Audio Journaling - for those who have difficulty writing down their thoughts

It's funny, I was always told as a child that talking to yourself is the "first sign of madness". The only thing that stops me going mad sometimes is going out for a walk and having a good old talk with myself. I do this on days where I feel frustrated for one reason or another. Being able to exert physical energy by walking as well as talk out loud to get my thoughts out of the jumbled confines of my mind is almost a form of meditation. Walking and talking forces me to regulate my breathing, and gets the thoughts out of my head that I find myself most frustrated with. When trapped in our minds, our thoughts can become warped and blown up out of all proportion, but getting them out into the real world makes them easier to decipher critically.

What I've begun to do in the past few months is tie this meditative exercise in with journaling through the use of my mobile phone's recording app.

Image from CreateHER

The idea actually came from a character flaw of mine: an inability to articulate myself properly in an confrontation. In a part relationship of mine I would air out my grievances with my partner by talking to myself but got tongue tied when the time came to say those things to him. To combat this, I started recording my rants and then writing down the things that I really wanted to say, so that when the time came I would have the words I needed to hand. It didn't always work, but I did find that it helped me gain perspective on a lot of my thoughts and feelings.

When I go for a walk and talk to myself, I'll use my mobile phone as a prop, so it looks as though I'm speaking to someone and people don't start throwing holy water at me. It's a lot to go through for a simple meditation, but it helps clear my mind in such a complete way that it's more than worth it. Since I'm using my phone as a prop anyway, I thought I might as well put it to good use and record what it is I'm saying.


The purpose of journaling is to provide that same cathartic experience. It's also for recording progress and just measuring where you're at in life currently. With talking you get the catharsis but lose the ability to look back on your progress and pitfalls. Recording your words gives you all of that back, in a format that may be easier for people that find it harder to get their thoughts out on paper, or have issues with racing thoughts and find speaking easier than writing in those moments. You don't have to combine it with a walk like me, but I'd challenge you all to at least try audio journaling if the written method hasn't worked for you. I've devised a simple plan for anyone who has trouble sleeping to try creating their own audio sleep journal. Use the picture below as a guide and let me know how it goes!