How to Keep a Journal For Life (!!!)

This merits three exclamation points because I know this is just as much an intense aspiration as it is a frustration for most of us. How can we ever keep the habit of journaling? Are we doomed to have multiple notebooks with only the first few pages filled up?

The thing is, we give ourselves too many rules when it comes to journaling: we have to be consistent, we have to make it pretty, it should be done like this, kept up like that.

My friend, a journal is anything but something that should give you any form of stress.

A journal is a best friend, a great listener, a safe space for you to be ugly and pretty and true—a normal, growing, learning, changing human being.

And a journal, your journal, is purely and simply yours. There’s no right or wrong way to keep it up. Only that when you put paper to pen, you say what you truly think and feel, even if that truth hurts, or if that truth does not make complete sense in the present.

I never thought about sharing much about this great love of mine until I was invited as the first ever guest of Sincere Podcast.

In the words of Sincere Studios,

“We chat with Chiara (our very own creative director at Sincere Studios and a writer-of-feelings since she was a little girl) about what it takes to write your heart and mind out, which really is, nothing more but a willingness to find little things in each day that make you smile, make you curious, give you joy (or anger or pain, whatever the feeling is) and spare a few seconds to jot it down on a piece of paper or notes app in your phone if you will.

Chiara presents a refreshing take on journaling that's uncomplicated and true to you, minus all the unnecessary pressure. Perhaps you'll find that it's not so hard to keep a journal for life after all ᡣ • . • 𐭩 Because yes, you are allowed to fall in and out of journaling over and over again. Your journal, your rules ♡

Feel free to handpick tips you might want to try with your own journaling practice and let us know how that works for you!”

It’s the first time I’m ever getting to talk about journaling and sharing bits of advice you might find useful. This conversation means a lot to me, and I hope it can mean something to you as well <3

Chapters ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა

2:02 – Chiara's journaling beginnings (since kinder?!)

3:58 – 2024 plans & goals

6:26 – Why do you journal?

8:21 – What do we miss out on if we don't journal?

11:55 – Journaling tips for the busy

12:33 – Workshop plans! Join us :)

14:14 – How Chiara journaled to survive

15:14 – Writing to think more clearly

15:58 – Listing gratefuls to heal my Acute Stress Disorder

17:40 – How do you get in the zone to write?

18:45 – "Write all the time!"

19:47 – Documenting conversations

22:31 – Writing on both good & sad days

23:18 – The best thing about journaling

23:27 – How to deal with embarrassing thoughts or feelings

24:47 – Writing to let go & forget

27:10 – Revisiting notes to process thoughts/feelings

28:11 – Dealing with the fear of blank pages

30:30 – Last tips & encouragement

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