The Art of Journaling
There has been so much written about journaling that it feels presumptuous to add to more to the collection. But presumption can be the best approach to reach the heart of people who have procrastinated when it comes to journaling.
How do I know? I know because I procrastinated for decades. I told myself many stories: “I don’t want anyone to read it. I’m too busy. I don’t know how. I forget to do it. I’m not the type. I’m not a writer. ….”
Why We Avoid Journaling
Let’s look at that last argument first. For years it was my safety zone, declaring that I am not really a writer. And I wasn’t. There is a time for all of us when we do not write.
It can be for many different reasons. Mostly, we gave it up after formal schooling because it is no longer an “assignment.” I added “no one really cares” to my excuses.
Well, Duh! No one cared because I hadn’t written anything down for them to care about. Nor would I have been willing to share it.
When I discovered the art of journaling, all of my arguments began to slip away until now, I find myself writing every day in one or more journals.
Do I ever go back and read them? Not often. This was a big insight to me. When we write for a class or for a boss (or a blog!), we are always re-reading, checking errors, and tweaking the content. It’s about being ‘right’ or pleasing others.
Journaling is Non-judgmental
I don’t have to do any of that in my journal. Who cares if it is illegible or if I am being redundant or using too many adverbs? Sometimes, I write with no punctuation or string all the sentences together with commas.
I seldom have a reason to go back and read what I have written. It’s a bit like having a conversation with someone. Once we talk about Tuesday’s weather, we seldom return to that same conversation.
So, too, with journaling. Once I have spilled my woes, ranted about life, struggled with a few ‘whys’, or made observations about what I see or hear or think, I seldom have a need to return to it. If I do, however, it is all there.
I have snippets of my life documented and available when I need to know when it was that company arrived from the West Coast, or when the dog threw up.
I do find it almost humorous when I sit down with a ten-year-old journal to see what I was thinking or feeling a decade ago. And ten years is about when I began to do journaling. That means I was in my mid-sixties when I began seriously!
Some Whys of Journaling
Today I struggle to write a memoir that is very important to me, and I would give anything to have some glimpses into my world of thoughts and feelings from my youth or even middle age.
Are you thinking about journaling? Or creative writing? Or letters of legacy? What are you waiting for? There are stories only you can tell. Ideas and perspectives no one else has. Emotions that you would not want to expose in public. Your journal can hold all of these things so you don’t have to.
Have you ever felt like no one understands you or even hears you? Your journal always listens.
Do you have issues in your life that you would like to discuss, but you’re not ready to hire a therapist? Your journal is waiting to reflect back some wisdom from your inner self.
Are there things you want to tell a family member that you never did because you didn’t know how? Use your journal to practice what you might say.
Did you give up drawing at nine because someone said what you drew was ‘stupid?’ Use your journal to draw, paint, or just doodle.
Types of Journals
There are a gazillion types of journals: leather bound, plain college-ruled spiral bound, or digital. There are guided journals with prompts and quotes and journals for specific topics like taking a cruise or learning violin. Spend a few minutes on Amazon, and you will be easily overwhelmed by options. Same thing if you watch YouTube and do a search for journaling. With all these options, few excuses exist for not starting to write. Don’t let that happen to you.
Journaling as a Form of Life Review
A simple life review is a good place to begin journaling. Julia Cameron has a great new book (It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again) for retirees with a well-laid-out road map for learning to write.
Her suggestion is to divide your age by 12 and use the result as the number of years to tackle at a time. Thus if you are 72 you would block off every 6 years and write about those. If you are 36 you would work in 3 years segments, etc.
I recommend her book because not only does it give you a framework for writing but tons of encouraging stories and inspiration to do it. The result is a life review, a little bit at a time.
Anyone who has ever worked in hospice caring for people at the end of life is familiar with ‘life review’ as one of the final processes before death.
It may be observed in hands that make knitting motions, for example. After language has disappeared and verbal communication with others has ended, it is not uncommon for small actions to continue a ‘life review’ right up until death.
I encourage you to begin that life review today. It could be your own life. Or that of your pet. Or the life of something you have created, like a painting, or a profession, or a garden.
Journaling When Life is Difficult
Finally, if you are in a place of difficulties that are too overwhelming to know what you want to write about, pick up my recently published journal, “Life Jacket: A Journal to Keep You Afloat in Difficult Times.” By following the prompts in this book, you will find your own inner strength that will keep you from drowning in overwhelm. Or give it to someone you know who has suffered loss.
Your next journal is out there waiting for you. May you find it, use it, and grow with it in peace.
Be sure to let me know where to send TheReflectivePen!
