Keeping a Journal

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Michael_Mayo

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I am pretty much a quiet person with not a lot to say. I started journaling when I was a senior in college but did not write much until I was almost 40. I found that it helps me to process what is going on inside, very therapeutic. And now I do all sorts of things with it. I love it.
 
Me too. Someone turned me on to it many years ago and then after entering Karate and encountering the Japanese concept of saying as little as possible, it really took off.

I fill one or two composition books a year depending on how much the wheels are turning and lately it’s been quite a lot.

I can’t imagine not doing it when I need to and it’s cathartic even if all you do is through them away when they’re full. 🤷
 
Michael_Mayo said:
I am pretty much a quiet person with not a lot to say. I started journaling when I was a senior in college but did not write much until I was almost 40. I found that it helps me to process what is going on inside, very therapeutic. And now I do all sorts of things with it. I love it.
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Can you tellus more about your journalling…?

Is it a diary type journal or is it a prayer journal?
 
I’m a journalholic. I get up every morning and make the coffee and get my little daily reflections books and my book of the saints and my journal and sit at my kitchen table and read and reflect and sip coffee and pray and make the morning offering and write about lots of stuff. It is a big part of my spiritual life and I’ve been doing it for years. If for some reason I couldn’t start my day this way, like when I go to the hospital, it really does have a bad effect. I need to start my day this way, just to get me started on the right foot. I’ve grown to love it and will probably continue doing so till the last pot of coffee gets made and it is time to hand the coffee pot over to one of my daughters.

I sometimes think of what will happen to my journals when I’m gone, how my girls will be able to “visit” with me long after I’m gone by sitting and finally finding out what made mom tick all those years. I’m probably gonna make them laugh, cry and go “Oh my God she didn’t really think that did she?”

Glenda
 
Hello CM.
Church_Militant said:
Me too. Someone turned me on to it many years ago and then after entering Karate and encountering the Japanese concept of saying as little as possible, it really took off.

I fill one or two composition books a year depending on how much the wheels are turning and lately it’s been quite a lot.

I can’t imagine not doing it when I need to and it’s cathartic even if all you do is through them away when they’re full. 🤷
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I’m wondering with over 25,000 post here at CAF you consider yourself as saying less these days. :rolleyes: Howzthatworkinforya?

Glenda
 
I cannot imagine what it would be like to journal. :blushing:

Which to me sounds odd, since I have been a writer at various times in my life.
 
I’ve kept a journal for about 30 years, but I rarely write in it every day. Once or twice a week is more like it, unless something noteworthy, extraordinary or traumatic is happening. I’ve always included the spiritual aspects of my life, like prayer, and the sacraments and whatever I’m reading, but mostly I write about whatever is going on in my life. There used to be a lot of entries about work before I retired, and now it is more about what is going on with the family. I’ve got about a dozen notebooks filled up by now.
 
Once, years and years ago, someone gave me a diary. I was supposed to write just one sentence per day. I did that, found out one sentence just wasn’t nearly enough! I liked it, and then got a notebook.

I’d be going through a lot, feel like I wanted to talk to someone about what I was going through, but didn´t have that. So, instead, I wrote my thoughts down, dated them. Later, I’d go back, and I felt I could see myself learning and growing.

Sometimes, I’d review what I had written long before, and I couldn’t believe I had written that, that I had once thought like that. I believed it helped me better understand both myself and others much better.

I used it as a kind of outlet, to get what was bothering me off my chest. At the time, I found it most therapeutic. I haven´t done this in years, but when I needed to do it, it was most helpful.
 
I call it a diary, but yes I keep one, and have for the past several years. I’ve thrown out a lot of them (the little books with the locks on them) and regretted it. But now, for the past five or so years, I’ve consistently kept one. I don’t write in it everyday, just when something memorable happens. I write them with a pen, in a little book, and I mostly use it to write down dreams I’ve had (the kind when you are sleeping, not goals) thoughts, and feelings. What anyone would write in a diary, I guess. Sometimes I look back at them and read them and find things I had forgotten about!🙂
 
crystal_waters said:
Can you tellus more about your journalling…?

Is it a diary type journal or is it a prayer journal?
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It is anything that comes out. No rules but when I feel poetic I indent and when I record dreams I use blue ink. I like to write Psalms for prayers and I also note what is going on in my day (even if just cold weather). I have no children so I almost feel it a shame that no one will ever read it. My wife is not interested (at least now). Much of it is probably boring to someone else but then I get into mystical sort of moods. Sometimes I will write a dialogue with Jesus. There is also another process I like:3,2,1. Like if there is a person or problem or issue I am having trouble with, describe it in 3rd person, then talk about it again in 2nd person, finally talk about it in 1st person, ("I…) I did that with my boss once and learned a lot about myself.

