Journaling has long been touted as a good practice by psychologists. Its benefits include stress reduction, self-reflection, emotional processing and an overall improved mental health condition. But what happens when we combine the practice of journaling with the power of sketchnoting? 📔🎨=💡

For my daughter (Arya) and I, this has been somewhat of an evolving practice. Since she was 5, I encouraged Arya to sketchnote whenever we went on a holiday or road trip. Slowly but surely, it has become an activity that we do together, allowing us both to reflect on our shared experiences, as well as notice how we see things and process things differently.

For me, visual thinking has been part of my practice since childhood. It has helped me to learn, and develop my mental processing abilities.Looking at Arya’s visual notes, it’s clear that as a child, her mind processes things in an incredibly non-linear way. She bounces from thought to thought, reflecting on seemingly random moments in her experience.

But if I take a step back, I can see the gathering of ideas that form a narrative which crystallises her memories, making certain moments stand out strongly. This preview into her mind is a privilege and continues to surprise me.These two pages are recent sketchnotes we did while on a road trip for Arya’s 8th birthday. She had no prompts, and created the layout on her own. I drew mine alongside her at the cafe, then at the holiday house we stayed at.