I’ve been wanting to do more traditional journaling (you know, the “dear diary” kind) and thought having some daily prompts might help out. I’m not one to just start writing with no focus. So when I found Lisa Sonora’s 30 day journal project, I figured I would give it a go! I lasted two days…
Lisa’s project is free but has an option to purchase a set of printables. That way you can be organized ahead of time instead of waiting on a daily email. Since having a plan is always a plus with me, I bought the printables. I had also decided to work in an art journal, creating painted pages along with the writing part, so I could add in an art element to each day to keep it interesting. Still didn’t help…after two days, I fell behind!
During this time, my husband shared that his anxiety level seemed to ramping up and we discussed some ways to help him cope. And here is where this journaling stuff finally clicked! It seems the answer was to do it together! Just the writing, no art. Keep it simple.
We decided to use some of the prompts from the printables that made sense for both of us and write about them each night before we went to bed.
We each take turns picking a prompt and then spend three minutes journaling. We tried a longer time period but felt that three seemed to be just enough time to get our thoughts out on the page. We use a couple of composition notebooks, some colorful pens and just go for it. You can’t read what we have written but we don’t want to go back to it. We just want to get it out of our heads and call it done!
Lee has found it to help him tremendously. Me, too! Some nights we are too tired to write but overall we have kept up a pretty regular practice. To be honest, I didn’t think my husband would try but I’m glad he did.
I hope you will give this 3 minute journaling idea a try. No fancy supplies and there are tons of ideas on the web for prompts. Let me know if you go for it and how it works out.
I link up at these parties!