Creative Journaling for Wellbeing

Exploring The Difference Between Creative Journaling and Creative Writing

Creative Journaling is an outsider, a rebel with a definite cause. It’s that one person who makes you feel slightly uncomfortable because you can’t quite place them, can’t neatly box them up in a definable category. It’s a subtle and resolute rule-breaker and as such, I urge you to consider getting to know it better.

By day, I am a journaling and mindfulness coach and by night, a writer. The Soul To Page programme utilises the written word for wellbeing. This encompasses forms such as memoir, mindful journaling, expressive writing, poetry for wellbeing, and writing haiku with mindful nature connection.

However, when I introduced creative journaling to the community, my clients were very reticent. It became crystal clear they were hearing “creative writing” rather than “creative journaling”. So, what’s the difference and why does it matter?

When you write, the intention is to convey meaning. When you journal, the purpose is to connect and discover. Writing is about the reader, journaling is between you and yourself.

I have developed a framework for my mindful and conscious journaling sessions. A crucial precept is you never share your words, they are yours and yours alone. If you are delving deep into your soul with awareness you will share the results, the words on the page will be censored. This is as inevitable as the sun rising and setting.

However, creative journaling sits confidently in the midground, the space between writing and journaling, unapologetically refusing to be categorised. There’s a delight simply in that fact. There’s healing too. We could all do with a little rebellion. There are many benefits from inhabiting a space where you remember how to define your boundaries, working connected to what is in your best interest.

Some people share their words and go on to use the prompts for a creative writing piece. Some always keep their words private, further journaling the significance of their responses to the prompts. Sometimes, people do a mix of the two approaches.

As writers, we do not dwell on why we write what we write. As journalers, this is our currency, this is the purpose of the practice.

As journalers, the fabric and texture, the lens and voice of our words are where we dwell. This is why we embrace the process and herein lay the expansion of self-awareness. It is a conversation with the self. This is medicine.

As writers, word choice, voice, and structure are concerned with the telling of a story. The optimum expression of that story for the reader.

The two purposes can combine and both gain impact upon scribe and reader. After all, a story born from connected truth and authenticity will bring depth and meaning to all involved, writer and reader. Even if we use our creative journaling to move into the realm of creative writing but don’t quite get as far as to share it, the act of creating and expressing is extremely fulfilling and healing.

In conclusion, be you a creative journaler, creative writer, or a hybrid of the two, not one second will be wasted when being mindful of their differences and symbiotic relationship.

After all, your words speak your soul and both are committing soul to page.