You may think that there’s only one way to journal: Put a pen to paper. While yes, putting a pen to paper and letting your thoughts flow is one journaling technique, there are actually lots of different teen journaling techniques you can experiment with. The following are some of the most popular methods.
Expressive or “Free Writing”:
Expressive or “free writing” is probably the journaling technique you’re most familiar with. Think of expressive writing as a “brain dump” – whatever is on your mind, you just let it flow. Without judgment or rules.
Expressive writing gives you the chance to play, experiment, and make connections between your thoughts and emotions. There’s only one rule in freewriting: Don’t stop writing until the time is up. Write continuously, without overthinking what you’re putting down on the page. You can start by setting a short timer, such as for a couple of minutes, and then build up to longer periods as you become more skilled.
You don’t have to reread what you wrote, but it can help to look for themes such as patterns in thoughts, emotions, and actions. Regularly practicing freewriting can help you focus, release emotions, and improve creativity – so making space for it in your life can boost your happiness and release stress.
Gratitude Writing:
When we write about things, places, events, experiences, or people that we’re grateful for, we can be “lifted” out of negative moods and emotions. This way, we can prevent our feelings from affecting our actions in negative ways. A psychologist called Seligman once came up with a technique called “The Gratitude Visit” that you can use for journaling and boosting positive emotions.4
The Gratitude visit was traditionally created with a certain person in mind, but you can use it for a thing, place, event, object, and so on. The technique is simple – write about something that had a positive impact on you. Did someone say something nice to you, did an event make you feel good, does an object remind you of someone you love? Writing about the details of a specific situation that made us feel good can encourage positive emotions, even when we’re feeling down. Flowers can still grow in a garden of weeds as long as there’s sun.
