Website design By BotEap.comIt may seem like a silly question, but it takes some time to learn how to get the most out of your journaling experience. Here are some tips I’ve gleaned from years of journaling.

Website design By BotEap.comWrite to your best friend

Website design By BotEap.comAct as if you are writing to your best friend, as if you are having a conversation. Use the paper as a means to unload your mind and release any thoughts that keep running through your mind. But at the beginning (the hardest part of the writing process) think about how you would tell your best friend, someone you trust and who won’t criticize you. Get your heart out like a first draft and let it flow like a true monologue. You can renew it later.

Website design By BotEap.comwrite with the door closed

Website design By BotEap.comWrite with the door closed. This is the best advice I’ve ever heard from best-selling author Stephen King. He explains in his book, In writing, that you have to close the door to the outside world and write as if no one was ever going to read it. That’s the beauty of an electronic diary where it can be password encrypted and you can put all your deepest secrets and desires in one place no one could read.

Website design By BotEap.comSometimes it helps to close a door in the room where you are writing. Pick up the phone and disconnect from your email, anything that reminds you of the outside world. Just like writing to your best friend, as you close the door on the outside world, leave as much “possible” judgment on what you write.

Website design By BotEap.comHow to get into the flow

Website design By BotEap.comYou’ll need to get into the flow before you start producing something solid to work with. This means that you will probably need to babble for about 15-20 minutes before you hit the ground. The first quarter of an hour will be things that do not occur to you. Get these things out of the way first and you’ll begin to access your deepest thoughts. If necessary, just write about your day, your plans, or your current feelings. This will take you through your mental path to the subconscious that is buried under your surface thoughts.

Website design By BotEap.comTo get a good journaling session, you need to open up completely, stop judging yourself and your writing, and let everything come out on the written page. By doing that consistently, you will find that the process becomes easier and easier. Just open the page, close the door and chat with that uncritical inner friend of yours.