Serena Jarha
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How I Stay Sane

As previously mentioned I don’t really like journalling, but sadly it is both better and cheaper than retail therapy for good mental health (the retail therapy still works - but the economical crinkum-crankum). As for why I hate journalling, it is because:

  1. My brain runs too fast for my hands to keep up, I get frustrated and then I go blank.

  2. Often my feelings/thoughts are sounds, shapes, pictures, colours or movement - I don’t get words first. This means that:

    1. To write an explanation of these non-verbal things is difficult.

    2. Sometimes the words just do not come.

    3. Making the sounds/movement isn’t always practical, as it is usually 6am. By the end of the day or a more appropriate time, I’ve busied myself with something else and those feelings/thoughts are still are stuck inside.

I have always tried to write in a lined journal, as I really enjoy the aesthetic of a straight line*. However, one day when discussing the barriers to getting my thoughts onto the page with my Uncle**, he said ‘why don’t you just write in blank paged journals, so you can draw and scribble, and have lighter or more intense penmanship’ - maybe not those exact words, but his suggestion has liberated my journalling experience.

I now do all sorts of things, I draw, I mind map, I write in HUGE ANGRY SHOUTING LETTERS, I write in soft tiny italics, I write sideways, I write in circles - ironically I do write in lines the majority of the time, but I am free should something come up that is not linear words. I’ve just finished my Bee journal, it is a gorgeous one - but in searching for my next one I decided to go a little larger than this B5 journal. I went for a A4 Rhino journal because I want to have more space to write bigger goals, prayers, rants and dreams. I want to be tough and determined with my journalling and a Rhino feels appropriate for that (the journal you buy matters).

Every so often I do get stuck, and when that happens I use some journalling techniques that I have gathered over the years. Many of the ones in this post are from an incredible YouTuber called Struthless - you should definitely check him out. I have listed his techniques below, but I’ve added my own spin on them and given you a bonus two. There are 11 techniques (9 in his video), so it’s not the shortest read - maybe grab a cuppa and open your notes app/a notepad.

1. JOURNALLING FOR CLARITY - this is a brain dump. everything in my head on a page. If my brain moves on mid sentence so do I. A trick I learnt in the book Storyworthy is to mark these moments of brain shifting with an ‘/’. for example, and entry would look like this ‘today I feel funny, my abdomen feels swollen and full and red and round and warm I am missing/I need to call Ema, to be honest I haven’t replied to a bunch of messages/Has my boots order/Where is the cabinet order cause I need to tell concierge when it is coming/how can I make more money/I wonder if I’d like a yacht experience, I haven’t been swimming in ages, maybe I should go swimming - but I want to go dancing and climbing, and I need to do more exercise/Luther Vandross had Garcelle Beauvais in his music video and she had such a normal abdomen I felt so seen, I have to do something about the beauty standards. was it Luther? maybe it was the other one.. I can’t remember his name…. etc. etc.

2. JOURNALLING FOR BREAKING A MINDSET -this is for when I am obsessing/in a negative cycle and spiralling.

  1. Imagine 6 impossible things - e.g. cat driving a Tesla up the Himalayas eating a strawberry fizzy lace, to visit a giant turtle that lives onto of the mountain and is an astronaut.

  2. List 5-10 thinks I can do to make someone else happy right now - e.g. send my best friend the dumbest picture I can find of us, a funny memory or a funny video.

  3. What is something in my immediate environment I have never noticed before?

3. JOURNALLING FOR DAILY REFLECTIONS - done at the end of the day, or in reflection of the day before. the is very useful for seeing trends and identifying negative and positive things in my life over time if the same things repeat themselves.

