Visual Journaling Pt. 1: Why You Need One

Art icon

What do you do when you need to process how you feel?

Keeping a visual journal can be a fun and effective alternative to traditional journaling.

Journaling has been a tried and true method to really digging through the subconscious during recovery. But what about people that feel like they don’t have a way with words? That type of person might benefit more from keeping a visual journal. A visual journal, also known as an art journal, is just like a traditional journal. However, instead of writing, the person expresses themselves with sketches, paintings, collages, lettering, etc. In other words, a visual journal is a collection of your thoughts and feelings in an artistic form.

What’s the point of a visual journal, especially in recovery? Well, sometimes words get stuck in our heads, or we can’t quite describe how a situation or relationship feels. Sketching out stick figures or jotting down emotional phrases can help us get to the bottom of what we really feel and desire. Visual journaling, with or without the presence of words or verbal narratives, can be a useful tool for dealing with mental clutter. It can also help process emotions and maintain mental health. Let’s dig deeper into the benefits of keeping a visual journal.

Published

07/19/2022

Category

Art

#1

It Improves Your Mood and Releases Stressors

The first and most obvious benefit to visual journaling is a generally improved mood. While journaling, you can do things like draw how you view or feel about yourself, list the things you’re grateful for, or write what’s weighing on your heart. This helps you release stressors and heavier emotions, allowing you to walk more lightly throughout your day. Visual journaling can be a way for you to become more aware of the positive in your life as you work through heavier emotions.

#2

It Helps You Understand Yourself Better

Visual journaling can help you “hack into” your heart and mind. It can help uncover negative emotions you have buried deep inside you. It also allows you to discover the connections between your emotions and your compulsive tendencies. Since your brain processes memories symbolically and visually, stuff like that is unconscious in nature. Visual depictions of your inner states can therefore be a doorway to interpreting and breaking problematic cycles.

“Visual journaling is not just a way to “think differently;” it’s a way to “feel differently,” too. From emerging studies, we are learning that art expression may actually help individuals reconnect thinking and feeling, thus bridging explicit (narrative) and implicit (sensory) memory.

Cathy Malchiodi

“Doodling Your Way to a More Mindful Life”

#3

It Gives You a Place to Vent and Unload Negativity

Visual journaling can give you a place to unload emotionally the same way venting to a friend does. It can help release negative emotions, organize your thoughts, understand a problem, and brainstorm effective solutions. This is especially useful in recovery. Interpreting your thought life and identifying negative thinking can make a dramatic difference in your recovery process. Keeping a visual journal can lighten the burden on your thoughts, leaving more room for more positive things.

#4

It Makes You More Emotionally Vulnerable

The idea of being vulnerable isn’t very appetizing in modern American culture. But emotional vulnerability is key to true healing. Most of us suppress or push down our emotions for the sake of appearing strong or resilient. This ultimately just hurts us. Visual journaling practically forces you to be more emotionally vulnerable. An art journal is a great tool for discovering things about yourself that you’ve pushed down for years. That’s when true healing begins.

The wonderful thing about visual journaling is that it is a whole brain activity—spontaneous, at times unconscious, self-soothing, satisfying, exploratory, memory-enhancing, and mindful. In essence, doodling (and drawing and painting and making things in general) can be a self-regulating experience as well as a pleasurable road map of thoughts and ideas.

Cathy Malchiodi

“Doodling Your Way to a More Mindful Life”

#5

It Encourages Creative Exploration.

Most of us lose our desire for creative exploration as we grow into adults. That’s why the commonly used quote by Ursula K. Le Guin strikes so true; “The creative adult is the child that survived.” As adults, many of us are told to let go of creative exploration in order to pursue success. However, creative exploration might be the very thing that can get you out of a rut. Visual journaling can be a fun way of allowing yourself to visually express your inner world, dream big, and set goals for your recovery and life in general.

#6

It Encourages Creative Exploration.

Finally, and most importantly, visual journaling can be a technique for coping with your mental health as you adapt to sobriety. Visual journaling encourages intentionality. You can use visual journaling to create a “dream board” to help visualize your goals and put them down on paper. What do you hope to achieve in one year, five years, ten years of sobriety? Who do you hope to be as a sober and healthy person? You can turn your visual journal pages into a roadmap to a healthier life.

Conclusion

Key takeaways

  • A visual journal is a collection of your thoughts and feelings in an artistic form
  • Visual journaling helps you be more aware of the positive in your life and let go of the negative
  • Visual journaling draws connections between your emotions and your compulsive tendencies
  • Visual journaling gives you a place to unload emotionally the same way venting to a friend does
  • An art journal is a tool for discovering things about yourself that you’ve pushed down for years
  • Visual journaling allows you to express your inner world, dreams, and set goals for your recovery
  • A visual journal can act as a “dream board” to help visualize your goals and put them on paper

Challenge

Apply to your life

Read Visual Journaling Pt. 2, where we walk you through practical steps to starting a visual journal of your own. Also read Visual Journaling Pt. 3, where we provide prompts related to your recovery to get you started. We encourage you to try visual journaling for yourself this week. Spend a few minutes each day just doodling, listing, and collecting your thoughts and feelings.

Conclusion

Key takeaways

  • A visual journal is a collection of your thoughts and feelings in an artistic form
  • Visual journaling helps you be more aware of the positive in your life and let go of the negative
  • Visual journaling draws the connections between your emotions and your compulsive tendencies
  • Visual journaling gives you a place to unload emotionally the same way venting to a friend does
  • An art journal is a tool for discovering things about yourself that you’ve pushed down for years
  • Visual journaling allows you to express your inner world, dreams, and set goals for your recovery
  • A visual journal can act as a “dream board” to help visualize your goals and put them on paper

Challenge

Apply to your life

Read Visual Journaling Pt. 2, where we walk you through practical steps to starting a visual journal of your own. Also read Visual Journaling Pt. 3, where we provide prompts related to your recovery to get you started. We encourage you to try visual journaling for yourself this week. Spend a few minutes each day just doodling, listing, and collecting your thoughts and feelings.

A Recovery Community Center in Chesterton, Indiana.

This location is also the studio and homebase for content creation on Artistic Recovery. The team of professionals at Three20 conceive, draft, and edit many of the articles you find here. These recovery resources are a collaboration between certified recovery coaches, creative writers, fitness trainers, artists, musicians, and chefs. Most importantly, our content is written for people in recovery, by people in recovery.

Ty Walker

Ty Walker is a contract copywriter and graphic designer with a huge heart for recovery. He has spent the last five years serving churches and recovery communities with his creative skills. Ty spends his free time writing poetry and fictional short stories as well as hiking, biking, and kayaking with his wife, Angie, and his two daughters, Winter and Ember.

Credit where credit is due

Portions of this article were originally sourced from Thrive Family Services, Banyan Treatment Center, and Psychology Today. If you would like to check out additional recovery articles, videos, and podcast episodes, check us out at artisticrecovery.org.

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Sometimes words get stuck in our heads, or we can’t quite describe how a situation or relationship feels. Sketching out stick figures or jotting down emotional phrases can help us get to the bottom of what we really feel and desire. Visual journaling, with or without the presence of words or verbal narratives, can be a useful tool for dealing with mental clutter.

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