Morning Journaling for Self Care

Morning journaling for self care

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.

9 responses to “Morning Journaling for Self Care”

  1. Hey Amanda! When you are journaling, do you ever find that you forgot something and so you go back a paragraph or two to fill it in at the right place, but then you start to write more about it, but then there’s the dilemma of, “Wait, now my thoughts are getting written down out of sequence”? 😀

    I guess this happens to me because I think of my journaling as a journey, and I like to capture the thought process as I’m going along! I don’t journal daily, but as and when I feel I need to, and for me it’s more likely to be towards the end of the day than when I first get up. But I love that we can all find the self-care that works for us!

    1. Yess! But I’ve learned to just go with it and keep writing. I think we’ve been taught so much in school to organize our writing and that can get in the way when we’re just trying to free write as a mode of expression. Its really freeing to just write things out without any rules.
      I agree that it’s nice to find what works for us! I tend to journal in the moment when I’m all up in my feelings. But when I’m trying to build it as a habit morning works best for me because that’s when I’m usually most motivated and it gets my day going.

      1. Yes – I do sometimes tell myself to just continue and write in my journal, “Oh, this was related to that previous point but I’ll just write it here…” and “Ok, back to what I was saying…” etc – I guess I’m fairly conversational with myself 🙂

        Btw, I would have commented on your next post (which I got in my email.. heehee), but can’t find it here anymore 😉 Anyhow, I like the topic! See you later in the groupinar!

      2. Thanks!!! I was trying to save it as a draft and accidentally hit publish so I changed it real quick lol. I’m hoping to get it out soon. Thanks for all of your support!!! I really appreciate you!

  2. I thought that was the case 😉 And I appreciate you too!

  3. […] cannot take a break the way you initially had hoped, but are there any viable alternatives, such as mindful journaling? Is there any way that you can alleviate this feeling of exhaustion in any tangible way? Being […]

  4. […] It should be something that energizes you and sits well with your true spirit. Take out that pretty journal where you listed your needs, and now jot down the things you love- anything that brings you joy. […]

  5. […] positive, or more negative? The trick is to keep the positive and challenge the negative. Try writing out all of the things you think about self care. Look back over them with fresh eyes and see if they are really true. Are these thoughts helpful? […]

  6. […] suggest daily writing. But sometimes you may just want to pause and take random mindful moments to write down things you are grateful for. And that is okay! Once again, there is no right or wrong way to journal for self […]

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