ARTS & CULTURE

☆

ARTS & CULTURE ☆

Starting A Journal Will Save Your Mind

31/08/2025

Written by Liberty

I had been an avid diary writer when I was a kid. Influenced by the genius stories of Dork Diaries, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and my personal niche favourite, the Totally Lucy series. I think I wrote in my first diary at the age of seven, and I know this because this was the diary I stuffed the cut out icing of my One Direction birthday cake into the back folder section. Somewhere in the old diary, Niall’s face is rotting. Sorry.

I had stopped writing in diaries at the age of thirteen or fourteen, when writing everyday became tiring, as I did not think I had much to say. I had an average early teen life with not much drama other than the ones I created myself. Even then, it felt like nothing of substance. My future self would be so bored reading it, so my diary days simply fizzled out.

Then, at the age of 21, I discovered the TikTok phenomenon: the junk journal. I fell in love with finding art in scraps adored the ASMR even more. I scrolled endlessly through videos of junk journaling, regular journaling, and commonplace journaling. I had three different journals for three different reasons: junk, diary and creative writing. Then I bought one for lists, then another for recipes that I never made, then another for the hobby I stopped after two days. Do you see where I’m going with this? What seemed like an environmentally friendly and fulfilling hobby became a mess of overconsumption that I stopped after a month because I couldn’t keep up. So I did what I always do, I gave up.

Finding motivation to continue things has always been somewhat of a hardship for me. I start hobbies that I swear I’ll keep up, like doll customization and crocheting, only to end up storing all the things I bought for it in a dark corner of my wardrobe. I say I’m going to start eating healthy, and I do, for the first two days until the six pack twirl bars begin screaming my name. And I say I’m going to be consistent writing my book. It’s been four years. I think it’s one of my biggest flaws, high drive but zero willpower.

But somehow, that deep desire to own a diary again overtook any reluctance I had for doing anything, so I grabbed my faux leather journal my mum gifted me two years earlier and began an everything journal. And, it quite literally saved my mind.

What is an ‘Everything Journal’?

An everything journal is what I call when what I’m doing is not strictly just for junk, or daily catch ups, or gossip, or lists, or rants, or recipes, or terrible sketches, or collages, or keeping track of my passwords, or the tea I accidentally spilled, or the letters I will never, ever send. It’s for all of that, all at once.

Now, I had a lot of trouble with this so called ‘notebook eco-system’. I found having different notebooks for different things meant many pages unused, and eventually the whole book would be chucked into my memory box, having only three pages put to use. That is not something to enjoy looking back on, or something to feel proud of. It was also an incredible waste of good paper.

Now, is this the case for everybody? No, some people are Virgos and need to have six different notebooks for six different causes. However, I am not a Virgo, and I will abandon any project that threatens desertion. I am, however, a Cancer, so my need for expressing my emotions through dramatic words in horrible handwriting was a must, because you know it’s better out than in.

So screw those eight journals, ditch that eco-system, forget starting a new page whenever it does not come out perfect. Change your standards, immediately. Find contentment in the messy, and I promise you, your journaling days will peak. It won’t feel so dire and draining anymore. You’ll have something to look forward to creating in. One journal you can carry everywhere, and cradle like it’s your child.

Spill something on the first page. Break its spine. Scribble nonsense on the cover. Utterly destroy your journal let it start anew. Will it break your heart? Absolutely. Are you going to buy a new notebook after?

NO. Relish in the beauty that is imperfection. Once you break that perfect standard, being carefree with it comes naturally.

Don’t think or plan anything. Let the idea come to you as it happens. Write conversations of strangers in passing, messy sketches of the pigeons in the street, a list of things you want to buy for the next month. Stick in your receipts, crinkled napkins, business cards and empty tablet packets. One thing that I do every time is write down my dreams of the night. Yes, they’re mostly scribbles because I jotted them down, delirious, at two in the morning, but it’s messy and it’s mine. Collect bar codes and stick them in a pattern. Cut out old magazine pictures and make a cute collage, or create a mood board for the next year. Dry out some old flower petals glue them on a page alongside an unfinished poem. Experiment with different tools and finally use those oil pastels you never broke into. Collect your favourite quotes and lyrics and draw an image that aligns with them.

I have now accumulated six journals since the end of 2024, all filled to the brim with whatever I felt was important in that very moment. Different eras of my life gathered in a simple, compact notebook for my whole life to look back on. Since starting, I have gained confidence in writing, drawing and creating as a whole. I’ve expanded my skills, deciphered my dreams and regulated my thoughts. It’s quite literally saved me, and I recommend it to everyone who’s ever had a thought.