Re-Release: Episode 5 - Beginner’s Guide to Journaling Methods That Work

Should you journal? What if you don't know what to write about? And does journaling really improve mental health?

In this re-released episode of Roots of the Rise, Sarah Hope explores several powerful journaling methods and how each can support self-awareness, emotional healing, stress reduction, and personal growth. Whether you're brand new to journaling or looking to deepen an existing practice, you'll discover simple approaches that make journaling feel accessible and meaningful.

Sarah discusses:

• Line-a-day journaling for capturing memories and tracking growth over time
• Morning pages for mental clarity, intention-setting, and reducing overwhelm
• Integration journaling to process retreats, healing work, difficult conversations, and major life experiences
• Stream-of-consciousness writing for breaking through mental blocks and accessing deeper insight
• The research-backed expressive writing protocol shown to improve both mental and physical health

You'll also learn why journaling doesn't have to be perfect, why typing can be just as effective as handwriting, and how to avoid the common trap of "pretty journals" that never get used.

If you've ever wondered how to start a journaling practice, what type of journal is right for you, or whether journaling is actually worth the effort, this episode offers practical guidance and encouragement to help you begin.

Because journaling isn't necessarily about keeping a record of your life. It's about creating a conversation with yourself.

Companion journaling prompts and resources available for Patreon members

Resources:

Line a Day Journal

Huberman: A Science-Supported Journaling Protocol to Improve Mental & Physical Health

Related Episodes:

Episode 53 - Know Who You Are: The Foundation of Authentic Living

Episode 54 - Why Loving Who You've Been Can Change Everything

Transcript

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Summer Re-Release And Why It Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Roots of the Rise with me, Sarah Hope. Before we dive in, a quick note. As you may already know, Roots of the Rise is taking a summer sabbatical and will return in September with brand new episodes. Throughout the summer, I will be re-releasing some of the most impactful and requested episodes from the archive, the ones that sparked conversation, resonated deeply, and made a lasting difference for listeners. I have chosen this season intentionally. Sometimes growth isn't about consuming more information. Sometimes it's about revisiting what we've already learned and allowing it to sink in more deeply. As part of this summer series, I will also be revisiting each episode myself, sharing a few updated thoughts or insights at the beginning and creating new companion resources for my Patreon members, including reflective prompts, worksheets, contemplations, whatever tool feels most appropriate to help you take these ideas further. As you listen, notice what stands out to you this time around, what lands differently, what feels especially relevant to where you are today. The most powerful lesson is often not the one we hear for the first time, but the one we are finally ready to receive. Today I'm bringing back the journaling episode because journaling remains one of the most common recommendations in the worlds of personal growth, self-awareness, and healing. One thing I want you to listen for in this episode is the expressive writing protocol I mentioned toward the end. Since recording this episode, I've become even more impressed by the research behind it. If you have been carrying something difficult, a loss, a betrayal, a major life transition, a painful experience, this simple practice of writing about it for 15 to 30 minutes on four separate occasions has been shown to improve both mental and physical health. It may be one of the highest return journaling practices you will ever try. One form of journaling I did not mention when I originally recorded this episode is gratitude journaling. Even writing down three things you're grateful for at the end of each day can help retrain the brain to notice what's working instead of only what's wrong. I've also learned that journaling is most helpful when it creates clarity, awareness, or movement. If you find yourself writing the same story over and over without gaining any new insight, you may be rehearsing the problem rather than processing it. The goal is not simply to vent, it's to better understand yourself. And if journaling feels overwhelming, start with just one simple question. What do I most need to acknowledge about today? Then write for five minutes. One reason I chose this episode for the summer series is that journaling creates something many of us are missing: a conversation with ourselves. Before we can create a more intentional life, we need to hear our own thoughts clearly. Journaling is one of the simplest ways to do that. So settle in and enjoy this revisit of one of the most useful episodes from the Roots of the Rise archive.

Journaling Basics And A Simple Start

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Welcome to Roots of the Rise with me, Sarah Holmes. Today we are diving into a topic that comes up all the time: journaling. People often ask, should I journal? And my answer is always absolutely if it feels helpful to you. There's no single right way to do it. And today I want to share a few key types of journaling plus some insights and tips that you might not have heard before.

Line A Day And Morning Pages

SPEAKER_00 4:15

This is your classic write about your day style of journaling, which is great for processing daily life. Some people like to write long entries, but I personally love the line-a-day format. It's a small journal where each page covers the same date over five years. You can find them on Amazon. I'll link a simple one in the show notes. I'm not affiliated. I just get one every five years. You jot down a short note each day, and over time you get a snapshot of your life across the years. I keep one for myself and one for my son, and it's a pretty simple and kind of sweet way to track growth and memories. I love being able to look back at these little snippets of everyday life. My husband has gotten so used to me calling out randomly and being like, oh, guess what we did two years ago or five years ago, whatever it is. So it can just be kind of fun. The second type I want to cover is morning pages, also called morning notes. So this is a tool to declutter the mind first thing in the morning. And really, I think you can do it one of two ways. The first is to just write, you know, uncensored, unstructured, just let your thoughts spill out, which can be really great for clarity, for grounding. You can use it to explore something that's bothering you. But another way that you can use morning notes or kind of in addition to all of that, is you can also use it to figure out, okay, what do I want to focus on today? What do I really want to intend for my day today? How do I want to start it? How do I want to end it? What is the priority for the day? And that part of it might be particularly helpful if you consistently find that at the end of the day, you don't feel like you really got anything accomplished, or that you did everything except that one thing you really quote unquote should have done. You know, morning notes can be a chance to really get clear on your priorities, what's important, and you know, what's that one big thing I need to do and three little things I want to do.

