The Joys (and risks) of keeping a Journal

[Xochipilli2012]

Love!

I hope this is an appropriate place to post this. I wanted to share this with everyone at The Grow Report and not restrict it to the 3 or 4 forums I most frequently post on.

I've been keeping a journal regularly for the past 28 years. I usually write in those hard-bound artist sketch books with the black pebble covers with 8 x 11 inch pages. I write my thoughts, my dreams, my plans, as well as make sketches, paste in articles, photos, magazine clippings, tickets from shows or travel, and so on. I've even been known to glue a piece of bud, hash, shrooms, etc.

Initially my journals were the point of the journey--not some prospect of reading them in the future. When my father left his body last summer, I started re-reading my old journals for the first time, and I was amazed. I was reminded of people who were so important to me at the time that I could barely remember years later. And more interestingly, I marveled at the patterns that have repeated throughout my life--the things I wrote about 20 years ago are pretty similar to what I write about today--quite a bit about my relationships, both real and wished-for, as one clear example.

I have even (foolishly I would imagine) carefully documented some of my mycological efforts back in the mid-90s when I was at the height of that activity. I know that if one ever received a visit from the "authorities" a journal might be the sort of thing they would confiscate and use as "evidence" -- and I've also known people who were raided, but were not ultimately charged for anything, yet had a hard time getting all their personal property back...so those of us involved in certain activities would be wise to keep them separate from any journal work we do.

So I was wondering who here was into keeping a journal, as well as encourage anyone who hasn't tried to consider it. Doing so is a great tool for personal growth, and can be a lot of fun while communing with our favorite plant teachers (assuming you can see straight enough to write or draw).

I'd also like to recommend a few books that I've encountered recently that have inspired me to take my journal work in new and interesting directions.

My first inspiration for journaling came from Tristine Rainer's The New Diary (http://www.amazon.com/New-Diary-Tristine-Rainer/dp/0874771501/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197449951&sr=1-1), over 25 years ago, and more recently from How to Make a Journal of Your Life (http://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Journal-Your-Life/dp/1580080936/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197450052&sr=1-1) by Daniel Price, and Journal to the Self (http://www.amazon.com/Journal-Self-Twenty-Two-Personal-Self-Understanding/dp/0446390380/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197450130&sr=1-1) by Kathleen Adams.

There are other books I could mention as well...but these are a great start. If this thread goes anywhere, perhaps I'll mention some others.

So how about it TGR denizens? Anyone else enjoy keeping any sort of journal? Even on your computer (I used to do that when I still worked in the corporate world)?

Blessings....

[dreamwithinadream]

i am so glad you posted this!

i bought a beautiful journal when i first arrived in holland this august with the intention of writing as much as possible while i'm here. but i practically never write and i've kind of given up on journaling. i kind of feel like it's "just not my thing." however, when i do write i feel great afterwards and i've always been a good writer in school. maybe it's just that i'm not motivated enough? or just lazy...i do keep an online journal at vox.com but that's mostly for my family/friends that want to know what i'm doing in holland.

anyways, do you have any tips for me to get into the groove of journaling? i think it's a wonderful thing to do and i really think it would be great to have a few years down the road to look back on.

i really want to read those books. hopefully i can find one of them:)

[Xochipilli2012]

anyways, do you have any tips for me to get into the groove of journaling? i think it's a wonderful thing to do and i really think it would be great to have a few years down the road to look back on.

Hi there DreamWithinaDream!

The biggest think I can suggest is that you drop all your preconceptions on what a journal is "supposed" to be. For some people it helps to start out with a book that is not so intimidating as those intended for journals, or like the sketchbooks I use. In fact, Kathleen Adams (Journal to the Self (http://www.amazon.com/Journal-Self-Twenty-Two-Personal-Self-Understanding/dp/0446390380/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197450130&sr=1-1)) swears by those spiral notebooks that we all know. I think she has hundreds of them. But the bigger issue is learning to free your mind. This takes some practice.