  1. What excited me?

  2. What drained me of energy?

  3. What did I learn?

  4. What are 10 things I am grateful for?

  5. How did I get closer to my goals?

4. JOURNALLING FOR HABITS AND LIFESTYLE AUDIT - again best done over time to see trends, repetitions. for this one

Actions Worst Version Of Me Best Version Of Me
List all the things I did today A point here if I contributed to this version of me with that action

A point here if I contributed to this version of me with that action

5. JOURNALLING FOR WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN

  1. What happened objectively? No dramatics.

  2. What did I make it mean?

  3. How would I comfort a friend I love if this happened to them?

  4. Where is God in this/How is this the best thing that has ever happened to me?

6. JOURNALLING FOR ANXIETIES

  1. I write my go to ‘I’m anxious bible texts’ creating affirmations from them with my name in it, or just read them to remind me of who God is Examples of these include: Psalms 91, 23, 4:8, 37:4, Proverbs 3:5-6, 4:21-22, 20:24, 28:26, John 3:16, Matthew 17:20, Jeremiah 29:11, 1 John 4:16, Philippians 1:6, 4:7, Haggai 2:9, Philippians 1:6, Ephesians 1:3, Isaiah 60:1-7, 43:1-2, 2 Sam 7:8-16, Joel 2:23-27, Deut 28, 2 Chronicles 20. Me writing my name in would look like ‘Because Serena looks to God and she is radiant with joy, her face is never covered with shame’ Psalms 34:5 or ‘Serena lies down in peace and sleeps, for God alone makes her dwell in safety’ Psalms 4:8

  2. I confront the anxiety/fear

Fears Fixes Outcome I'd bet on
List all the things that make me anxious What can I do to fix it? Can I prevent it? Have I prayed about it? What is actually likely to happen though?

7. JOURNALLING FOR TO DO LIST AND IN WHAT ORDER - here I list all of the things I want to do, and the things I have to do, then I ask the following questions about the entire list.

  1. What is non-negotiable?

  2. What is exciting?

  3. What on the list if done would make everything else easier?

  4. If one of these were taken away from me, which one would I fight to have back?

  5. What 20% of these would give 80% of the results?

8. JOURNALLING FOR DECISION MAKING

  1. What is the problem? Define it.

  2. What are my options? Are they mutually exclusive?

  3. What has God said?

  4. Put a timer on and make a decision in 5-60 seconds (in the video he says 60 seconds, I need more pressure).

  5. Could I live with that outcome (from no. 4.)

  6. What would it look like if the solution was easy?

9. JOURNALLING FOR DIRECTION IN LIFE - I tend to start this after a prayer and devotional/meditation session. If you want to know how I meditate as a Christian let me know in the comments below. Then I go through each ‘category’ of my life and answer the following questions:

  1. What did I want 5 years ago?

  2. What do I want now?

  3. What do I think I will want in 5 years time?

  4. If I new I couldn’t fail what would I do?

The categories I use are Spirituality and Faith, Family, Friends, Work, Fitness and Health, Lifestyle, Bucket List.

10. JOURNALLING FOR SPIRITUAL CONNECTION/GROWTH - here I start with a prayer, then I find a passage in the bible. It is usually my devotional or the verse of the day from the bible app. If I don’t have anything at all or I have done those recently, I will just open my physical bible and see where I land. Then I follow these steps

  1. Where do I see myself in this? Where do I see my community in this?

  2. What are the themes?

  3. What are the learning points?

  4. Can I summarise the entire thing in 3 sentences? Does that change the learning points?

  5. Pray and meditate, writing anything else that comes up

11. JOURNALLING FOR EMOTIONS - This technique is one I got from therapy years ago. You essentially write all the things you can possibly think of to finish the following 4 sentence starters:

  1. I feel mad…

  2. I feel sad…

  3. I feel scared..

  4. I feel glad..

Write out as many as you can for the first statement and when you have exhausted all of the things making you mad, move onto sad. Again write all of the things you can think of, and continue to repeat this for scared and glad. Sometimes the same thing is in multiple sections, and that is ok. It is really helpful to figure out all the contributing things. If this still feels difficult establishing which feelings are there, a coloured feeling wheel such as the one below may be helpful.

The Feeling Wheel (Wilcox 1982), adapted with colours


Whew chile that was a long post!!! But hopefully helpful in some way. Let me know if you have any journalling techniques/tricks/tips below in the comments.

Much love and sanity to all

🤍🤍🤍


*I truly get joy from straight lines, squares and sometimes rectangles. Is it just me?

**S/O Uncle D, love you lots. yes I have the best family

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