Using a Journal is Essential to Your Mindfulness Routine

Mindfulness is a wonderful practice that allows you to stay present, no matter what you 
are doing or thinking about in that moment. It brings your thoughts to the present, where 
you intentionally shift your focus from your other worries to what you are experiencing at 
that time. 

While you can practice mindfulness during any activity throughout the day, it is 
especially useful to us a journal when you are being mindful. Here are some benefits of 
using a journal for your mindfulness routine.


Your Journal Keeps You in a Mindful State

By using a journal to write down your thoughts during a mindful practice, it can actually 
keep you in that mindful state. It is really easy for your thoughts to shift and focus on a 
million different things when you’re trying to be mindful. You are trying to stay present 
and just appreciate the current moment, but you keep thinking about what to make for 
dinner, errands you need to run, trying to remember if you paid that bill.

While this is completely natural and normal to happen during a mindfulness practice, it 
can sometimes be frustrating and make you quit mindfulness altogether. With a journal, 
you are writing down how you are currently feeling, so you keep pulling your attention 
back to the present.


It Can Help You Work Through Your Emotions

This is probably one of the best benefits of journaling in general, especially if you use it 
while you are in a mindful state. By journaling while practicing mindfulness, you allow all 
your thoughts and emotions right in that moment to come to the surface. Write down 
anything you are currently thinking or feeling, including good emotions and bad ones. 
They are all valid. 

What you might notice is that is gives you the opportunity to work through your 
emotions. Most of the time, you have to hide how you are feeling because you don’t 
have time to deal with it or you don’t want to upset other people around you. But 
mindfulness is all about you and how you feel. You are giving yourself the time and 
space to work through it.


You Have a Place to Unleash Anxious Thoughts

If you suffer from anxiety, you will benefit a lot by using a journal when practicing 
mindfulness. In addition to processing your emotions, you also become more aware of 
your anxious thoughts. Anxiety can cause a lot of irrational worries and fears, from 
making assumptions about how other people think about you, to fearing the worst case 
scenario in just about everything you do. 

While anxiety disorders can’t be cured with just journaling and mindfulness, it does 
make a large impact on how you deal with it. Suddenly, you will notice that you have 
learned how to let the anxious thoughts appear, but not overwhelm you or completely 
derail whatever you’re trying to accomplish. It is much like learning how to cope with 
anything difficult in your life, like stress or various obstacles.


The Journal Places Judgment on Paper, Instead of in Your Head

A big part of mindfulness is allowing your current thoughts or feelings to come to the 
surface, without judging them. This is effective because you learn to embrace your 
experiences without trying to hide from them or push them aside. There is a level of 
acceptance with mindfulness that is so healing, and offers you this pace to work through 
anything difficult.

By writing down your judgments on paper about your thoughts and feeling during the 
mindfulness session, you are letting it escape your mind and your worries. You are 
processing everything and acknowledging it, without judging yourself for feeling a 
certain way.


Tips for Choosing the Right Mindfulness Journal

When it comes to your mindfulness journal, you can use anything that is convenient for 
you, though there are a few things to keep in mind. 

Does the journal lay flat when you open it? This is a small annoyance in the grand 
scheme of things, but having a journal that lays flat when you open it to write in it can 
actually encourage you to write more. If you are constantly trying to keep it open with 
one hand and writing with the other, it becomes distracting and even harder to stay 
present.

Is it a good size for what you need it for? If you are always going to practice mindfulness 
at home, this might not be a concern for you. But if you want to bring it with you, 
consider what size you get. It should be big enough to write in it comfortably, but small 
enough to fit in your purse, laptop bag, or anything else you bring with you.

Do you need journal prompts? There are also mindfulness journals that include journal 
prompts meant to ask you about your thoughts, feelings, emotions, and experiences. 
They help keep you present without trying to think about what to write.


