Now I’m seeking advices from people who turned their life in a positive way by writing journals as a first step

I’ve been journaling since I was a 7-8 years old boy (now nearing my 60s). Don’t worry about pausing your journal. It’s not a job, it’s your journal. If it can be compared to anything, it’s a tool. You don’t always carry your hammer with you when you don’t need it, right? Neither do I. So, I’ve had plenty breaks where I did not use my journal at all. Ranging from a few days to a few… years. That’s fine. I know my journal is there, when I need it.

Not blaming yourself for not journaling can also make it simpler to get back to it. I mean, if you don’t feel bad for not writing in your journal you will not hesitate to re-open it and start writing in it again.

It doesn’t matter for how long I’ve not been using it, I never feel bad starting again. IN reality it even feels great as it’s a lot more like meeting one of my best friends I had lost touch with for a long time, and we’ve so much to tell!

Now I’m seeking advices from people who turned their life in a positive way by writing journals as a first step.

That’s a bit vague to suggest anything.

What I can say is that it helped me all my life. When I was a little boy going through what people nowadays would call some serious trauma, as a teen going through that thick and seemingly endless stupidity period I was stuck in, as a young adult when I decided to change life (I quit my well-paying job and decided to live a much more simple (and poorer) live). And so on, up to this day. It also helps me face mistakes I can make. It helps me even for more mundane things… simply by allowing me to take a step back from whatever it is I’m journaling about, allowing me to look at it more calmly, to think about it in a non-emotional way (or less emotional).

Like you already realized it’s great to feel more in control too.

It also helps me keep track of stuff I simply want to remember in the long run. Last but not least, it helps me be more present too. How? Journaling helps me be more attentive and so does sketching which I also do in my journal—badly and, exactly like making pauses, I’m 100% fine with that.

What helps me journaling almost daily nowadays is that I made it as simple as possible: I don’t try to make nice sentences. I don’t mind making mistakes and crossing out stuff. It’s a work-in-progress that will never be finished. One day, I will be gone and I won’t be able to write that one last sentence: ‘today, I died.’ ;)

For years, I had been using some a digital tool of some sort (word processor, journaling app, voice recorder, whatever) but I’ve come back to the analog way, good old pen and paper, because I never felt the same connection using digital, and because I don’t feel confident writing what are sometimes my most intimate thoughts into something that is connected to the Internet or worse, that is stored online, an app that can read what I write and do god knows what with it.

My journal stays at home. So, to journal on the go (which I always do) I use a small pocket notebook I carry with me. Somethig xheap with a cheap ballpoint pen I don’t mind losing. Later on, I copy whatever is in that pocket notebook to my ‘real’ journal. To make it quick to write on the go I don’t write full sentences in that pocket notebook, I use my own shorthand I devised along the years.

If you have other (more specific) questions, feel free to ask them.

BTW, you (and anyone else reading this) are more than welcome to join the [email protected] community. I’m the admin and I would love to see more people share their experience/doubts/questions, like you just did. Hopefully that would motivate others to start doing it as well.

Writing is a form of thinking, particularly on topics and information that nobody but you knows. If that form of thinking is beneficial to your wellbeing, then prioritize it.

This is tangent, but I think that AI is going to have negative effects on human psychology because writing something yourself as a way to think is better than having an AI write it for you and you just agree with it and edit it.

it can help when you feel like ranting to someone

It helps when trying to make difficult questions

You can also write your daily experiences to look back on the changes

If you have a therapist, it also helps for them to check your state, prevents you from forgetting to mention anything important or if you lock up because you’re feeling emotional or having a panic attack

If you have a logical side that’s hurting from human problems a journal can help you regain a sense of control and plan out your next actions, where ordinarily you might freak out or make split second decisions even if you normally wouldn’t want to do it or know it would be bad but being unable to help yourself

Thank you to all who gave me precious advices and insights.

I’ve grasped my understanding of thought process and ways to channel them through different methods like journaling.

I’ve also learned not to feel down in my unaccomplishment and to go forward no matter what. Because in the long run, it’s the action that counts. If I do nothing, I’ll succumb into the loophole of my unaccomplishment more which will make the mental toll on me greater.

Also, I’ll give you guys update if I can shift in a way I’ve never walked before. Peace 🤝🫂

I use Joplin mostly with a two way NAS sync, but it’s not usually profound for me. Doesn’t really include my day to day experience, and acts more like an external memory bank and junk drawer.

Looks like this.

Really I’ve been relying heavily on Signal’s note to self feature, while Joplin is more long form in my case.

I never really saw the point of journaling, so it never “took” for me.

I write a bunch of stuff down, and then what? What do I “do” with it? Do I read it again later? No, I won’t do that. Somebody else reads it? No, it’s not intended for that.

So, I don’t journal as such.

I do organize my tasks and things to remember in a bullet journal (bujo) format, though, and that helps. But it’s less about thoughts and feelings (long-winded opinions and observations), and more about tasks and events (simple and concise one-liner statements of fact).

I do like bujo to keep my work organized.

Ok, on a side note, the idea of a “commonplace” book does sound kind of appealing, though; but I guess my life is too busy to afford me the leisure and luxury of analyzing literature, writing poetry, and sketching natural wonders, or whatever. I’ve got too much shit to do. My few fleeting moments of “free time” are spent here, complaining (wow those naughty word filters are way too strict) about MAGA, basically.

I just want to say how amusing I find it that a thread full of journalers only consists of very long comments. But overall I agree, journaling rocks. Helps organize my thoughts, and reading week-old entries helps keep my memory sharp.

Journaling is OK but what really keeps me grounded is an habit tracker. Without it my life is pure chaos.