Journaling
peterdannock • 24 Nov 2021 •
Journaling (noun): the practice of keeping a journal or diary, especially to express one’s thoughts.
Over many years I have prompted myself to develop a journaling habit by getting a notebook (paper or digital) and writing down words. Often it would be a list of the day’s activities, without little or no expression of feeling or emotion. After a few days, I would lose interest and stop writing. I wouldn’t necessarily see this as a failing, as I would rationalise my thinking to say that it was just not for me.
On reflection, it appears I was going about it the wrong way.
When I started writing a daily post almost 12 months ago, I never thought of it as a journal. Instead, I wanted to write, and with no set goal or agenda, I was motivated by a desire to create a writing habit. On reading through the posts over the last two years, some of what I have written has become my journal. Some of the writing is based on a random subject, with no relevance to a point in time. Other words reflect my feelings or emotions and provide a snapshot of personal history about what happened on a particular day.
When I look back at this body of work, I have achieved something that I thought wasn’t for me, journaling.
@peterdannock Been enjoying your posts when you dive into a random topic, like this one. So the thing that made the difference was the frame of mind you brought into it?
As in journaling had certain limiting connotations and associated ideas tagged to it that didn’t allow for the freedom to write anything/everything/whatever?