Journaling - The Write Stuff For You?

@momdukes3 Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect! Like you, I have used the write it down/then destroy it when dealing with someone I have a grudge against. Sometimes I hold onto that letter and reread it a day later to see if it really was me, or how I might fix everything.

A journal can be anything we like. Not just words we write. Fortune cookie slips, cartoons, tickets that remind us of an event, poetry we write ourselves or like from someone else.

Seeing our growth, as you stated, let's us see how we are doing.
Ginger

Good morning!

I've been journaling for going on 40 years. Insane, I know. 🙂 I don't recall calling it journaling back then. It was just what I did every day, right about sunrise, along with my first cup of coffee. What I would write about would most often be a surprise. An idea, a phrase, sometimes a whole first sentence would come wiggling out of my pen.

This morning, for instance, for the past 10 days, I've been driving my partner to chemo. It's been hard on her, the chemo, but not nearly that hard, as simply the driver, on me. She's got lots more chemo to come. I figured we could continue this arrangement indefinitely.

But then last night I fell (I'm 80), smashing my knee. This morning, I'm unsure I'll be able to drive my partner, at least not until my knee mends—a predicament. (Not the biggest, but half-awake this morning, it felt pretty big. 🙂 )

What to do about helping my partner get to and from her chemo in the days ahead was No. 1 on my mind this morning. Naturally, that's what I wrote about: the predicament, the possible solutions, weighing the merits of one solution against the others––on and on until I knew what would be best for partner and me as we manage the coming week.

I got this idea of always beginning with what's No. 1 on my mind from a Welsh writer who said she always started her day with her Thought No. 1: if she began her day with whatever was already there waiting in the wings of her mind to come on stage, her writing would come easy, her thoughts would come tumbling out, often those thoughts would surprise her––she called this "unforced" journaling "flow"––suggesting that if only I were to try it, to be dogged and keep my pen moving, the day ahead would quickly (two or three handwritten pages) assume a manageable shape and even the most unsolvable predicaments would––by the time I'd tired of writing––show themselves to be easily solvable.

Cheers!
Ray (@ray666)

I write every day, sometimes good, sometimes bad that's sometimes how it is. But I find it very relieving to write at the end of the day

@ginnysnow I bet there are many, besides me, who are nodding their heads in agreement with your statement! Writing things out has so many benefits!
Ginger

@gingerw I completely agree with you, writing things down offers such a great release and can be a wonderful way to process thoughts and emotions. It's amazing how putting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, can bring clarity and perspective to situations that might otherwise seem overwhelming.

I find the transformation to be downright miraculous. I begin many mornings in the glum––joints aching is the usual No, 1 cause––but I know from years of journaling, if only I get underway, lay down a few clumsy sentences, allow thoughts to arise unchallenged, and most importantly keep my pen moving, before I reach the bottom of the first page I'll feel the glum vanishing and the day transforming itself into an inviting prospect. That, in my mind, is the power––and the miracle!––of journaling.

@ray666 I couldn't agree with you more! Journaling has been a part of my life for many decades. Looking back on different times, sometimes there were big gaps [years!] where there was no journaling. Not for lack of life going on. It just seems like things were "too busy" to take some minutes most days to just write. But I can definitely see, when rereading from long ago, what was going on, and how cathartic it has been to simply write.

A comment on the weather, or what is right outside my writing area, and there you go! a kernel of words to start on. Let your mind go, try a haiku or short poem, write an observation about what is going on in your neighborhood or the world. Journaling can be anything you want it to be. You don't need to share what you write.
Ginger

Hi, Ginger (@gingerw)

I have to confess to stretches of no-journaling, too. I'm not sure of the "why." Probably, like you say, those were stretches of times of extraordinary busyness. From where I'm sitting, if I look to my right, at the far end of the room, I see a lower shelf pressed with––with? I'm not sure how many––pressed with 30 or 40 old Composition notebooks––my old journals––each dated on its cover with a Start and End date. I know I was journaling before I started using Composition notebooks, but what happened to those earlier pages is anybody's guess.

Your mentioning as a way to start a comment on the weather or inking in a favorite haiku got me to look back through the pages of my latest journal (begun on June 24th) to see how I started some of my entries. Here's a quotation (author unknown) I scribbled at the top of my Sunday, July 6th, page: "When I wake up feeling flat and blah, I realize this is going to be one of those days when I have to pull out a stop and kick it up a gear or two."

Did I manage to pull out that stop? I guess I'd have to read my Monday, July 7th page. 🙂

Best wishes,
Ray (@ray666)