Integration Writing And Stream Of Consciousness

SPEAKER_00 6:16

The third type I want to talk about is integration journaling. This one is about meaning making. So maybe you would do this after or during a retreat or after a powerful healing session, or even just a random moment that you have a big aha, uh, or after a hard conversation. That's another time you might want to do this. Journaling in this way can kind of help you digest the experience, whether you need uh further emotional release or you know, capturing that big understanding that you just came to. The fourth type to talk about is stream of consciousness writing. Now, this can be kind of a standalone method that you can use whenever, or it can be a technique you use during any of the other types. You just set a timer, five minutes is great, and write without stopping. You can start with a specific question or just follow whatever comes up as you start to write. If you hit a mental block, like where you don't know what to write next, you just repeat the last phrase you wrote until something new comes up. Like, and I just can't believe he said that. He said that, he said that, he said that. And you know what else? Like that. This can be especially helpful when you feel stuck in repetitive thinking. Writing can reveal angles and emotions that thinking alone can't.

The Science Backed Expressive Writing Protocol

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Finally, there is a research-backed protocol that I want to mention. It's so effective. It's been studied in over 200 peer-reviewed papers. I learned about it from Dr. Andrew Huberman, who is a neuroscientist at Stanford. He covers it in detail on his Huberman Lab podcast, which of course I will link in the show notes for you. I do highly recommend you listen to his episode as there are a lot of nuances, and I'm not going to go over this protocol in detail here because of that. It would take way too much time, and he does it so well, it's not really worth it for me to reinvent the wheel. But I did want to mention it because he goes deep into the science of that connection between the mental and the physical. And he goes so far as to say that this particular journaling protocol should be included in your repertoire of essential practices for improving overall health. And you know, he's a neurobiologist, he is incredibly well respected. So you're getting that advice from someone who would not say it if it wasn't scientifically backed up. So again, please do listen to that podcast episode to get the full details on how to do this journaling protocol. But in short, what it involves is writing about a traumatic or challenging experience for 15 to 30 minutes on four separate occasions, either four consecutive days or once a day for four weeks. There are specific guidelines that, again, I'm not going to break down here, but it's shown to have measurable benefits for both mental and physical health. So please do listen to that podcast and give it a go. I mean, just think how you might be able to benefit yourself in such a short amount of time with something so simple. Okay, and then there is one other fascinating little tidbit I wanted to share from that episode, which is that there is no measurable difference between typing and handwriting when it comes to journaling's benefits. That blew my mind. I was under the impression, I don't know when or where I was told this, but I thought that you really needed to write things out, like handwrite them in order for them to be the most beneficial or for it to be kind of proper journaling, so to speak. But apparently they've done research on this, and that is not the case. So if you keep your journal in a Word document and you type it in, then you're good to go, which is kind of great. So, I mean, for all those people who have never journaled because they just don't want to handwrite, uh, you are now back on the hook because you can still journal, even if you're typing. Uh, really, it's about whatever makes you more likely to stick with the practice.

Typing Works Plus The Pretty Journal Trap

SPEAKER_00 10:47

So uh give it a go if you haven't. I also wanted to just do a short note on pretty journals. Uh there's this like pretty journal problem. People who go out and they buy these gorgeous notebooks that then sit on a shelf unused because they feel like too pretty to mess up. I've met so many clients who hoard these beautiful journals, but then like hesitate to write in them because the inside has to match the outside. They don't want to like make it dirty by everything that they unburden themselves with in it. But here's the thing: journaling is messy and it's supposed to be, especially if you're using it to process pain or confusion or limiting beliefs. It might get emotional. You might, you know, uh stain the pages with your tears. It might be grammatically incorrect, there might be misspellings, and that is okay. That's exactly what it should be. This is a private space for raw truth, not polished perfection. So if pretty journals are holding you back, just grab a simple lined notebook. Leave a couple of pages at the front so that you can kind of jot down key highlights or a table of contents once you've gotten it written, and then just write it, update it, fill it, use it. Journaling is not about doing anything perfectly, it's about showing up for yourself, whether it's one line a day or only periodically after you've had a tough moment or a big understanding, a big breakthrough. There is so much power in giving your inner world a voice. So experiment. Find what works for you, and don't get caught in the trap of thinking that there's one right best way.

Key Takeaways And How To Connect

SPEAKER_00 12:35

If you have questions or want to share your experience, I would love to hear from you. Email me anytime at roots of the rise at gmail.com. Again, I will link the Huberman Lab episode in the show notes. It's really worth a listen if you're curious about that evidence-based protocol. Thanks for tuning in today. Until next time, know who you are, love who you've been, and be willing to do the work to become who you want to be. I am not a licensed therapist, and nothing shared here is meant to replace the guidance of a physician, therapist, or any other qualified provider. That said, I hope it inspires you to grow, heal, and seek the support you need to thrive.