of the common ways of starting journaling. It also caters as an easy planner to help you arrange certain aspects of your life, such as goals, to-do lists, and achievements. This type of journal helps you keep track of your both short and long-term goals. You can start with this journal writing using blank pages while creating boxes and sections to fit your desired writing. This multifaceted journal can include various types of entry categories. This way, you can easily note down achievements, appointments, and inspirational quotes.
2. Personal Journaling
This type of journaling is good for recording anything you desire. This form of writing is more private compared to other journal forms. Using a personal journal, you may begin writing about your reactions to certain emotions or situations. Hence, you can have a better idea about your doubts, fears, feelings, relationships, life goals, and more. It will even offer you more clarity of thought.
3. Reflective Journaling
This journal-keeping is useful for you to process your emotions and experiences. You can use it for your self-discovery and for recording future visions. Whenever you write an entry in your reflective journal, it needs to include anything you think about in a moment. It’s more instinctive and rapid. As a result, you can even decrease your stress while boosting mindfulness.
4. Video Journaling
Don’t like writing? If that’s the case, you may set up your recording device for verbally expressing your feelings. When you start video journaling, it also gives you a therapeutic way to unburden yourself while discussing certain relevant topics with others. After recording, you may save your video file on your desired device. If you like, you can consider sharing it with others online to connect with more people with the same thought process. Or you can simply keep them private for yourself on your computer or smartphone.
5. Gratitude Journaling
As the name indicates, gratitude journaling is all about writing things you are grateful for. You need to keep this journal to focus on positive aspects of your life. It is great for increasing self-contentment. You can set certain times of a day to daily document your thoughts while reminding yourself of the things that bring comfort and happiness to your life. This type of journal can help in enhancing your mental health, happiness, and overall well-being. You may begin with easy steps, like writing down five areas of your life that you are grateful for.
6. Fitness Journaling
Do you have any specific fitness goals in life? Do you like exercising daily and want to lift more weights, run faster, or swim more? In this case, you need to start keeping a fitness journal to help you keep track of your goals. In this journal, you can keep tabs on your workouts, achievements, and inspirational quotes to motivate you for the hard work.
Conclusion
Now that you are aware of the different types of journaling, you can choose one of these as per your preference. Consider your options, pen down something special, and select a nice journal to motivate you to start your journaling journey today.
