Journaling
 

In an age of blogging- I started thinking about keeping a journal. This summer I bought a nice leather journal and I have a favorite writing tool, an old fountain pen. I really wanted to do this as an exercise to keep my mind from turning to mush. Well, I have been journaling since May and I must say I have really enjoyed it and have experienced some real benefits. My journal has several purposes, some days it is a prayer journal, some days it is a praise journal, some days it is a shoulder to cry on and some days it is just a gripe session! I have found it very cleansing- things that are bothering me, I write it down and leave it there. Now, I have always heard that this was the case with writing stuff down, but I never believed it. Someone recommended that I keep a journal when I was given a very difficult job- to be a principal at an inner city school to clean it up and develop it into a higher preforming school. I did not then, because the job required me to work 16 hour days and when I got home, I did not want to rehash the day. I regret it now, it would have made a good book or at least journal article, and it would have helped me put things into prospective. I wanted to share this with my AFF friends- to recommend it as a tool to use in your toolbox of coping skills. Do any of you journal?

Re: Journaling
 

I haven't started yet, but I'm going to. I so wished that I had written a lot of stuff down in my younger years.........things that my children did and said, places that we have been and things we've done as a family. Some things just kind of run together now in my mind.

I would advise any young person to start keeping a journal. It will be priceless later in life!

Re: Journaling
 

I agree! I was thinking that earlier today, that I wish I had journaled earlier, mom's with young children have rich material to write. Right now as part of my journaling, I am writing memories from my childhood and teen years. Later I will write memories from my young adult years.

Re: Journaling
 

I used to journal on paper. I think burning all of those was more theraputic than writing them, and definitely more than re-reading them.

I used to blog. I found one back a few weeks ago, I quit writing just before my youngest was born which was also just before my divorce. Something else to read that.

I am blogging again now too.

Re: Journaling
 

I was reluctant to journal because I have always been taught "be careful what you put in writing". But my journal is private- not secret- and I think that I need to be able to bare my thoughts with freedom. I don't know if I will ever go back and reread it, but if I need to I can.

Re: Journaling
 

I journaled during Walt's aneurism episode. And then I shared what I wrote each day with the folks on NFCF and in my emails. That was the best thing I could have done. It did several things:
1) It got LOTS and LOTS of people praying for Walt
2) It kept me sane. I "unloaded" at the end of each day by writing down what had happened that day.
3) It gave us a very accurate record of the whole time.

Several people have suggested that I take those pages and turn them into a book to publish. Unfortunately, I haven't the first clue how to start at something like that.

I don't usually journal every day stuff. But I do find that everytime I find myself in a crisis, it is one of the first things I do.