What is Visual Journaling?

Visual Journaling is a mental reflective process involving the exploration of ideas, thoughts, and concepts, visually so as to understand and create personal meaning.

It has been determined that visual journaling, also known as art or drawing journaling, is a significant and practical strategy in expressive arts therapy, counseling, and education. It is seen as a creative technique to convey personal narratives and life tales as well as make meaning through imagery, creative writing, and story sharing. It is not simply a successful method for reducing stress.

Pizarro (2004) observed that the combined impacts of art therapy and writing revealed more substantial positive changes in terms of perceived levels of stress than writing alone in a comparative study on the efficacy of writing and art therapy on stress reduction.

Throughout history, visual records of thoughts and daily life have been kept. The earliest examples of symbolic language are pictographs and petroglyphs, which express intricate cultural meanings that have frequently been layered over time. Japanese "pillow books" from the tenth century were private collections of visual and written diaries that reflected on court life. The Lakota Winter Counts is an example of indigenous ways of documenting historical events. A storyteller draws a pictograph on hide or linen for each year (from snowfall to snowfall).

Visual journaling and/or artistic creation have a number of scientifically verified health advantages. For instance, it has been demonstrated that making brief art improves immunity and lowers cortisol levels. Research on the unique impacts of visual journaling showed a decrease in anxiety levels and negative effects, even though many of these advantages can be translated into the consequences of the practice.

Visual journaling was sustained over a two-month period with a 95% response rate among 26 participants in a 2012 study with tribal elders in the Southeast. The preliminary study of the data revealed a predilection for representing everyday life activities like gathering peas in the garden and creating quilt designs, as well as familial and religious allusions. According to these preliminary findings, recalling significant daily activities and events revealed the presence of mindfulness-based awareness. As a result, there is mounting data that suggests visual journaling is an effective stress-reduction strategy.

Pick a regular time of day to work in your journal for the best benefit. Keep a compact travel case nearby as well as a small container of your preferred drawing supplies. After five minutes of consistent visual journaling, health advantages like enhanced dopamine and serotonin production can be attained.

According to research on visual journaling, following one's own interests can be just as productive as following pre-determined prompts. As your awareness increases, develop your own strategy and change it. For instance, using the visual journaling approach over time might produce fresh themes that are as inclusive as your interpretation of well-being. Visual journaling naturally complements mindfulness-based practices.

How to Start a Visual Journal in 5 Easy Steps

1. Keep a portable notebook with you at all times.

That is 8.5 x 11 for some people, a passport size for others, or something in between.

Until you discover what works for you, try a few other items in budget-friendly versions. What you photograph is what makes visual journaling so magical. You can record more if you have a notebook that is simple to carry.

2. Have faith in your interests.

Journalists sometimes struggle with what to write. How can you go over that? Embrace your passions.

Write down a meaningful phrase, your day's memories, chores you need to finish tomorrow, the project's mindmap, an idea you had but didn't finish, and a habit you want to start. Even if it seems jumbled up, it doesn't matter. Our minds are scattered. Write down your ideas so that you can use your eyes to process them.

A good rule of thumb is that something is important if it enters your mind more than once. Put it in writing.          

3. Save color for the embellishments and write the majority of your words in black ink.

Through years of reading books and blog posts, we have become accustomed to reading text in black ink. Black lettering is recognized by our brain as information to be processed. Our eyes are also helped by the contrast between the black ink and the white paper. Make it a habit to write in black ink for the majority of your words and reserve color for headings, borders, graphics, and callout boxes.

The color component is crucial. Our emotions are evoked by color. Therefore, give your pages some color, even if you do so after you've finished reading them.

4. Ensure that each page of your journal has a heading.

Make a headline for each of your pages, even if it is only one word. Make it larger than the other content on the page, just like in a magazine. This will not only make it easier for you to read your journal later, but it will also help the material stay "stickier" in your memory.

5. Permit yourself to make subpar sketches.

Draw cheesy stick figures, a flower, or something odd, and add arrows, clouds, borders, and other things. Making your visual journal visual aids in information processing and increases memory retention. These tiny sketches and doodles have significance. This is about thinking on paper, not making art.

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Contributions by: Dr (Prof) R K Suri, Clinical Psychologist & Cognitive Behaviour Therapist & Ms. Aditi Bhardwaj