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Discovering and Using Audio Journalling

Writer's picture: Daniel PaiceDaniel Paice

I have often spoken about the importance of journalling for your mental health and the way — if it works for you — it works really well (I say this because it doesn't always work for everybody, and in the same circumstances).


There are many different types of journalling, and these include: daily journaling (which is more stereotypically writing about the day and how you felt as the events happen — but that could also be writing about how you're feeling regardless of whether it's actually connected to what is happening in the day). There is bullet journalling — which is more physical and visual, including drawing, cutting and sticking. How you like best to express yourself is the indication of what type of journalling woud best suit you. Ultimately, you want to be able to express yourself deeply. Each one of these 'strands' of the same discipline can be applied in many different ways.


Audio Journalling

Audio journalling is just like journalling as you would with a pen and paper. The only difference is the fact that you are either speaking into your phone or a microphone, and discussing your thoughts and feelings as you would write on paper.


This is can be done through voice-to-text dictation. So, you are speaking your thoughts out and then it's written onto the page — or it could simply be recording an audio file, like having a phone call with someone.


Depending on how you would want to use this, you can keep these files or you can delete them, after you've got your thoughts and feelings off your chest. A bit like throwing the paper in the bin after you've written what you need to.


Discussion

I came across this method myself the other day, and have personally found it very useful, because it's a way you can get your thoughts and feelings of your chest very quickly; you don't necessarily have to be overly prepared in terms of carrying a notepad with you, wherever you go. Also, I feel like it's quite good if you would like to explore your feelings and move on. This is because you can explore quite a bit when you're discussing something with yourself, because one thought or feeling leads to another; things that you may have otherwise not noticed or suppressed within yourself.


Processing your thoughts, and then moving on

I like the idea that when it is digitalised, you can get rid of it easily, so you can express what you want to express, without worrying about someone else reading it because once you have written and said everything, you can delete it with a simple tap. Therefore, it is more of an opportunity to express yourself authentically, and then moving on. When I think this, I think of a traditional diary, and the stereotype that people often look into other people's diaries (not that I condone this). The digitalisation adds a layer of privacy. Ultimately, a journalling practice is an opportunity to express how you are feeling — and if you can't do that authentically and without presure — then it's going to have an impact on how effective the practice is for you.


It may be that this audio journalling practice allows you to have that space and that privacy in a way that a written journal does not.


It is it worth doing your own research and coming to a conclusion as to which methods may be more useful to you — or whether journalling will be useful to you at all. From there, you can use your method — or methods — to adapt journalling to a process that works in a way that is unique to you.

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