Guided journaling: Understanding the benefits, types, and tools
(maind Monday 3/5)
Journaling has long been recognized as a powerful tool for personal growth and self-reflection. Whether you’re seeking to manage stress, gain clarity on your goals, or simply explore your thoughts and emotions more deeply, journaling can be a valuable practice. And while traditional journaling involves writing freely about whatever comes to mind, guided journaling provides a more structured approach that can help you focus your writing and achieve specific outcomes. In this blog post, we’ll explore the benefits of guided journaling and introduce you to some of the tools and resources available to support your journaling journey.
Freestyle journaling versus guided journaling
Traditional, freestyle journaling is writing about yourself, whenever you want and for any topic you consider important at that very moment. The information you share in your notes can include your daily experiences, present feelings and thoughts, memories of the past, or concerns about the future; anything that helps you express yourself at that very moment, gain more clarity over events, your feelings and thoughts, and makes it possible for you to return to them later. It might be that when you were younger you had a diary that you used to write in. This is exactly what freestyle journaling is about!
Although the purpose of journaling remains the same — to express yourself, increase your emotional and self-awareness, gain more clarity over events, and reduce your anxiety — contrary to freestyle journaling, guided journaling helps you remain more focused and structured in your writing. In guided journaling, you select or are assigned a specific topic, theme, or goal about which you write. The focus can be different for every day, week, or month, depending on the purposes of your journaling. Although for some people this structuring might seem restrictive, guided journaling can generally help motivate people to start and stick to their writing as they know where to set their focus.
Five benefits of guided journaling
1. Clarity & focus
The specific prompts and themes of guided journaling help you remain focused and talk about the things that really matter to you, rather than spending time writing aimlessly. In this way, you can gain greater clarity over your emotions, thoughts, and specific areas of your life that you want to explore, leading to deeper insights and self-discovery.
2. Tailored to your goals
Guided journaling can be tailored to your specific goals and needs. Whether you are looking to practice your self-reflection skills, learn to express yourself better, improve your self-awareness, or just collect your thoughts and goals, guided journaling can be designed specifically to assist you in meeting your unique needs.
3. Goal setting & achievement
Guided journaling can help you set and achieve your goals by providing you with the framework to keep track of your progress and reflect on your success and challenges. In this way, you can easily understand what has been helpful or damaging to your goal-achievement process and try to improve your weak spots or change some things in your environment. By breaking down your goals into smaller, more manageable steps, reflecting on your progress and planning your next steps, guided journaling can help you remain motivated and be more successful in achieving your goals.
4. Increased creativity & problem-solving skills
Guided journaling can help you increase your creativity and expand your horizons. Through the different prompts, you can challenge yourself to think outside the box and find new ideas about how to solve your problems and understand your concerns from different perspectives. In this way, you become more effective in dealing with your issues, and thus, you can increase your self-resilience.
5. Increased self-confidence and communication skills
The more you practice guided journaling the more confident you will feel about your ability to reflect, process emotions, and communicate effectively. Being able to understand yourself better and communicate the way you feel and think can also help you build stronger relationships, feel more certain about how you present yourself, and therefore, increase your overall well-being and self-esteem.
Different types of guided journaling
There are different methods and approaches to guided journaling. What is important is to experiment with the available options and find what resonates best with you and helps you achieve your goals.
- Gratitude journals: These are journals that are specifically designed to help you cultivate a sense of gratitude and appreciation. They include prompts and questions that help you reflect on the things in your life that you are grateful for. Examples include “The Five Minute Journal” and “The Gratitude Diary.”
- Mindfulness journaling: This type of journaling involves taking time to reflect on your thoughts and emotions, observing them without judgment, and exploring ways to stay present and centered. Mindfulness apps for smartphones can be a helpful tool for developing mindfulness and self-awareness, which can in turn support your journaling practice. Examples include maind, Headspace, Calm, and Smiling Mind.
- Health and wellness journaling: This type of journaling involves tracking your physical and emotional health, such as by recording your diet and exercise, sleep patterns, or stress levels, and reflecting on ways to improve your well-being. Some popular options for health and wellness apps are Bearable, Health Log, and Healthily.
- Guided visualization: This is a technique where you use guided prompts or recordings to visualize a particular outcome or experience. The prompts in a guided visualization journal may ask you to picture a peaceful scene, imagine yourself accomplishing a goal, or visualize yourself overcoming a difficult situation. This can be a helpful tool for setting intentions or working through challenging emotions. There are many books available that offer guided visualization exercises and prompts for journaling, such as “Guided Imagery for Self-Healing” by Martin Rossman, “The Healing Waterfall” by Max Highstein, and “Creative Visualization” by Shakti Gawain.
