Junk journaling turns trash into a mindfulness practice
Illustrations by Jerold Sunga and Heedayah Lockman
In the journaling cosmos, a diverse constellation of options can suit many palates: writing letters, stream-of-consciousness journaling, playing with prompts, creating a gratitude list, and strength-spotting work. Junk journaling is the process of creating one-of-a-kind books of thoughts and memories utilizing recycled and repurposed materials. Make art, find healing, and reduce waste along the way.
The recent uptick in junk journaling has created a robust, creative, and therapeutic community. “Documenting even the simplest joys helps reinforce appreciation for life’s fleeting but meaningful moments. It’s also a self-care tool for playfulness, joy and self-expression that brings a sense of accomplishment,” says Aja Chavez, LPCC, LMFT and vice president of adolescent services at AMFM Healthcare.
Junk journaling can include affirmations, manifestation, self-love quotes and other miscellaneous jottings. And the materials can be anything we don’t want to trash: old envelopes, movie tickets, friendship bracelets, cards, fabric patches, magazine clippings, cardboard. The possibilities are truly endless.
Scrapbooking meets self-care
Junk journaling is like elevated scrapbooking with a distinct focus on upcycling materials that’d otherwise be thrown out. Where scrapbooking creates structure for organizing and preserving photos, junk journaling is a more free-form way to express thoughts and creativity. It can also be an antidote for the mind. The process of sticking physical items, mostly ephemera, onto paper, and crafting mostly short-form positive psychology journal entries, can help the creator boost mental well-being.
It’s both a tactile practice and an analog hobby which aligns with a growing movement that prioritizes non-digital tangible experiences. The movement calls for a lifestyle full of in-person habits to facilitate social bonding and more engagement with surroundings. Going screen-free, even for a short time, can be beneficial. And as a bonus, it can help increase connection with nature and being present.
Junk journaling is the act of collecting different materials – found, made, or purchased – with the intention of journaling through recycling, reimagining, redesigning and repurposing. The reasoning behind the journaling session can be anything that inspires you to create: feeling better, grounding, preserving memories, designing a gratitude list, practicing positive diary entries, learning about yourself or others, and even relaxing. And because it’s so personal, it’s appropriate for all ages.
Junk journaling is good for your brain
Because junk journaling requires upper limb functions, somatosensory processing takes place. The somatosensory system refers to the brain structure responsible for touch awareness (also known as tactile identification), body perception (also known as spatial awareness), and physical movements (also known as motor activities). The neural pathway allows us to perceive bodily sensations and feelings based on literal and metaphorical touch information.
Junk journaling activates both neural pathways – posterior column-medial lemniscus pathway and spinothalamic tract pathway – and engages tactical recognition. “Physically handling materials such as cutting, gluing and layering, engages somatosensory processing, which helps anchor attention in the present moment. This can reduce rumination and cognitive overload by helping us express ourselves through sensory experiences,” says Emma Loker, a licensed child and adolescent therapist and founder of PsycheWrite.
Another aspect of its psychology is rooted in the need for imaginative outlets, processing emotions, and conserving episodic and semantic memories, also called autobiographical memory. “Physical capture like junk journaling needs sensory-motor actions like handling, selecting and arranging materials. This process helps us encode the autobiographical memory strongly, through multisensory processing,” says Loker. Autobiographical memory is a specific and sustained lasting memory system that encloses life experiences and episodes, facts, and happenings.
“Humans naturally organize experiences into stories and patterns for continuity and meaning. Junk journaling externalizes part of that process. The page becomes a place where fragments of everyday life can be collected, admired and revisited,” says Elina Telford, Ph.D and HCPC registered psychologist.
Illustration by Heedayah Lockman
Creative pursuits are also a basic human craving that serve both a cognitive and emotional function. Creativity encourages self-regulation and offers a space for mental and artistic expression. “Creative and reflective practices are often associated with improved wellbeing, particularly when there is freedom from pressure, performance or perfectionism,” adds Telford. Arts and crafts can produce feel-good hormones like dopamine and serotonin, and strengthen creative and analytical neural networks. The reflective part of junk journaling can amplify bliss and remind us that finding moments of gratitude can help rewire the brain for resilience.
How can it support your feelings?
Junk journaling offers kinesthetic engagement with art supplies and crafts materials. Coupled with writing, it catalyzes a space filled with active engagement, enhanced attentiveness, dwindled fatigue, serving as a low-effort and accessible mindfulness activity.
Research conducted around the sensory art space found that visual and haptic engagement act as an unconscious fidget, where playing with and touching things can alleviate anxiety, trigger complete immersion, and inspire positive feelings.
These upcycled objects act as prompts, which are helpful in reflective writing by yielding a topic, theme, or subject for the maker to produce a junk journal page. Research has also shown that such prompts can encourage not just appreciation, but also cultivate a new perspective around overlooked things.
