How to Overcome Journaling Resistance
Are you resistant to journaling? For many years I attempted to journal without much success. I would buy a notebook…make that a multitude of notebooks…all manner of pens and pencils and add to these the greatest of intentions to record my day, my dreams, my desires, my dilemmas, my discoveries and my doubts.
What happened? I dabbled. I wrote drek.
I decided journaling wasn’t for me. In my closet are a box of about a dozen journals with one or two pages written in each. So why do I keep them?
Finding gold in a journal
I have learned that even one line written when I was 30 is a piece of gold, irreplaceable and priceless, for it spoke of my dreams in the midst of one of the worst trials of my life.
Another page written fifteen years later recorded my feelings when those particular dreams came true.
Now, I know a lot happened in between and I could use my time to bewail all that I didn’t write.
The stories of love and loss, the saga of moves and new beginnings, the memories of an old brown van that carried me into a new world, the people, dogs and weather patterns that shaped my life in those years.
Any of us could fill a library with romance, mystery and horror stories from pages of journals…and some people do. That wasn’t me.
It would be another 20 years before the seeds planted at 30 began to germinate, sending tendrils of life into the world in a variety of written and spoken formats.
Today I can celebrate with joy the privilege of journaling that began so tenuously over 45 years ago.
Roadblocks are common
I used to think that journaling my stories was a) boring b) unnecessary and c) too private to risk putting in print.
I had no understanding or appreciation of the way it preserves memories of little things…the things I was too naive to see as the building blocks of a life well lived.
What I thought was drek or meaningless gibberish turns out to be a reflection of me, a bit like looking in the mirror early in the morning: wrinkled, disheveled, unwashed.
Gradually I began to write more regularly, and my entries changed as I grew. They became longer than one line.
They morphed from a diary of what I did that day to a vision of what I was dreaming.
I wrote letters to God and to my dog and to my muse, who all replied in some way.
I could rant, or pray, or just write gibberish. It is all important. It is all treasure.
I am sharing this journey because I want to encourage you to pick up a pen and begin. It is never too late!!
If you tracked the numbers here, you will see I was in my mid sixties before I began to see the importance…and probably closer to 70 before journaling became a daily habit.
Some of the things I especially like about journaling are:
It doesn’t require anything special… a cheap notebook, laptop, daily planner, or even index cards will work.
There are no rules! Grammar doesn’t matter, penmanship isn’t judged, and spelling is immaterial.
Perfection doesn’t live in the world of journaling. That revelation is worth its weight in ink!!
It can consist of one line a day that takes less than two minutes.
It is a treasure that grows with each stroke of the pen and appreciates in value much faster than the stock market.
Journaling opens doors to travel between yesterday and tomorrow.
Journaling is cheaper than therapy and good for the brain, exercising language and memory as we age.
I can use pictures cut out of an old magazine, or draw stick figures.
It is a wonderful spiritual practice…including the Benedictine practice of “beginning again!”
If you are already a journaler I know I will hear some ‘amens’ but for those whose patterns are more like mine…write a little, tear it up, wait three years, write a bit more, tear it up again, go eat chocolate and throw the notebooks in a box, buy a new journal, start again…
I have a few suggestions for you:
Start today.
Start small…you might try a tiny (3×5 inch) notebook, or write just one line.
Repeat.
Try out different papers, pens, or digital journals….there is joy in that alone! But don’t get caught up in shopping!
It is an endless rabbit hole!
Experiment.
Don’t get stuck in any one style, ie diary, letters, reflection, or poetry.
Anything works.
Try adding photography as a prompt to writing.
Join The Reflective Collective, a free online group of people who write to a new prompt every day.
Learn and be inspired.
Don’t judge. No one else will.
If I could give you one thing today it would be inspiration and encouragement to pick up your pen…or pencil…and write one line. Only one line. Put the date at the top. I like to put the time of day, but that isn’t necessary.
And begin.
One line.
Today.
Tomorrow you will thank me.
For ongoing inspiration don’t foget to tell me where to send it.!
