Journaling is one of most simple forms of self-care. It has a number of benefits, including emotional regulation, stopping rumination, and clarifying thoughts.
Yet many people resist journaling. This resistance often arises because they have resistance to the process of writing. You might wonder what to write about, or fear that your writing won’t be “good enough.”
If you keep hearing about the benefits of journaling but you’re not doing it because you don’t like to write — or because you have a resistance to writing — you should know that journaling and writing are not the same.
The Difference Between Journaling and Writing
Although journaling often involves the physical act of writing, it is different from writing.
This isn’t just a matter of semantics; it’s a difference in intention and purpose.
In a nutshell:
The purpose of writing is to communicate or express ideas, insights, or points of view.
The purpose of journaling is to uncover and discover something that exists within you.
Writing: The Process of Expression
Writing is an activity performed to articulate thoughts and convey ideas. Sometimes you need to write through those ideas to clarify your thoughts, opinions, and point of view, but you enter into the process with an intention that you will emerge with a product that will eventually be public-facing.
That product may be an email, a text message, an article, a blog post, a social media post, a speech, a screenplay, a novel, a memoir, manifesto, or something else. It may be intended to be for one specific person or for the masses.
Whatever the format of your writing, the intention is to articulate and express your thoughts, ideas, beliefs, or opinions in a way that others can receive them.
Writing involves a lot of thinking to figure out how to articulate your feelings, ideas, and perspective in a way that others can understand them. That’s part of what makes writing hard.
Writing energy flows outward: you’re taking what is internal and expressing it out into the world.
Journaling: The Process of Introspection
Journaling energy flows in the opposite direction: from external to internal.
Journaling is the process of creating sacred space to go within; it’s about introspection rather than expression.
You’re taking the experiences you have in the world, and the thoughts fluttering about on the surface of your mind, and bringing them inward to process.
Unlike writing, journaling doesn’t require you to think about how to articulate something coherently.
When you sit down to journal, it’s not for the purpose of sharing the output with anyone else. There’s no “agenda,” no “point” to get to, no “lesson” you’re trying to discern or share. You’re allowed to be messy, incoherent, and inarticulate. In fact, that’s part of the process.
Journaling is about uncovering your unconscious thoughts. It’s a process through which you expose what you believe and what you think, what’s beneath the surface of the fluttering thoughts that occupy your conscious mind space.
At times in your journaling you may stumble on ideas and insights that are worth writing about to share with a public audience, but that’s not the primary intention of the exercise.
Journaling is an act of self-care because it’s a process through which you create sacred space to slow down and follow your thoughts wherever they lead — without worrying whether they’re coherent, useful, or “good.” Through journaling, you discover what you actually think, beneath the noise.
Writing is expressive; journaling is introspective.
Why The Distinction Matters
The distinction between journaling and writing matters because confusing the two sabotages both processes.
If you sit down to journal but treat it like writing, you’ll be focused on whether your thoughts are coherent and well-articulated. You’ll self-edit and self-censor, and you’ll never get beneath the surface.
If you sit down to write but treat it like journaling, you’ll spin in circles and get lost in the meanderings of your mind. You’ll fail to land a point, and you’ll lose your audience.
And if you sit down to write but find yourself spinning in incoherence, that’s a sign that you may need to shift to journaling first. When you give yourself the space to clarify your beliefs, opinions, and what you actually want to say, you’ll find that you can write more effectively.
Knowing which tool you need in the moment and having a clear intention sets the tone for how you approach the page.
Permission to Be Messy
If you’ve been resisting journaling because you don’t like writing, try approaching the blank page with a different intention. What happens when you release the expectation to be coherent, articulate, or polished, and simply allow the pen to move on the page?
You might be surprised by what emerges.
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