DAY 2: INTRODUCTION TO JOURNALING
NEVER JOURNALED BEFORE?
If you are a novice at this thing called journalkeeping, welcome! You are in for quite the adventure. (That, I guarantee.) So, how do you start? Buying this book is the first step in the process. Next, start to fill out this book.
I recommend starting with small chunks. I also suggest starting with DAILY journaling, and at least Monday through Friday, but only with the one-sentence summary.
Do that for a week. Then, add one sentence in the next section. Do that for a week or two. Then, add another sentence.
Keep adding a sentence every week and before you know it, you're going to find this book is not enough for you. So, what then? Buy a blank book or start journaling on your computer. Add that to the mix.
You might even want to consider buying the other books in this series.
They are:
~ 1-YEAR REMEMBERING YOUR PRESENT JOURNAL
~ 5-YEAR REMEMBERING YOUR PRESENT JOURNAL
~ 10-YEAR REMEMBERING YOUR PRESENT JOURNAL
~ ETC. ETC. ETC. JOURNALING PROMPTS
Keep working at your own pace. Do whatever works for you. If it stops working for you, change it up. Just whatever you do, don't stop. There will be good days and bad days. Good weeks and bad weeks. Good months and bad months--just like life. However, I guarantee your life will have a far better quality if you keep journaling.
If you are curious as to what a veteran journalkeeper of about 30 years does on a daily basis, I would say it depends. There are times it is only a sentence a day I write. I try to do that as a minimum Those are few and far between. On average, I write 30 minutes a day. There are times though, I write two to three hours a day. There is one fast rule that I have learned, the more I journal, the better my life is. The two go hand-in-hand.
If you have never journaled before, make sure to read the following sections You will glean new information and suggestions from them, I'm sure.
IF YOU HAVE JOURNALED BEFORE
If you have journaled before, and it is a daily habit for you, then still make sure to read the previous section. You might pick up on suggestions you haven't used before--or it has been a while since you have.
If you have journaled before, I recommend journaling more and going deeper. I also recommend making sure that you are including the memories you make today, but the memories of your past. Make sure to claim and reclaim all of them. Even if you jot down a quick sentence to jog the memory, at least get that in your journal. You can expand upon it later.
Also, check out the other books in this series (see the previous section). I recommend doing all four, plus having your own journal on the side for additional journaling.
EVERY WEEK
I recommend every week, if not every day, I recommend typing up all of the handwritten journaling you do. This is critical.
NEVER, EVER, EVER
Never--ever--ever throw a journal away. Never. If you do, you throw away a part of your life If you throw away a part of your life, then that means you never fully dealt with it. It is important to deal with it--or it WILL deal with you.
Keep all of your journals--no matter how ugly.
Why?
It forces you to deal with your stuff. And, you can process through that period of time, learn from it, and become a better person for it.
Why else keep your journals? You get to see from where you've come. You get to see where you've grown, where you get stuck, the mistakes you repeat, the joys, the memories you've experienced, and so on. What treasure. I am far more proud of getting through the tough times in my life than the good. I am human. I make mistakes. I make my fair share of them, but, oh, the growth that comes from them! That is something to cherish. those are special, sacred times.
So, never, ever, ever throw away a journal. Never--ever-ever.
MAKE YOUR JOURNALS PERMANENT
It is critically important to make your journals PERMANENT--where they will not ever get lost or destroyed. It hurts to lose them. Trust me.
Let me tell you a story to illustrate this importance.
A couple of years ago or so, I almost had a tornado strike my house. That alone got my attention with my well over 80 handwritten journals. (Yikes!) But, my story has just begun. A couple of weeks later, my husband and I moved and the movers lost a quarter of them. (I still do not have them, by the way. They are lost, or stolen, depending on how I look at it.) Then, two weeks later, there was an earthquake. Then, a week later, there was Hurricane Irene--where we were under mandatory evacuation orders.
(Truth is often stranger than fiction. I'm not making this up.)
So, let me tell you the importance of making your journals permanent.
I cannot tell you the loss you feel when you lose your journals. For me, it's like I lost part of my life. A quarter of it, as a matter of fact. It hurt then--and it still hurts just as fiercely when I think about it.
And, by the way, I do not mean just keeping them on your hard-drive and external hard-drive. Think of fire.
I am talking about keeping them on the internet -on the cloud--so you never have to worry about losing them again--or your photos for that matter.
I went through Hurricane Sandy a couple of weeks ago. Do I need to tell you the peace I had--because my journals and photos were safe?
So, there you have it. Make your journals permanent.
FINALLY
Take a look on my blog for more information at:
Stacy Duplease
Journalkeeper & Author
The Remembering Your Present Journal Keeping Series
dba Remembering Your Present, LLC & Storykeeper 2121