Write spontaneously. Don't judge yourself. Don't censor yourself. In fact, don't even correct yourself in the sense of erasing or crossing things out--or at least leave evidence of your original word or misspelling as such things can be fun "revelations" in the Freudian sense. Our subconscious tries to get a word in edgewise, don't you know? ;) Don't get hung up on your handwriting. Allow it to be whatever it is. I find that, depending on my mood, I sometimes write, sometimes print, sometimes I'm very controlled and "neat" and when I'm upset or feeling "passionate" I write using much larger script very quickly. All of that adds information in addition to your choice of words and punctuation.

Consider making a commitment to keeping your diary "private." This doesn't mean that you can never share things in it with others, but you create the understanding that people cannot just pick it up when they feel like it and start looking through it. You will write much more honestly and freely if you know (or trust is a better word) that you will be accountable to no one for your private thoughts and feelings. It is a risk. I have had that trust violated on a few occasions, and there were interesting consequences. But I had become so secure in my feeling that I had a right to that privacy that the issues were more about the other person feeling so insecure about our relationship that they had to trespass as they knew they did. In one case it made the relationship stronger as I revealed that my diary was a sort of "workbench" for my inner process--that it didn't represent how I necessarily chose to interface with my life in terms of actions, but it gave me space to work things out so I didn't have to impact others by "living through" each and every fantasy.

Now...the books I mentioned previously each have their own little exercises or experiments to try. Some include the following:

Lists. Things you like, dislike. People you want to meet. People you are afraid of. Your favorite music. Your favorite movies. Your favorite desserts. Things that piss you off. Just lists...
Unsent Letters. Write letters to people living or dead. Say things you could never say in real life. Write letters to your future self or to yourself as a child. Write letters to fictional characters that you've encountered in books or movies.
Letters-that-might-get-sent. I do this a lot, especially with friends who are not "online." I will take time writing them a letter, and later scan, print, and send it to them. The DopeFiend mentioned my response to DC#103. I had surgery earlier that day so I wasn't comfortable sitting at a computer, but I had just listened to his beautiful, soul-searching account and just had to respond...so I wrote something like a 7 page handwritten thing that I scanned and emailed to him a few days later.
Dialogues. As with unsent letters, you can do this with people that would be impossible to have conversations with in real life. You can have a dialog with Thomas Aquinas, Yukio Mishima, Jesus Christ, Hildegarde von Bingen, your great-great-Grandfather...your ex-wife or ex-husband...the guy that wouldn't go out with you at the prom...get the picture? :)
Altered POV. Write as if you are someone else. Imagine what it would be like to see the world through the eyes of your 6 year old, or 16 year old, and write about that. Write what your pet gerbil Harold would write, if he but could. It can be as crazy as you want it to be.
Draw. Even if you think you cannot draw. Drawing engages your right brain and can reveal a great deal about how you are experiencing your life in that moment. How to Make a Journal of Your Life (http://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Journal-Your-Life/dp/1580080936/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197450052&sr=1-1) by Daniel Price focuses a lot on including drawing and photography as part of the journal keeping process. It is a recent find and has really re-invigorated my journal keeping. (Plus, it's a cool little hand-printed book that you can take with you anywhere--I've been buying copies and giving them out like crazy lately.)
Write down your dreams. This may be hard at first, because many of us don't give our dreams very much attention and we assume that we either don't dream (false), or that we just can't remember them. But every so often, you will have a dream that for some reason, is easy to remember. Write those puppies down! The more you do this, the easier it will be to remember your dreams in the future.


These are but a few suggestions, but hopefully there's enough there to jump-start your own personal journal journey. And do consider getting the books I've mentioned--or just checking them out from the library. They expand greatly on the techniques I've listed, and include many more.




i really want to read those books. hopefully i can find one of them:)

I hope you do--Tristine Rainer's The New Diary (http://www.amazon.com/New-Diary-Tristine-Rainer/dp/0874771501/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197449951&sr=1-1) was a great find. I had been journaling for a year or two, and I hadn't yet learned to free my mind around it all. I felt "guilty" if I didn't write regularly, despite not feeling into it. Her book remains one of the best ones around.

Good luck DWAD!