Journaling is great for your mental health, but you do not need to suffer from a mental health problem to experience its benefits. 

Your audio journal can be anything you want it to be. The time and place you choose to journal, the way you order your thoughts and the words you use to express them are fundamentally a reflection of you. You might not know it yet, but everyone has their own journaling style - and the best way of discovering yours is simply giving in to spontaneity and having a go! 

Whether you have a creative, logical or analytical mind (or a mixture), journaling is more than just a solution to a mental health issue. It has a wide variety of other advantages: 

• Supporting a creative process

• Recording reminders for yourself 

• Highlighting a positive achievement 

• Creation of a timeline of life experiences 

• Sharing updates with close friends 

With audio journaling though, sometimes the hardest thing is just to start. What do you say? How do you say it? Will I get odd looks if I start muttering out loud on the bus? 

Again, the answers to these questions depends very much on what type of person you are, or indeed, which bus you are on. But to help you unlock the benefits of audio journaling, here are some simple ways you can fit it into your everyday life.   

Rise and shine 🌞

Not everyone is a morning person, but provided you’ve had a good night’s sleep your brain is likely to be most active during the first half of the day. If you’re full of bright ideas before lunch, don’t let them go to waste. Take a brain dump into your audio journal and record those gems of wisdom so tired, future you doesn’t have to.

Time for walkies 🐶

Many of us find taking a break to go for a walk helps clear our minds. Removing yourself from your immediate environment and taking some fresh air whilst lightly exercising is a cleansing experience for the mind and body. Why not also use this release to record any thoughts that crop up on the move. 

Resurrect dead time 💀

Whether it’s making the daily commute, waiting for the coffee machine to brew or aimlessly scrolling up and down a computer screen in the office, we all have time in the day where we are not at our most productive. Use that time to update your audio timeline on the day’s events so far.

Let it all out 🥱

By the end of the day, alert morning brain has long checked out and frazzled evening brain comes to the party. Whilst you might not be at your sharpest, evenings are the time to decompress. Journaling before bed can be a great way of parking all those thoughts and feelings whirring around inside your head and help you drift off to sleep. 

You do you 🤗

Ultimately, only you know when you journal best. If you enjoy a particular routine, or feel inspired to record at a certain time, then that’s when you should journal! Listen to what your mind and body are telling you, be kind to yourself and happy journaling! 

Try audio journaling yourself with Journify’s brand new app! Download free for iOS or Android today.

About the Author:

Robi O’Cleirigh is a writer, keen traveller and long time journaler based in London, UK. When not keyboard bashing or jet lagged he can be found pounding the tarmac in the futile pursuit of running PB’s and exploring a passion for history.

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