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Journaling - The Write Stuff For You?
Long ago –okay, for me, it was long ago!- it was common for a young person to keep a diary, a place to write down the heartaches and giggles of growing up, the trials and tribulations of school, friendships, sports and activities. Sometimes it was a locked book, so that we felt secure knowing our secret thought remained a secret.
How times have changed! While I no longer keep a classic diary, it is no less important for me to write down thoughts, ideas, and heaven-knows-what, on a regular basis. Nowadays, the common name is a “journal”, and seems to appeal to every segment of society. There are an abundance of ways to do this, and so many reasons why. Although I prefer longhand, many people use a computer, and there are any number of prompts/styles/methods.
Let’s explore this together!
Do you journal? What prompted you to start? What would you tell someone who wants to start?
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@joko Yes, The Artist's Way was my big initial initial step into journaling, but I had been doing it by the seat of my pants for many years. She also wrote a couple of other journaling books. I'd be thrilled to take one of her workshops!
Ginger
Hello to all
I Hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving day and that the holiday season is a good one for all…my wife and I had thanksgiving dinner at a very close friend of ours …’Cracker Barrel’ restaurant…my wife is down with painful sciatica that comes and goes and my neighbor is still suffering from open wounds on his leg…he’s ordered some topical antibodies and hopefully this will work…I still awake to the nagging thought 💭‘what is going to become of us’.. I pray, for God to remove my unwanted anxious thoughts and start to move on….stay safe and healthy everyone
🙏pvctom
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3 Reactions@done24 Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. Can your do a voice to text type of journaling, I wonder? Or simply record in voice mode if able to. That would still get your words and thoughts out.
My dad started journaling in high school, all the way through his life. He was on the USS Enterprise on Dec 7, 1941 as a radioman. So, he saw lots of things all his life. And wrote it all. down. Each entry began with the identifiers, as I call them. Day of week, time of day, weather, and where he was writing at. I follow that same tradition. My entries may be long or short, but I have done them all in journals. Also, poetry and haiku, which have a separate section. When he was nearing the end of life, I asked him for his journals, but he said they were much too personal, as they documented his life as a mechanical engineer involved in the Cold War, plus health issues including my mother's decline into dementia and Alzheimers Disease. No clue where they ended up.
Ginger
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1 Reaction@pvctom2021 I'm glad you were able to get out for a nice meal. No doubt many of us have that same concern of what will become of us, on several different levels. What has your journaling told you? I once did an Ira Progoff Intensive Journaling Workshop and they suggested we sit in silence to ask a question like you express, writing it out, then use our non-dominant hand to write the answer that comes to us. Is that something you might try?
Ginger
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4 Reactions@gingerw
Thanks Ginger,
That sounds interesting and I will try that…I’m not sure what the answer will be… and I don’t understand the answer being written with the non dominant hand… but I will try it tomorrow morning when my anxious thought 💭 gets me upon awakening…very interesting 🤨
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1 ReactionI think the non-dominant hand is linked to the unconscious mind and emotions. Maybe it is in touch with what is hidden in us? I often draw with my left, non-dominant hand, and caption the doodles. That can be a fun addition to journaling as well. Tell us what happens!
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5 Reactions@mir123
Thanks 🙏 for the information and yes I will try that…the unconscious mind and the ‘what lies behind’ sounds like it could be something maybe 🤔 I need to know… thanks again for chiming in…🙏pvctom
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2 Reactions@gingerw
@mir123
Last night my sleep and awakening were not so bad, so I did not write down my question and sit and answer using my non dominant hand….the night before was different..my wife woke me in the early am hours by yelling my name loudly, 3 times today and shouted that I needed to stop screaming.. I wasn’t even aware that I was screaming or even having a nightmare…I’ve had episodes similar to this in the past, but not to this extent…I must have been deep…and when I awoke I was in not aware of what had happened during the night, I had completely forgotten it…but the morning anxiety and the dreadful thought 💭‘what’s going to happen to us’ was there and I had to shake it off and get moving….
Later on I grabbed my spiral notepad and wrote the question and sat there for a few minutes…still totally unaware of the episode of screaming and my wife having to wake me up…what came to me were probably the same thoughts and words that I would have written with my dominant hand but I tried it….I’m not sure, but here is what my non dominant hand scribbled…..”I DON’T HAVE…ENOUGH….WORRIED…
ALONE….NO ONE …TO BE WITH…ALONE…DEAD
Then this morning I was flipping through my phone trying to delete so many random photos when I came upon a pic of a pretty glass cut candle holder and stuck under it, was my DMV registration renewal card due 30 Nov…. I had completely forgotten about it…so down I go today (not far from me) in the Subaru to get the Camry new registration….to all have a safe and healthy week
🙏pvctom
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2 Reactions@gingerw
@mir123
Wow! Were you surprised?
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2 Reactions