As the year comes to a close, it's a good time to pull out your journal and write down your thoughts. This is especially helpful to make sense of your experiences in the past year and the concerns you may have for the coming year. If you don't know where to begin, here are some journaling exercises from Psychology Today to help you get started. 

Explore Your Strengths and Weaknesses

1. Make a list of three qualities you have that you consider weaknesses, then explore how these so-called weaknesses might be recast as strengths. For instance, if you believe micromanagement is a weakness of yours, it could also mean that you’re organized and responsible. Once you determine the strength on the flip side of that quality, write about a time when you used that quality in a positive way. If you can’t think of a recent example, write something aspirational (how you might use this quality positively in the future).

Dive Into Your Emotional State

2. Write about a moment when you felt a ...

When we journal we might not immediately know what we want to write about. This is why in our RISE coaching programs we provide a guided journal to our members. It contains prompts and ideas for writing and makes journaling easy and effective.

If you’re looking to get started with journaling or need some ideas to refresh your journaling habit, here are some tips and topics from the Berkeley Wellbeing Institute to get you going.

Daily Journaling Ideas

Freewrite
Perhaps the most common journaling technique is called freewriting. When you freewrite, you just write about whatever comes to your mind. Try to keep writing even when your mind wanders off, and don't worry about grammar, spelling, or a storyline. Freewriting may be a good technique to use when doing a daily journal, at least to get the thoughts flowing and overcome the inertia of the blank page.

Write down affirmations
More relatively easy things to write in your journal are daily affirmations. Affirmations are positive stat...

The American Psychological Association defines mindfulness as awareness of one’s internal states and surroundings. Mindfulness can help people avoid destructive or automatic habits and responses by learning to observe their thoughts, emotions, and other present-moment experiences without judging or reacting to them.

One of the ways to practice mindfulness is by journaling. Aside from being easy to implement, it has many benefits to our health. Positivepsychology.com cites the following reasons:

1. Journaling for Anxiety
Journaling has proven popular and effective for treating clients experiencing anxiety, possibly because of an improved acceptance of negative emotions and a more helpful emotional response to stress.

2. Journaling for Depression
Research suggests that expressive writing and gratitude journaling can reduce symptoms of depression, providing an effective intervention for clients receiving treatment in therapy.

3. Journaling for Stress Management
Journaling can support c...