One of the things my clients often ask about is how to journal while they are on vacation, or if family is staying over, or even now, over the holiday season, when schedules and routines are different than the norm.
And I think that is such a great question.
Something that has really helped me—and them—is creating two different journaling routines. One is the normal, perhaps longer journaling session, and the other is a shorter, more focused session. Both help us get our thoughts and feelings down on paper, but we’re structuring them in a way that fits our season.
Today, I want to help you create both a long journaling routine and a short one, so that you remain consistent in your journaling practice and stay close to God, even when life looks a little different.
Situations That Require a Change
Let’s start by looking at some of those situations that threaten to take away our journaling practice all together.
As I mentioned already, sometimes it’s taking a vacation or being somewhere other than home. We’re away from our regular chair or our regular morning routine, and it’s just so easy to let our journaling time fall by the wayside. Especially if you’re sharing a room with more family members or have a hard time finding a quiet place to settle down.
Sometimes it’s as simple as waking up late, right? Whether we sleep through our alarm or we just can’t seem to get through our morning chores quickly enough, when we feel rushed, we don’t feel like we can settle down and write.
But maybe it’s more than that. Maybe you’re taking care of an aging parent or a child with disabilities, and it’s really, really hard for you to find time to sit down in a quiet corner and journal. Maybe you even feel guilty for doing so.
What is it for you? What prevents you from journaling as consistently as you want to?
Instead of letting these things stop our journaling all together, we can adapt our journaling routine and still spend a few moments writing.
Creating Your Regular (Long) Journaling Routine
We’re going to start by looking at your regular journaling routine, which will probably be your longer journaling routine.
Chances are, you try to write once or twice a week, or maybe even every day. What does your journaling session look like? Do you journal as you read the Bible? Do you practice morning pages? Do you work your way through a guided journal?
Whatever it is, write it down. Be specific.
Maybe you start by listing five things you’re grateful for, then you move on to morning pages for 20 minutes or so, and then you end by writing a prayer for your day. So your whole journaling routine takes about 30 minutes.
There’s journaling… and then there’s journaling together with God.
This free 20-minute video workshop introduces you to 3 ways you can invite God into your journaling practice. Because the truth is, you can encounter God and hear what He has to share with you.
Creating Your Modified (Short) Journaling Routine
When you are short on time, or when you are in a different location, you can switch to your short journaling routine.
There are a few ways you can create your short journaling routine.
First, you can simply be using bullet points instead of full sentences. Get the key phrases down and capture the big idea.
Second, you can choose just one aspect of your longer routine. In our example above, maybe you decide just to do the gratitude list each day. The one part is the most important to you, and so that’s what you focus on each day.
Third, you can rotate through different parts of your longer routine. So one day, you do the gratitude list; the next day, you write your morning pages; the third day, you write a prayer for your day or week ahead. And then you start all over again: gratitude, morning pages, prayer, gratitude, morning pages, prayer.
The hardest part might very well be remembering that this is just a short-term solution. It enables you to get some thoughts on paper until you have time to explore them more fully, or it allows you to still be mindful, even without all the words you normally use.
Journal Prompt: What kind of journaling is most important to you?
The truth is, there are all kinds of journaling—too many to mention here. But think about what resonates with you, what fills your soul or allows you to process what is going on. And incorporate those into your journaling rhythms, even if you can’t do them every day or every week like you want to.
That’s your journaling prompt for this week: what kind of journaling is most important to you? Write down what you naturally tend to do. Explore types of journaling on the internet and see if there’s something you want to try. Look back through the years to see what kind of writing you’ve done. And identify, name, what type of journaling is most important to you.
What do you want to make sure you keep on doing, even when time is short?
Holiday Break
If you’re listening to this in real time, Christmas isn’t too far away. I’m going to be taking a break from the podcast for a couple of weeks as a way to practice that holy hush we talked about back in episode 138. But I’ll be back in January with new episodes and conversations about journaling and drawing close to God when life is hard.
But don’t fret: there are plenty of ways to hear from me during this little break.
For starters, there are over a hundred podcast episodes you can go back and catch up on—or listen to again. We cover all types of topics: grief, loss, anxiety, spiritual disciplines, caregiving, and more.
Second, you can make sure you’re in my email community. Email is where I can share more personal stories or the latest updates about what’s going on with Love Does That and Journal Gently. And I love the conversations that happen there as you respond.
You can get on the email list by going to lovedoesthat.org/journalingworkshop, and that also gives you access to a free 20-minute journaling workshop called 3 Ways to Encounter God on the Pages of Your Journal. So I guess that’s the third way to hear from me over the holidays.
And last, don’t forget you can grab my book, Courageous Care, on Amazon. In the book, you will learn some very specific ways to reach out and support loved ones who need you to show up. As a listener of the podcast, it will be pretty easy to imagine me reading the book to you, as I’ve been told by some readers. To grab that book, just to go lovedoesthat.org/care, and that will redirect you right to the listing on Amazon.
A Prayer:
My closing prayer today is from Douglas McKelvey, and it is more a prayer for the Christmas season than it is about journaling routines. But that’s okay. I would love to share it with you:
As we decorate and celebrate, we do so to mark
the memory of your redemptive movement into
our broken world, O God.
Our glittering ornaments and Christmas trees,
Our festive carols, our sumptuous feasts—
By these small tokens we affirm
that something amazing has happened
in time and space—
that God, on a particular night, in a particular
place, so many years ago, was born to us, an
infant King, our Prince of Peace.
Our wreaths and ribbons and colored lights,
our giving of gifts, our parties with friends—
these have never been ends in themselves.
They are but small ways in which we repeat
that sounding joy first proclaimed by angels
in the skies near Bethlehem….
Now we celebrate your first coming, Immanuel,
even as we long for your return.
O Prince of Peace, our elder brother, return
soon. We miss you so!
Amen.
RELATED EPISODES + RESOURCES:
- Episode 138: Holy Hush or Holiday Hustle: Which Will You Choose?
Coming close to your grief and entering into it can be scary. Overwhelming, even.
Journal Gently is an 8-week program designed to help you bring your hurt to God on the pages of your journal in a gentle and graceful way, whether your hurt includes grief, trauma, anxiety, depression, chronic illness, loneliness, and more.