- Self-discovery journaling: In self-discovery guided journaling, you may use prompts or questions that encourage you to reflect on various aspects of your life, such as your personal values, life purposes, and goals. By exploring your inner world, you can gain a greater sense of clarity, purpose, and direction in life. Guided self-discovery journaling can be done on your own or with the guidance of a coach or therapist who specializes in this approach.
- Creative journaling: This type of journaling allows individuals to enhance their creativity and imagination. It involves using prompts that encourage the exploration and expression of thoughts and emotions through various creative means, such as writing, drawing, painting, collaging, and even sculpting. The goal is to allow the individual to express themselves freely and without judgment, and to use their creativity as a tool for self-discovery and personal growth. There are many books available that provide guidance and inspiration for creative guided journaling. Some popular titles include “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron, “The Creative Journal” by Lucia Capacchione, and “Wreck This Journal” by Keri Smith.
Tools for guided journaling
There are also many tools and resources available to support your guided journaling practice. The key is to find what tools and methods work best for you and meet your unique goals and needs.
1. Journal applications
There are many journaling apps available for smartphones and tablets that can provide guided prompts and questions. Some popular options include Day One, Journey, Penzu, and of course, maind.
2. Online journaling platforms
Online journaling platforms offer the ability to record journal entries and save them to their website so that you can track your progress. Usually, you can download, print, or even share your journal entries. 750 Words, AhhLife, and DabbleMe are some of the most commonly used platforms for online guided journaling.
3. Guided journaling books
Guided journaling books are designed to provide prompts, questions, and other types of guidance to help individuals structure their journaling process and make it easier for them to reflect on their lives, thoughts and feelings. Guided journaling books often have specific themes, such as gratitude, mindfulness, personal growth, or creative expression. They may also include exercises or activities to help individuals develop specific skills or habits, such as goal-setting, self-compassion, or meditation. “One Question a Day: A Five-Year Journal: A Personal Time Capsule of Questions and Answers” by Aimee Chase and “This Year I Will…: A 52-Week Guided Journal to Achieve Your Goals” by Tiffany Louise LCSW are considered to be some of the best self-help books for guided journaling.
4. Printable journaling prompts
There are many websites that offer printable journaling prompts and worksheets that you can use to guide your writing. Examples include “Prompt-a-Day Printable Guided Journal Pages” and “Journals of Discovery”.
5. Coaching and Therapy
A coach or therapist who specializes in guided journaling can provide the individual with personalised guidance and support in developing their journal practice. More specifically, the coach/therapist can assign a set of homework and specific prompts that help the client focus on certain areas of their life they need to work on and provide them with a direction and safety net to explore themselves and expand their understanding.
Conclusion
All in all, guided journaling can be a great tool as it offers numerous benefits to those seeking to engage in a more structured and focused writing. With guided journaling, you can tailor your writing to your specific goals, increase your creativity and problem-solving skills, improve your self-confidence and communication skills, and much more. By breaking down your goals into smaller, more manageable steps, guided journaling can help you remain motivated and achieve success. Additionally, there are various tools and resources available, including gratitude journals, mindfulness journaling, health and wellness journaling, and guided visualization, among others, that can help support your guided journaling practice.
Nevertheless, every human being is different and that is why it is important to explore the various available options for guided journaling and choose the ones(s) that suit you best. In the end, journaling is about self-expression and self-discovery. Whether you choose to follow a specific structure or write freely, the most important thing is to be authentic and honest with yourself. So, take some time to explore your thoughts and emotions, and see where your journaling practice takes you. Happy journaling!
We all want to live a healthier, happier life that consists of learning to navigate our emotions and manage our thoughts — but it is often difficult to get started, to make a habit out of journaling or know what to write about, and to really gain that outside perspective when we’re navigating through that jungle of emotions. Therefore, we have created maind, a place to write your journal, prompting and guiding you to write on the regular, and even getting you that much-needed advice from our licensed psychologists: It is a journal that writes you back.
You can already give it a go and see how it works for yourself. maind is available for download on Android and iPhone!
Meanwhile, we also take this opportunity to introduce our team: the great “mainds” behind the app! You’ve all already met Ines & Giouli from their blog posts““Dear diary…” and the journal that writes you back (maind Monday 1/5)” and “Unlocking the power of your pen: The psychological benefits of journaling (maind Monday 2/5)”. This week‘s author is our Junior In-House Psychologist Kleopatra Chousou:
Meet the great m[ai]nds!
Kleopatra Chousou works as a junior in-house psychologist for maind. She obtained her BSc in Psychology in Greece and completed her Master’s in Clinical Psychology at the University of Leiden. She is currently training to become an Integrative Counsellor & Psychotherapist (EICP). Kleopatra’s interests focus on the field of research, psychopathology and therapy.
