I am a huge fan of starting off my day with self care. This probably has a whole lot to do with coffee and the fact that I am generally a morning person. But just because I enjoy the morning hours, does not mean that I don’t like to sleep in. Most of the time I wake up and go, racing out the door at the last minute. Lately, however, I’ve started to notice how much better I feel when I wake up in time to spend a little time with my favorite coffee mug and do some morning journaling.

I find great joy in the act of writing down my thoughts. I’ve always used a journal to practice self reflection and self care. When I get the chance do to these journaling benefits in the morning, it almost certainly brightens my day and gets me moving in the right direction.

Benefits of writing first thing

The best thing about writing in your journal in the morning is that you get a chance to recall all of your thoughts from the previous day. We think so many thoughts, it’s often hard to keep track. It’s easy to forget the things that you found so important. Practicing reflection first thing in the morning gives your brain a minute to catch up. Early morning journaling can help you notice things that may need your attention so that you can work to address them before everything gets muddled by all of the new thoughts of your day. Morning journaling is great for people like me who struggle with forgetfulness when things get busy.

Morning journaling for beginners

It can be tough to start journaling if you’ve never done it before. In my therapy practice, I often find people who are unsure about this whole journaling thing. Sometimes it’s because they just don’t like it. Other times its because they just think it is something they should be doing. But most of the time the discomfort comes from being a beginner and not knowing how to get started. After a little practice, most people start to find a lot of benefits from journaling.

The morning is actually the perfect time to start journaling. We usually have a lot going on in our heads when we wake up in the morning. It’s usually a good balance of dream recollection, resurfacing thoughts yesterday, and thoughts of planning and preparation for the day ahead. One of the most common barriers to journaling for beginners is not knowing what to write about. Waking up in the morning with lots of things on our mind provides a lot of content to choose from.

Prompts for morning journaling

The best way to start journaling in the morning is to sit down and just do it. If we get too caught up in what and how we are writing, it can really halt the process. Journaling isn’t usually meant for an audience. It’s more about the act of writing than the production of content. Sometimes what you write in your journal may not even make sense. There are also times when our journaling will not even be read; it’s not meant to be. It’s difficult to get into this mindset, but once you do you will really start to reap the self-care benefits of morning journaling.

There are some great tools to help you jumpstart the morning journaling process. If you struggle with coming up with things to write about, there are tons of journaling prompts that you can use. Basic journaling prompts can be found with a quick and simple google search. Working with a prompt can ease you into the process and help you manually start to navigate your thoughts. You can also subscribe to my blog to stay up to on additional tools and resources.