Guest Blog Post by Sabrina S.  

Writing has been my longest on and off relationship.

From the moments I discovered the magic of writing at the age of 6, I’ve been fascinated by the possibilities and endless creativity of words and their combination. However, my link to writing, and especially journaling has been made of jolts and bolts. I’m not among the lucky few who have tons of journals sitting on a bookshelf. I have some, but they’re all unfinished, each marking a different period of my life. All in all, I have journaled in the high and very low periods of my life, but not at all when things were just OK, which is the usual. 

Last year, when separating from my husband, I took the time to reread all of my journals. I was starting therapy and I thought it could help me on this new journey. What I discovered was an invaluable source of insights and hidden treasures. I had never reread anything ever. I wish I had, but above all, I wish I had never stopped journaling.

Overall, the big lesson I learned from last year’s journal excavation is that when I stop journaling, I go back to wearing partial glasses, blinkers, I don’t get to see as much as when I write daily. I understand things here and there, but it gets all forgotten, drown into the mass of everyday life. Plus, not writing makes my life more miserable as I don’t have anywhere to unload all of my stuff, so it gets bottled up inside. Not the healthiest.

Upon that epiphany, I decided to go back to a daily routine of writing. I don’t set a particular hour of the day to do it. I don’t do Morning Pages, or Evening Pages, I do Whenever Pages. Whenever it feels right, whenever I have enough time to grab a pen and lay on the page whatever is on my mind and in my heart. If I skip a day or two, no big deal... Flexibility is key in that kind of regular practice.

Here are the different virtues I have found in journaling over time:

Journaling as a place of freedom:

Journaling invites you to unwind, vent, vomit, sing, praise, dream, express love, gratitude, anger, resentment, frustration... The list could go on... It’s a special place where you can express anything you want, uncensored. It’s absolute freedom! - and it doesn’t always have to be appropriate and legal. There are very few places in the world where you are allowed to do so without suffering any negative consequences.

Journaling as a privileged moment of inner connection:

Life, as it is sometimes organized, offers us very few opportunities to spend quality time with ourselves. There is always something to be done, some deadline of some sort or some chores waiting to be dealt with. We sometimes just forget to take the time to stop and assess, put things on hold, and meet with our inner self. I journal in a caring and nurturing spirit as a gift to myself. My journals are the place where I summon retrospect, dive in introspection, and write expressively about anything I feel like writing about. It’s also where I can be completely authentic, ask any question, cast the wildest wishes, no one will judge or make fun of me. I don’t write for posterity, I don’t care about grammar and spelling, there’s no particular talent required. Anyone can do it.

Journaling as memory keeping:

As a scrapbooker, going back to a regular routine of writing has breathed some substance back into my creative process. I really wish I could rewind the movie and read how I felt when I was 22. Journaling helps you keep track of your journey and evolution, keep a record of what/how you feel, the issues that you are tackling at a particular time, and it also makes you document the little mundane things that would otherwise get quickly forgotten. Again, it’s a true treasure of personal knowledge and memory keeping.

Journaling as a potent tool of motivation and empowerment:

I also see journaling as a strong motivational tool. It can help you set goals and resolutions and follow them through. When I’m working on something that requires more focus than usual, I like to check in twice a day in my journal to monitor my progress. I don’t do that to create pressure or guilt if I don’t complete everything on time, but it creates a form of accountability and no one will be more understanding and benevolent in my shortcomings than myself.  It can help you take your lives into your own hands and help you become true agents of your life again. In this kind of journaling, each word you write makes you live your life with more intention. It’s a wonderful tool of agency when you’re working on a project. It can also help you give birth to new ideas or revive old ones you didn’t dare pursue in the past because of fear or any other self-imposed block. The more you write, the bolder you become.

Journaling as a (healing) narrative:

Journaling can help you make sense of a messy, complicated, and/or painful experience.  There is an obvious therapeutic value to writing. First, because it uses language, but also because, once you write something, it’s there on the page. It has an external existence. I strongly believe there is a major difference between thinking/speaking and writing. The difference is the impact it can have. What you wrote may not be 100% true and unchanging, but it has been materialized outside of your mind and body. It now has a life of its own. You may go back to it, make it evolve, grow, or disappear altogether. You’re the writer, you decide what to do with the fate of your stories and experience.

One thing I like to do when mulling over an issue is to consciously write about it as if I were writing a story, with its set of characters, the atmosphere, the exposition, different perspectives... Journaling is inherently a narrative, but writing as if from the outside and from multiple points of view is very enlightening and insightful. It makes you see things differently. It also helps you develop understanding, love, and empathy. My heart has grown tremendously and made room for more positive emotions through this practice.

Further inspiration from fellow journalers:

To finish, I’d like to highlight a few people who have strongly helped me and inspired me to grab a pen again. I’ll start with Ali Edwards , whose blog is a wonderful illustration of how to practice memory keeping on a daily basis. Then, we all know the wonderful work of Julia Cameron and her Artist’s Way, a 12-week program on how to go back to a creative life.  On iTunes, you can also listen to the archives of Kathleen Adams’ show “Journaling for a better life”. It’s a long series of podcasts featuring professionals who have been using journaling in their private lives and professional practices, it’s a goldmine of information on the healing powers of journaling. 

BIO:

Sabrina S. is teaching English at the University of Bordeaux, France. She loves writing, photography and scrapbooking. You can find her at: Writing for a better life  and Sabbyscrap