Mostly though it is just writing down whatever is on my mind and what is shocking is that I didn’t think I had much there, and then in the writing process more comes out, gets developed, articulated. The reason I brought this up is because I was looking through some old ones today. I seldom read them. It is like having a therapist for free. I am almost 60 and the last 20 years have been almost daily.

So I recommend it and would like to help and encourage others to start.
 
I have written in journals for 38 years and I have saved all of them. I might make daily entries for a week then go a week without writing anything. It depends on what is going on in my life. My journals are a combination of daily events and comments on my spiritual life.

I switched last year to an app called Day One which I use on my iPhone and my computer. It syncs between my phone and my computer which is very useful. Often, I pray in a nearby church on my lunch hour and I may type a quick thought into my phone. When I go home in the evenings I can pick that up on my computer and write more about it.

I can then export a series of entries from the app to a .pdf file and save it. Mainly I like using the app because I can type much faster than I can write.🙂
 
I did so almost daily for a couple of years, but acute desolation followed by the acrimonious rupture of my relationship with my now ex-spiritual director has left me with nothing much to write. I do still put pen to paper when something strikes me. It’s just that very little strikes me these days.
 
wow how nice it is to hear that others in the world keep a journal for many years. I do call mine a diary, we learnt to start writing a diary while in school, and it stayed with me. I think I’ve kept mine for 26 years. Some years there is much written about my life, world events etc and some years have gaps were I’ve not needed to write in it, or just forgotten for a time.
I do wonder if anyone might read it some day, and for a time I would leave some personal issue’s out or write them in a way I’d be the only one who knew what they actually meant for fear of someone reading it, but recently I have written what I left out. And I have found a very dear friend here on CAF who knows more about my personal issues than my diary does!
Journals/diarys are a great way of reflecting back many years on the way in which one used to think or do things and how much a person has grown (or maybe not!) spiritually.

👍
 
UpUpAndAway said:
I did so almost daily for a couple of years, but acute desolation followed by the acrimonious rupture of my relationship with my now ex-spiritual director has left me with nothing much to write. I do still put pen to paper when something strikes me. It’s just that very little strikes me these days.
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All the more reason to write. It is like pulling a little thread that sometimes leads to a great unravel of repressed stuff.

I started more consstently when I felt that life was going by too quickly. I thought if I wrote each day I would be honoring the gift of each day in my life and not let them all just pass so quickly without reflection.
 
Michael_Mayo said:
All the more reason to write. It is like pulling a little thread that sometimes leads to a great unravel of repressed stuff.
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I have tried on several occasions and ended up with lots of blank pages. But hey, it’s a new year. Couldn’t hurt to give it another go. What the heck.
 
UpUpAndAway said:
I have tried on several occasions and ended up with lots of blank pages. But hey, it’s a new year. Couldn’t hurt to give it another go. What the heck.
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Start a dialogue with your “unstruck self”…

“So why does nothing strike you these days?”

Now how would you respond?
 
glendab said:
Hello CM.

I’m wondering with over 25,000 post here at CAF you consider yourself as saying less these days. :rolleyes: Howzthatworkinforya?

Glenda
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:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: It’s not…but it has helped me keep my posts more concise and spares you guys from some of my mental ramblings.

Actually, when I first started here on CAF my daily posts average was way high…13-15 a day but now it’s down to maybe 6+ to 7. I did finally realize that I personally do not have to respond to everything…even if I have an answer…Gives others a chance to do their thing and sharpen their skills.🙂
 
I have kept journals and diaries all my life and have kept a prayer journal since my entry into the Catholic Church in 1982. At different times it has taken different forms – lists of prayer intentions and intercessory prayers; notes made during spiritual direction; notes made on retreat; prayer resolutions; entries during Lent; notes on the inner life of faith, a record of doubts and times of acedie and trial; notes of gratitude and thanks.

For some years I have also kept a blog, making posts private at times and then exploring certain writings and responses that others might find interesting. And I make notes there too on books read and reviewed.

Keeping a prayer journal has been a help to me, especially during periods of dryness or grief. In other journals and blogs I note down details relating to work, dreams, travels, relationships – but the most intimate and focused journal has been this one.
 
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