Kapok Aging and Caregiver Resources: Powerful Types of Self Care Journaling for Caregivers
By Angelica Herrera Venson, DrPH, MPH
The following excerpt is reprinted with permission from Kapok Aging and Caregiver Resources.
At its most basic, journaling involves recording your thoughts and feelings, often by making an entry each day. The habit is one that most of us have tried at least once before – and many have given up on. Yet, self care journaling is more powerful than you might realize. It offers a way to connect with yourself, to reflect, and to grow.
Journaling can also be critical to self care, especially for caregivers.
One reason is that journaling gives you the chance to reflect. It takes you out of the moment and lets you look back on the situation as a whole. Doing so matters, as caregivers can often get swept away with the tasks of the day. A journaling habit also helps you to start picking out the good things that happen, to hold onto them.
Another benefit is the chance to be objective. Many of us get wrapped up in the emotions of events as they’re unfolding. It can be hard to step back, to see what is happening, why, and what to do about it. Sometimes simply writing it all out is enough to make you see things a little differently.
Types of Self Care Journaling
Journals can be split into two general categories – free form and guided. Freeform journaling means that you choose what to write about. You might follow the same style each time or focus on different things depending on what the day brings. Guided journals often rely on prompts. They can be helpful if you often get stuck trying to work out what to write about.
Freeform Journaling
Freeform journaling is the easiest approach, as you don’t need a specific type of journal. Even just a blank notebook will do it, where you can write in the date each day before you get started. Or, if you want to make the experience a bit special, look for a high-quality journal with a beautiful cover (like this leather notebook).
Stream of Consciousness
This first approach is what most people think of when we talk about self care journaling. You’re simply writing about whatever comes to mind (perhaps by starting with ‘dear diary’).
Writing like this can help you to uncover what you’re really thinking and feeling about a situation. It can be a powerful way to vent too, especially if you’re a full-time caregiver and don’t connect with others as often as you would like.
You might find that some days your entries take up pages and pages of your journal, while other times you might write hardly anything.
Here are some tips that can help you develop a great journal habit and stick with it:
- Think about why you’re keeping a journal and what you want to get out of it. This helps you stick with the process. For example, you might find journaling cathartic. It may help to boost your mood and give you a place to express your negative emotions, rather than venting them at someone else.
- Don’t judge what you write. Your journal should be a judgment-free place. Caregivers often have thoughts that shock them, like moments where they wish their loved one would die. Having occasional thoughts like this is very human and doesn’t mean that there’s something wrong with you. Thinking something doesn’t make it ‘true’ or ‘real’.
- Keep your journal is private. This is crucial.
- Make the process easy. How you go about this depends on your needs. One option is to write short entries rather than long ones. After all, you need to have time to fill the journal in. Or, you might try a digital journal rather than a pen and paper one.
- Create a habit. Try to journal every day or at least every few days. One way to do this is to commit to writing something in there, even if it’s just a few words. Opening the journal and writing something, anything, can help to keep the habit rolling, even when you don’t feel like it.
- Make it fun. Doodling, using pretty pens, sticking in pictures, or writing nonsense can all make the process more enjoyable. Some people even use blank or bullet journals, so that they have complete control over the space.
- If you don’t know what to write about, try prompts (like these ones). Prompts are a fantastic way to avoid writing about the same thing each day.
READ THE ARTICLE IN FULL AT KAPOK
Angelica Herrera Venson, DrPH, MPH is a gerontologist born in San Diego and raised on both sides of the U.S-Mexico border. She’s a public health advocate who has spent two decades in community health work and research investigating how immigrant and racial /ethnic minority family caregivers and seniors navigate old age and seek out health and elder care. Today, Angelica supports some of Arizona’s community health centers, which serve primarily Medicaid and underserved communities, in their transition to value-based care.
About Multicultural Guide to Caregiving
Author and gerontologist, Angelica P. Herrera Venson, DrPH, opens up and shares her family’s personal stories and lessons from her field work and research on aging and caregiving with communities of color and first generation Americans.