About
Journaling Wheel
Journaling isn't one single process. We journal for different reasons, use different techniques, explore different things and arrange our practice in different ways. Most interestingly, we can experience the page differently too.
These five aspects — Taxonomy, Technique, Theme, Structure and Experience — help us understand what is really happening when we journal, and why there are so many different ways to do it.
“Understanding the many ways we can journal helps us move from following a path to finding our own way.”
Understanding Journaling
The Journaling Experience
We can understand journaling by looking at the techniques we use, the themes we explore and the structure we give our practice. But perhaps most interesting is experience.
Just as we can change our point of view while we write, we can change our point of view when we journal. This process is known as thinking about thinking, or metacognition. We can write from within our experience, expressing what we think and feel, or step back from it and observe our thoughts, feelings and responses with greater awareness.
Journaling Styles
When you explore journaling, what you’ll most often find is a list of different journaling styles — gratitude journals, health journals, expressive writing, Q&A journaling and so on.
Some are defined by what we write about, others by how we write, how the practice is structured, or even how we experience the writing itself.
Looking at journaling through these different aspects helps us understand how individual styles are formed — and why there are so many different ways to journal.
