Clean your glasses: The power of journaling and how to get started
Look through your glasses right now.
Are you able to see despite the smudges? Perhaps you use your shirt sleeve to clean your lenses throughout the day.
Imagine if you never cleaned your glasses. What would you see?
In my early 20s, I realized that my mind was wearing dirty glasses. Thoughts and anxieties moving around my brain like a school of fish in disarray. I struggled seeing the world, because I had to see through my thoughts first.
That changed in 2014 when I spent a winter in Germany. I had written some reflections before, but it was mostly poems and sporadic accounts of my travels. The solitude of my life in Germany taught me that I needed to clean my lenses. Enter journaling.
I wrote my observations regularly mixed with pages where I would watch movies in German and write down words that sounded fun or interesting (genau, hähnchen, scheiße).
I tried to keep up my new habit after I came back to the US. I would write maybe once a week. It felt like a chore. Journaling was supposed to be helpful, but I avoided it. The blank page was an unflattering mirror of my mind's chaos. The thought of writing down my most personal thoughts was scary. Who wants to do something that is scary and anxiety inducing?
In hindsight, I know that what I needed at that time was a reframe, a why, and a structure. Luckily, I got to where I am today—spending at least 30 minutes, 6 days a week—by stumbling across these elements over the last 7 years.
With the wisdom gained from multiple years of mastering this habit, I will share how you should think about journaling and how to start today.
The Reframe
Staring at a blank page awaiting your most intimate thoughts is terrifying. You know what’s worse? Letting those thoughts live rent free in your mind, fueling your inner critic, robbing you of the joy that is your birthright.
Eventually, I saw journaling not as my daily encounter with my anxieties, but as the daily opportunity to rid myself of frustrations and endless ruminations.
I saw it as an opportunity to acknowledge the privileges and blessings I enjoy; a sense of perspective is a wonderful stimulant.
I saw it as the place that harbored my dreams and visions; where I built the rocket ship for my moonshots.
I saw it as an opportunity to reveal unspoken problems; those things I don’t talk to anyone about, but kept showing up on the page.
Journaling is a microscope, a telescope, a compass, and a map. All at once.
The Why
Why journal? For me, it has gone beyond “cleaning my glasses,” planning my dreams, or spotting patterns.
I journal to force those hard conversations with myself.
I journal because it connects to my essence; my anchor amidst stormy waters. I can always look back through the pages and tell myself “This is who you are!”
I journal to explore ideas and go from babble to intelligent opinion. I journal to accept that I don’t need to have an opinion for everything.
I journal because it has made me more compassionate, tolerant, and accepting. I journal to plan difficult conversations, so that I engage with people more authentically.
I journal because writing it down helps me realize the little silly thoughts that put me in a headlock I can wedge myself out of. I’ve gotten better at mitigating self-sabotage.
The Structure
To start, find your medium. I see journaling as the daily process to manifest your thoughts into the physical realm. The way you manifest those thoughts is unique to you. It is not bound to writing.
For some that may look like sketching, for some it may be recording voice notes, for others it may be good ol’ writing. The first step is to identify which format serves you best.
Second, think about journaling as a habit. And to build good habits, you can borrow from James Clear’s four-part framework shared in Atomic Habits.
Make it obvious: The night before, I leave my notebook and pen on my desk. After waking up, taking a shower, and drinking my espresso while I tackle the daily Wordle, I sit at my desk. The notebook and pen are my cue. It’s the first thing that I have to do.
A cue for you might look like placing a post-it on top of your phone, clearing the home screen of your phone of everything except your note-taking app, or leaving a doc open on your computer the night before.
Make it attractive: Combine habit stacking and temptation building. Habit stacking is identifying a habit you currently do and coupling it with the habit you want to avoid. Temptation bundling is linking an action you want to do with an action you need to do.
For example, if a cup of tea is your morning ritual–can you kickstart your practice by journaling in the 5-10 minutes it takes to boil and steep your tea? Right before watching TV, can you set a 10 minute timer to journal.
Make it easy: I was 19 the first time I meditated. A mentor took me to a Buddhist center for guided meditation. Here I was in a room with freaking monks, given few instructions, immersed in an hour long silent meditation. It was too much. I didn’t meditate for years afterwards.
Don’t start at the deep end. Below are three levels of journaling you can progressively work your way towards. The key is consistency.
Level 1 (5-10 minutes): Start with a gratitude reflection—three things you are grateful for. They can be as mundane or profound as you want.
Second, write three affirmations. How do you want to see yourself? What identities do you want to embrace? Write those.
Third, write a sentence or two about what you are looking forward to that day. Is there something that excites you? If you struggle answering this question for a period of time, that’s a sign to explore that deeper.
Finally, write a sentence or two about something interesting that happened the day before. Life goes fast. Capture the highlights!
Level 2 (10-20 minutes): You can build on top of Level 1 and add one of the following reflection questions (or your own)
What am I anxious about today? Why?
How am I complicit in creating the conditions for my life I say I don’t want? (credit to Jerry Colonna and his book Reboot).
Where am I contradicting myself? What actions/words are not matching my intent or values?
Level 3 (30-45 minutes): Use Level 1 + Level 2 along with anything else you want to capture. It could be about yourself or an idea you are exploring.
The goal is to commit to a certain volume everyday (e.g. three pages). This works like silence–if it’s long enough, you tend to break it by saying something. Embrace that discomfort. Epiphanies await.
Make it satisfying: Once you have a solid practice, you will derive the rewards from clearer thinking, better mood, and stronger self-awareness. But as you get started, find the rewards that work for you.
Short-term rewards are the bridge towards long-term benefits. Find that reward bridge that works for you and use it for as long as you need until you crave journaling.
* * * * *
Now you are ready to start. Use this habit building structure and focus on consistency. Spend as much time in Level 1 as you need. Aiming for perfection is a sure way to avoid your practice.
As you improve, you will find yourself in a place where you’ve gotten so good at self-reflection, that your ego pushes you to stop. Do not avoid hard conversations with yourself. That’s where the gold is buried.
Lastly, realize that you are playing an infinite game. You will need to clean your glasses everyday. Just know that if you show up everyday and embrace the opportunity to explore yourself and the world, you will reap the rewards and become a better person.
Best of luck on this new or renewed journey. And remember: All the answers you seek lie within.
