Blogetary (Weblog + Commentary = Blogetary)

According to Wikipedia, the source for mostly accurate information on the web, the word journal comes from the Latin term diurnalis, or daily. The more pedestrian word is diary, though the term “journal” is considered more sophisticated and less personal than diary writing, but they really are the same. Although considered mostly the purview of teenagers, use of the diary was at one time common in most educated people’s lives. History would have a lot of holes if it weren’t for people faithfully penning their thoughts on a regular basis. Julia Cameron’s “Morning Pages” in her book The Artist’s Way, however, has pushed journaling into a renaissance of sorts, at the forefront of the public conscious. It’s become the new “thing” in a writer’s life.

At the very least, journals (or diaries) are used as a way to recount the days, documenting events, and in some cases used by the writer to think over and examine those events. Not only are journals and diaries used to provide the raw data for historical research, but workshop writers, therapists, and English teachers have used journaling as a way to get people writing, and get them into the mode of self-examination.  Journaling puts that inner dialogue with the self to work, to helping the writer work through problems. In fact, at least one study done by Dr. James Pennebaker at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas, has shown that journaling can help relieve stress, thereby lowering blood pressure and increasing health. This study showed a link between increased good health and using a journal as a means of self-expression, including examining and expressing very deep, troubling, and traumatic events.

Could it be that writing in a journal could be equally as important as getting daily exercise? If writing three pages a day in a journal every day could improve your health, would you add it to you list of other healthy habits like drinking more water, eating more vegetables, and exercising? Whether one is a writer, or simply a thoughtful person in need of a safe space for introspective thought and venting, journaling is the way to go.

Journaling doesn’t help, however, if it is not done on a regular basis. Journaling doesn’t just mean buying a notebook, grabbing a pen and writing whenever the spirit moves (though there’s nothing wrong with that). Journaling is an intimate adventure with the self, as well as a good habit to cultivate. As with any good habit, such as exercising, it should be done regularly, especially at the beginning. Julia Cameron suggests writing three pages first thing every day, even before having that first cup of coffee, just as some people exercise first thing every day just so they are sure they get the exercise in.  If that works, fine. Other people might find it better to write in a journal in the evening so they can examine the day’s events.  Others snag the commute time on the bus or train for their journaling time. Again, as with exercising, it depends on whatever works.

Don’t think of journaling as a chore. This is a chance to express yourself without censure or correction. It might help to think of it as a reward; the one safe place where anyone can truly express themselves freely. That is what journaling is all about. Don’t get along with the boss? Don’t blog it or tell a coworker, that’s too risky. Put it in the journal. Have a problem that needs figuring out? Work it out in the journal. It’s the next best thing to a therapist. If you feel like saying that the sky looks purple, then say it. Anything you want to write you can put in that journal. No one else is meant to read it. It’s all yours, your very own. In that journal you can say whatever you want. It’s absolute freedom of speech and thought.

Journaling is meant to help the person journaling feel better and not make them feel like they need to “perform”. Forget about good handwriting, lines, spelling, punctuation, or grammar. Journaling is all about expression and breaking through to what is really going on inside.  In fact, the sloppier, the better. Loosen up, don’t tense up muscles or write as if someone were looking over your shoulder. Natalie Goldberg, in her book Writing Down the Bones, talks about how important it is to relax into the writing. As she points out, the act of writing is physical exercise (50). With hand on pen (or fingers on keyboard), the writer is physically engaged in pouring inner thoughts onto a visual medium – the blank page.

Other writers, such as Rita Mae Brown in Starting from Scratch and Orson Scott Card in How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, also talk about the physicality of writing and how important the health of your entire body comes when it comes to being a writer (Brown 25; Card 134).  Anyone who has sat at a desk for hours at a time understands the back, shoulder and neck strain that can occur from being hunched over a computer too much. The same goes for journaling. Get the wiggles out of your system before sitting down. Dance around to a favorite song, do a yoga stretch, go up and down the stairs, take a breath, shake out the tension, then go.

Now, you have your favorite writing tools — favorite purple pen and blue paper for example (yes, that can be important for some people). It’s your favorite time of day. You have water, tea or coffee by your side. All you have to do is put down on the page whatever comes to mind. It doesn’t have to make sense. It doesn’t need to be meaningful or well written. You just need to get it out on the page.  Sometimes all you need to do is start with a sentence like “I don’t know what to write today,” and things will flow once you’ve set the pen in motion on the page. If you are journaling in the morning, maybe try to remember some of the dreams you may have had the night before. If you are journaling in the evening, think about something that happened during the day that struck you as odd or interesting. Natalie Goldberg suggests keeping a list of topics on one of the pages towards the back of your notebook (19). When you have ideas you want to write about but don’t have time to journal about them then put that idea on the list. Then next time you are journaling and can’t think of what to write you can go to the list and pick a topic  to run with, exploring more deeply in your journal what was just a nugget of an idea before.

Journaling can be a very important part of our physical, emotional, and mental health.  In journals we don’t have to worry about the approval or disapproval of peers, editors, agents, or readers. In our journals we can be ourselves.