Travel Journal

Why I recommend starting one

I have never been one for journaling, I know it’s supposed to be good for your mental health and honestly whenever I do it I feel great, and even profound, but I never got into the habit. If I’m being totally honest I really only ever doing it when I need a serious release of negative energy.

That being said, I love keeping a travel journal. It is one of the only times that I keep a journal while experiencing positive things. In all of the trips I have been on recently, I have always kept a journal detailing what I had been doing and it’s really fun to look over once the trip has ended. There are so many memories that can become easily forgotten without having physical evidence.

Keeping a physical journal certainly has its advantages, my favorite being the ability to include drawings (rudimentary in my case) of places you have been. Even though I would not consider myself the most experienced artist in this lifetime, capturing a moment with your eyes and your hands is something that I will never take for granted because it is such a pure form of memory.

Below is a watercolor of a restaurant in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, that I did in my journal, which was very conveniently a sketchbook. It was so nice having my little travel watercolor set to take with me on my trips and is definitely something that I will continue to do.

Keeping a digital journal also has its advantages, one of which being it certainly saves physical space in life which can so easily be overwhelmed with clutter. Another, arguably the most important, is it is much faster to type than to write by hand. So I can easily capture more memories without taking too much time away from living.

Either way that you choose to journal, taking time at the end of each and every day (or even once a week) to really sit down and absorb all the abundance that life has to offer is something that I think can benefit each and every one of us. Yes, even if it is done sporadically.

I would like to set my intentions to make my substack a place where I can journal and remember the little things about life and my travel experiences. I am very excited to share anything that comes up with those who would like to join me on my adventure.

This substack will definitely be more of a travel journal than a conventional journal. I’m sure I will share more than a few thoughts that are quite personal, but there will certainly be a lot more travel content to read through. I am excited to have a place to look back and see all of the adventures I have taken and hope to share many insights on how to travel mindfully.

If you wanted to get into journaling but have never had a good prompt, my favorite prompt of all time is to write down everything positive that has happened to you in the past year and reflect on it. This can also be done month by month, or if you wanted to get spiritual, every new moon. I think this is such an amazing way to express gratitude for the life you have created for yourself and I really encourage you to try!

I would also highly recommend you taking the time next time you treat yourself to a vacation to create a journal so you have a physical reminder of all the amazing memories you created.