Some of my readers know that I consider regular journal writing to be one of the big three as far as personal growth and well-being are concerned. (The other two are meditation and exercise.) However, one perceptive person commented the other day that she used to journal long ago, but stopped when she found that there is a down side to journaling. This can come when one reads through previous entries. (Although reading the entry from a year ago after you have made your today’s entry can be very educational, some people find it depressing to realize that the problems about which they were writing, and their insights on them, show little change today. They had thought they were making progress, and yet a comparison of the old and the new entries suggests that they are actually going in circles, still thinking the same thoughts and facing the same problems.
I agree that this can be depressing. However, it is also beneficial in that it does let us know what is going on. If you are lost in a forest and are going in circles, it is at least useful to recognize that you have once again looped back into familiar territory. So alerted, you can change your tactics and thus have a hope of making better progress in the direction you choose. In life it is the same way. Unless you don’t WANT to know when you are circling rather than making progress, the information culled from old journals can be very useful. Perhaps, rather than be depressed when making this discovery, we can greet it as a pointer to future progress.
Obviously, in order to have old journals, you need to be a journal writer. Journal writing contributes to self-examination. (Was that an “ouch” I just heard? Yet remember that Plato – or Socrates, the scholars dispute this – wrote” The unexamined life is not worth living.” It certainly cannot be learned from.) Keeping a journal encourages us to examine what is going on, what part we are playing in our own successes and our own disappointments. Essayist James Boswell, back in the 18th century, wrote “a man (sic) adjusts his character by looking at his journal.” If we write our true thoughts and feelings, and then read them later, we can indeed take the part of observer and notice where we are in error. Which means, does it not, that we will then be able to make a correction?
It also encourages us to express the thoughts and feelings that may be bottled up, even barely in awareness, within us. Such expression is healthy. It makes us more aware of things that are simmering below the surface. It brings us insights that we might not have reached had we not forced ourselves to put our vague thoughts and glimmerings into words. Expressing a thought or an idea in words forces us to clarify it, to hold it up in front of ourselves and examine it to see whether the words we have used are a true expression of it, or if they need to be tweaked until we get it right. In doing that, we may also examine and tweak the thought itself.
Where to start with a journal? With pen, or pencil, and paper. Or keyboard and new “blank document.” With a few moments of time safe from interruptions. With an open heart and mind, and total honesty, for if you cannot be honest with yourself… then, friend, you are in deep, deep trouble. Your journal is not for publication, not for posterity, it is for you and you alone, so this is a place where there is no excuse for dishonesty. In fact, if you find yourself censoring as you write, this is itself a “red flag,” a warning to check what is going on, and from whom you wish to hide the thoughts that you just chose to censor. Journal about that, too, in your quest for self-discovery.
There are many systems for keeping a journal and there is no one “right one.” Choose what seems to you to be the one you are most likely to follow. I know that many people relish the work they do with The Artist’s Way. Some people use a bound book with blank pages designed expressly for the purpose. Others use a writing pad and gather their pages into a 3-ring binder. Some systems are simple, some complex. Use what works for you. I have participated in journal workshops where I received journal systems so complex that even after a weekend of instruction I could not figure which “type” of writing to enter into which section of the binder. Yet I know that such systems work well for many – particularly those who have more time for their journals than I. I have found great satisfaction in simplicity, but, if you plan to journal, use whatever materials will encourage you to continue.
It is well worth the time.
Leave a Reply