For people who struggle to articulate their emotions and feelings verbally, this visual-centric tool can help translate their experiences, and associated thoughts and feelings. Junk journaling is a creative outlet for emotional regulation and expression. It also fosters cognitive flexibility as collage making initiates strategic thinking to form a cohesive conceptualized poster sheet.
More research showed that making art and crafts can offer a sense of wellbeing. Art- and craft-based intervention also increased the happiness scores for the participants during the research conducted. The paper further states that it can positively impact longevity.
Junk journaling also calcifies the brain's networks of neurons used for memory retention. The ability to recall experiences, situations, people and things improves with tactile, sensory-based hobbies. This can in turn cultivate appreciative feelings and emotions connected to positive memories, bringing a greater sense of satisfaction.
Junk journaling caters to sentimental items that appeal to more than just the eyes. Even if things are bought, they are aesthetically pleasing to the person who bought them. And these aesthetically-pleasing creations are soothing to the mind, offering more reward, providing a higher sense of pleasure and accomplishment, and evoking positive emotions. Just like making other low-barrier-to-entry art, such as an adult’s coloring book, it’s a stress reliever that tapers off thought overload.
Real people, real junk, real results
1. Ashita, a 26 year old UI/UX designer, sees memories as her prized possessions and uses junk journaling to poeticize little life moments. “Junk journaling reminds me of special moments and versions of myself that I never want to forget. It allows me to slow down, be present in the moment, and time travel back to emotions, places, feelings, and people who I cherish.”
Her process reflects her and not any trend she says. She suggests beginners to start with one item on one page and gradually build up on it, embracing a technique that’s freeing. “Light a candle or two and play some music if one wishes to," she says. Comfort, safety, joyfulness, and a space to honor our feelings are some of the positives for Ashita.
2. Madi Schwetz, 29, who calls herself a cosy content creator, took a fancy to creating a scrapbook for her daughter when she was pregnant with her. Later on, a junk journaling TikTok video encouraged her to start journaling for herself as well. “It’s the best to unwind, reminisce, and turn everyday mundane into adorned memories.”
She appreciates how the junk journaling community is sweet and supportive to her. Madi uses “A5 softcover leuchtturm for my journal, a glue stick, liquid glue, a photo printer, my favs are a Canon Selphy 1500, an HP sprocket and some junk.” Crumpled receipts always cover her pages entirely as her backdrop followed by junk journaling with a theme in mind. She focuses on texture for her style.
3. Alexa Rae, a 27 year old administrative assistant and creative content creator says junk journaling is healing, calming and decompressing to her. “It’s a great tool to keep my inner child alive and nourish my sentimental self by creatively playing with collectibles to preserve my junk memories.”
She collects “receipts, tags, packaging, photos, magazine clippings, stickers, notes and more,” before planning a page around a memory and she pastes things as a design that feels or looks pretty. It helps her unwind when she’s snowed under heavy emotions. It’s also a routine to consistently channel her creativity, even when she’s not feeling motivated, because there’s no pressure to follow a particular method or structure.
4. Joyce, 24, is a chemist who junk journals using scraps to capture memories and be thankful. As someone who’s particular about how things look, junk journaling lets her design no-holds-barred looks. “I also now get out of the house more to experience new things just so I can journal about them.”
She sifts out a theme in mind before she starts collecting different pieces for junk journaling so as not to hoard. “Once I think I have everything, I assemble it together in a way that makes sense to me. I sometimes also sew into pages for diverse patterns.” She reports spending less time on her phone when she junk journals.
How to start (no experience needed)
Work with a blank pages notebook or sheets that can be braided with ornate ribbons, strings, elastics, or colorful threads using a hole puncher.
Select a theme, subject, mood, feeling, or any other topic. A few examples:
Feelings-based items to let it all out.
Newspaper, magazines or poster cuttings that reflect moods.
“Good things happened to me” theme.
Conscious stream of junk journaling.
A theme surrounding anxiety and future self.
Everyday collections.
Special event ephemera.
Affirmations for manifestation.
A memory book.
Start by collecting basic designs such as squares, circles, and straight lines to help shape the page. The design can also make up a silhouette for relics, like a circle of cafe discounts.
While laying out, stuff can be off-the-cuff.
Add assorted keepsakes – souvenirs and keepsakes such as straws, pockets, glitter, strings, food packages, stickers, greeting cards, hard copies, patches, drawings, clippings, flowers, seeds, fabrics, metals, or anything else that inspires.
A pattern or artwork can be pasted first and then junk items can be glued on top. You could cement a gift wrapper or a background print for the base of the page.
Now place everything on the page instinctively. Have fun!
Vartika Puranik is a journalist, social media expert, copywriter, content strategist, and writer.
Illustrations by Jerold Sunga and Heedayah Lockman
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Illustrations by Heedayah Lockman