15 Types of Journaling

As promised in my blog post regarding Journaling for Self Care, here is a list of various types of journaling that you can do.
Many find journaling to be a hobby. Hobbies are good for relaxing and creative works. Your only goal being to complete your task for your own edification or enjoyment. I'm going to give a brief description of the various types that I have come across. You can see if any of these work for you.

Journal - This is normal type of dear diary journal most people think of when they think of journaling. You have a notebook, diary or journal that you write your thoughts in. You can do this regularly or not. The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod suggests every morning. But you don't have to. You can journal however often you like on whatever topic or thought crosses your mind.

Art Journal - An art journal takes the process of putting your thoughts down an paper and makes it into an art form. You can paint, draw, collage, scrapbook, hand letter and so much more in an art journal. Just be sure to realize that just because its art doesn't mean it can't or won't include words.

Junk Journal - This type of journal focuses more on the physical qualities of the journal. Junk journals are handmade out of "junk." Now junk is a relative term as you will see if you do a simple Pinterest search for junk journals. As the saying goes, "one man's junk is another man's treasure." The point is you can make your own journal out of the many random bits of paper we all have lying about our homes. Some people might have fancy scrapboooking paper lying around, or vintage postcards. Others like me have tons or old newsprint, envelopes and unsolicited flyers from the mail. The point is you have no excuse to not have a journal.

Junk Journal insert

Creative Journal - This is a general, umbrella term that encompasses, art journals, junk journals, smash books, Project life books, Scrapbooks and more. It can also be how you use your regular journal creatively. Doing something creative with the pages of your journal such as collage, coloring or creating interesting tuck spots and pockets.

Dream Journal - In a dream journal you are jotting down what you remember of your dreams and how you feel about them. This one is topic specific. People usually keep them under their pillows or by their bedside so you can write down what you remember of your dreams quickly.

Spiritual Journal - this type of journal would be focused on your personal spiritual practices. A prayer journal, war binder, grimoire, book of shadows, bible journal, book of mirrors, faith planner, and spiritual planner all fall into this category. You can include any and everything to do with your spirituality, beliefs, faith and religion.

Meditation Journal - This is similar to a dream journal in that you keep a record of your meditations as you do them. You can write what you remember from each meditation and how you felt as well. This method can also be used to keep track of any

Divination Journal - This can be for one form of divination or several if you practice more than one. In this type of journal you would keep track of your method of divination, the questions asked or topics covered and their results. So for example, in a tarot journal, you would keep track of all your tarot readings including which decks were used, what cards were pulled and your interpretation of the. Other types of divination can include astrology, I-ching, tea leaves, palm readings, stichtomancy, bones, and so much more.

Month Ahead Spread

in Divination Journal

Travel Journal - In this type of journal you would keep a record of your travels. You could include pictures and memorabilia as well as your own words to remember your trips.

Memory Keeping - This is another umbrella term as their are various ways to keep memories in book form. Scrapbooks and photo albums are the most well known but there is also travel journaling, photo-a-day journaling, gratitude logs, One line a day logs, Project Life, or even my monthly cover page idea. Whatever way you choose to keep your memories on paper, the important thing is to keep track of those milestones and other important moments in your life or the lives of your loved ones to look back on.

Monthly Memories page in my Bullet Journal

Health Journal - This is a book where you keep track of things  like your eating habits, healthy recipes, exercise routines, weights, body measurements, yoga asanas, miles run or biked, medications and how they make you feel, or even your moods. Anything you can think of with regarding to your health.

Bullet Journal - This is more of a planner than a journal but it can be anything you want it to be. Some of us need to write things down to keep ourselves on track. The bullet journal lets you customize any notebook into a daily planner and organize your days with bullet points and an index. You can also make collections of related information that you refer to often. Since I am horrible at describing this briefly, do check out the link above or my previous bullet journal post.

Bullet Journal Habit Tracker spread

Morning Pages - this is a specific journaling task created by Julia Cameron in her book The Artist's Way. What you do is every morning you get up and do "3 pages of long hand stream of conscious writing."

Audio Journal - For those who may find writing their thoughts and feelings out difficult, recording yourself may be a great alternative. Most computers and cell phones nowadays come with recording apps and if not there are plenty of free ones you can download. Just hit record and speak as much or as little as works for you. You can save the files and listen to them later if you wish.

Blog - A weblog, or blog as most people call them. is an online journal or information source. This way you can still keep a written journal but digitally. It can be public or private, specific to one topic and audience or general and all for you. You also can decorate it as much as you would any of the more creative journals mentioned above thanks to things like digital scrapbooking, drawing tablets and editing software. You can actually add audio and videos to your blog which is something you cannot do with a traditional paper journal.

Vlog - Another digital journal but specifically for videos. A video log, or vlog, can cover any of the specific topics any other journal style can. In fact in can be similar to a scrapbook or photo album in that you can create a slideshow video with just pictures or art if that's all you wanted to. Youtube is the biggest video hosting platform in the world and you can use it for free. Your vlogs can be as long, short, specific, rambling, public or private as you want. The options are limited only by your recording and internet capabilities and sometimes not even then.

What you can do in and with these journals is endless. What other journal types are there that you know of? Please share them. Did you find any here that you would like to try?

~Lashette
  Scarlet Moon Creations