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I love journaling. I should get that straight.

I just never seem to find any time for it. I should get that straight too.

And when I do seem to have some time available, I never have the journaling prompts that I need, I never know what to write. I have no idea. I procrastinate. I’ll do it tomorrow. I’ll do it some other time, not now, please.

That’s precisely why this was needed:

Journaling has always fascinated me, more so the magical art of scrap-journaling. You express your thoughts and feelings but instead of words you use bits and pieces of paper, pens, glue, stickers, fancy tapes, scissors, old book pages that have oxidised enough, all nice looking stationery and that’s fun.

I love journaling, but I stopped. Any guesses why?

Sure! Journaling is nice and all, but it requires us to, you know, get one-on-one with yourself, to discover yourself between the pages, to find out more facts about yourself that you didn’t know. And that honestly scares you away a little.

I decided to question every single thing and every single occurrence of my life and that’s what makes journaling scary and yet so relaxing because it helps you get aware! Some people don’t reflect within much and so get really surprised when they start journaling and get to know some unusual things about themsleves.

Here are some journaling prompts for self-discovery, to help you get stated for journaling for self care and growth. These prompts would fill up any art journal or notebook with lots of fantastic, amazing pieces of content and art that you would call yours.

Journaling prompts:

• Draw, paste or find photos of things that you love. Your favorite accessories, just put it on one page. Or maybe you can’t put all of them on one page so just take as many as you wish. This would act as an introduction of sorts, a teaser trailer to anyone regarding who you are. This might also end up telling you some things about yourself that you didn’t know before. Journaling is therapeutic.
• Create a manifesto for yourself. Manifesto is a declaration or written statement specifying the intentions or motives of an individual or a group. The manifesto will act as your muse, it will inspire you when you’re feeling unmotivated, give you hope when you’re down, recharge energy when you’ve supposedly spent all of yours. A manifesto is amazing, I’ve got a complete board on Pinterest full of them.
• Your favorite TV shows? Movies? Wanna know mine? (…okay, since you didn’t ask, I shouldn’t tell you, that’s rude of me.)
• What or who motivates you to create art? [Okay, I think I must not just leave you hanging. My favorite TV shows are the Alex Rider series and Navillera, which is a kdrama, and I love it].
• Collect scraps. Some newspaper article you liked, a photo, a creative ad, quotes, anything. Just collect them and make art out of them. Simple. Really. Scrap journaling is soothing.
• How to heal? If you are talking to someone regarding something that’s happened to them in the past, something that’s hurt them or made them feel vulnerable, how would you suggest them to heal? (You can maybe take your own advice then, if you’ve got something you want to heal from too.)
• Visualize self-love. Portray what it must look like. A smile shown in the mirror? Treating yourself to gifts and things you love? Holding back from self-criticism?
• What are you dreams for the future? Detailed? What would be the steps to go by them?
• What are you favorite songs and have you ever reflected why are they your favorites? Journaling is all about this: why? Good thing, so is our blog, Matsyaa Lyfe: Spelling Life With a Why. (Yeah, moving on, sorry, gotta do the promotion too).
• What do you favorite songs make you feel? Have you ever tried writing a song? Do it. It’s amazing. It doesn’t even have to rhyme strictly as in a traditional form of poem.
• Draw a character from your favourite book. Wanna see what I made? No, probably not, since you didn’t ask. But then again, how could you ask, this is a one-way conversation. Here’s the character I made: say hi to my baby!

• Buy aesthetic stationery. Do I need to explain this?
• Portray seasons. Whoa. This is going to be fun. Whether you’re doing it visually or through words, do it.
• Portray emotions.
• Create a letter to your younger self.
• What’s your dream car? Sorry, I’ve just got mine so I had to ask.
• Just do art.
• Create a vision board for your future.
• Find a photo that you love. What about it?
• Who’s your favorite author? Your favorite book?
• Collect nice aesthetic quotes and make a collection.
• What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
• How are you going to change the world? If we were to hire you (haha just kidding) and we were to ask you your own opinions on changing the world, what would they be? Would you say it’s impossible? Would you say it’s a waste of time? Or would you say you’re going to do it? What would you say?

How to Journal for Self-Improvement?

Journaling, especially if you’re a beginner, may seem like a daunting task.

It is.

Glad we’ve established that little fact. Now when you truly know how overwhelming journaling can be sometimes, you’re even more eager to do it, since you’ve always liked doing the hard tasks first. You like taking up challenges, don’t you?

Some people journal simply for the art of journaling. Some poeple do journaling for self care, because they’ve got to do something, achieve something, admit something to themsleves between those pages. Both the types of poeple, ultimately undertake journaling for self-improvement. Nothing more, nothing less. Or we can say that they always end up improving themselves, even if that wasn’t the outcome they had in mind when they had been starting out.

That’s all there is to it.

Journaling for Self-Care

Have some time alone every day. Preferably time when no one’s disturbing you and you’re tuned out to all the outer noise and only listen to what your inner being is speaking to you.

There is a kind of contentment in that. You begin healing, caring for yourself more. And it’s not some toxic form of self-care. You just become better at taking care of people, including yourself.

If you don’t want anything else, just write positive affirmations for yourself. Positive words. Journaling for self care is all about journaling for your own self. Obviously.

REASON #2 WHY I STOPPED JOURNALING

You don’t need to be at par with some expectations or something that people have, or you have, or even your journal has for you. You can forget all the big little expectations and just keep on doing what your heart says.

You can spend hours even on a journal if that’s what makes you happy.

I love journaling. I think I already established that. I’m sure that you love journaling too, if you’ve read this far, you’re committed

It’s time to let go of the fear of perfection and just put your heart out onto your journal, no matter how imperfect it may seem.

And that’s the second reason I stopped journaling.

Because I wasn’t perfect, what else did you expect? I wasn’t perfect at all and my handwriting was awful and I drew bad when I didn’t have any reference and I just didn’t have the eye to put the right cloured tape at the right corner of the page and find the right photograph and the right font and the right words.

I think I was doing a pretty lousy job at keeping a journal.

I quit after some time.

I’ve started again.

That, of course, is a lesson for you to learn. If you’re thinking that you need to be perfect to start journaling, you’re wrong. Start now. You’ll get better over time.

That’s literally the only remedy to beat fear or hesitation. Start.

Hey, if you liked this post, and want to read more (I know you do, you sneaky little nerd, but don’t worry, you and I would make great friends), here’s the Suggested Reads:

7 Beautiful Mantras: Life is Short & Your Dreams Can Come True

How to Find Inspiration for Writing: 13 Tips Tried and Tested

13 Great Quotes for Artists to Find Inspiration & Keep Creating