Finding Your Purpose Series: Journaling
Article 3 of 8
Why Journal?
Journaling is the first of six helpful habits that can help you reconnect with yourself and find your purpose.
You must live your truth to find your purpose, so reconnecting with your true self is a foundational step in your journey of carrying out your purpose here, on Earth.
It takes courage to live your truth in a society with external pressures that constantly tell us we’re only good enough if we do things a certain way, act a certain way, look a certain way, and the list goes on. These external pressures often put us in cycles of wounding and healing. (So, you’re never too old to journal.)
Journaling is a form of storytelling. And, storytelling is a powerful healer.
What is Journaling?
Journaling is free-form writing, sketching, or a combination of both. In the US, it’s also referred to as a diary and is known for a place to let out and keep all your inner-most thoughts. This is largely common knowledge, but when is the last time you really thought about it?
Practicing journaling consistently helps you process your emotions, recognize where you’re directing your energy by showing you your regular thought patterns, and acts as a primary source for what it means to be human.
I went to school for journalism and truly believe in documenting our human experience. Documenting first hand accounts of our lives is a powerful resource for ourselves. And, if you choose to make your journal public, which we’ll get into a little further down the article, it’s also a powerful resource for others.
Here are most of the journals I’ve been writing in for the last 25 years. This is not counting the ones I wrote in before 25 years ago, as those have all been lost in unfortunate circumstances. This also doesn’t count online or electronic journals I’ve used.
You can guarantee there are ripped notebooks with ribbons and magazine clippings taped all over and loose sheets of paper I wrote on at other times and then taped into the book of the moment.
Journaling has Impacted Our Human Existence
Here are a few examples of journal writing (not news or academic/scientific writing, but diary writing) that made a lasting impact on our understanding of humanity. For instance, some of the most impactful in my opinion are:
Henry and June: from a journal of love: the Unexpurgated Diary (1931 -1932) by Anias Nin
Anne Frank: The Diary of Young Girl by Anne Frank
Conversations with Myself by Nelson Mandela
There are also a ton of fictional works written in a journal or diary format. One that I’ve read over the years is The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. The list of these types of literary works is long.
These examples provide further proof that journaling is an effective way to tell stories.
Related Reading: The Healing Power of Telling Your Story
Unlike these well-known works, when you’re journaling personally, you’re telling your own story to yourself, and maybe anyone else you trust enough to let read it.
I would go so far as to say that many memoirs rely on personal journals to maintain their non-fictional integrity, allowing the authors to capture memories and feelings at exact moments in time. They revisit these writings or sketches to vividly remember how a life event or fleeting moment went down as our human memory certainly fails us at times and in certain ways.
Without these journals, humans would be none the wiser to some of the precarious situations we’ve learned to avoid or thoughtful philosophies we’ve incorporated into education, society, and ethical or moral ways of being.
An Example From One of My Journals
Here’s a little blurb from one of my own, personal journal entries that I want to share. Picture it - a young woman freshly out of college moves to London and has only been there two weeks. She’s under immense pressure to find a job:
“Mind the Gap.” You know… the gap between the platform and the tube. I watched a pigeon walk right up to the gap tonight. He stood there, pecked around, found nothing and then flew over to the opposite platform. He was so fat I thought he wasn’t going to make it. I guess you could say he swooped gracefully across the empty rails waiting to be graced by the giant sparking wheels of the London public transport. But, I’d say it was more of struggle than a swoop because he was so fat, he couldn’t lift himself right away. I’m sure that pigeon contemplated crossing for at least ten minutes while we were waiting on the delayed train.
There are always delays on the tube. The lines are color coded and you can get to almost anywhere you need to be from the circle line. It goes in a circle obviously, and none of the other ones do. It’s the most crowded and also the slowest line available. There’s always some kind of freaking delay because a signal is messed up… whatever that means. At first, I didn’t care, and now it’s starting to irritate me because I spend so much time on the tube that I want to scream. Sometimes I get lucky and find a train car with seats available. Other times, I have to stand, but that’s ok because I’m not touching anyone, and then other times, I’m so squeezed in between people I can’t breathe. There can be ten people waiting to get off at one stop, and the people who are waiting to board will stand directly in front of the door and try to get on before you get off. I think within another week, I’ll have the nerve to step on them.
I’m starting to weave through the crowds in central London like I’m one of the locals though.
This excerpt is from Feb. 16, 2007.
It felt a little frustrated, no?
Getting used to the tube rush hour crowds and city crowds was tough for this INFJ southern girl back in the day, but it sure makes me smile to look back at this experience and my perception of it.
Other stuff from my journals earlier in life would embarrass me to show to you, because I’ve evolved. The good thing about journaling for yourself, though, is that no one else has to read it. And, the pages don’t judge you.
Journaling as Part of Introspection
Journaling takes us on a journey of self discovery, regardless of what you choose to write about.
Just look for the patterns that emerge from what you write or sketch over time.
When I look back over my journals from the years, I can observe that no matter what I’m doing or what I’m going through - world travels, career milestones, studies, aging, or whatever else - I always veer back toward relationships. Whether it’s evaluating or reminiscing about past relationships, dreaming of the future, capturing the present, thinking about family patterns, wondering about God, imagining what I want from my current romantic relationship, or even how to improve my relationship with myself; relationships are typically the focus.
Humans. Our interactions. Our possibilities. Our connection. Our impact. The pretty and the ugly.
If you already journal, what patterns do you see in your journal?
If you don’t already journal, what patterns do you think you’d see? I bet once you start, you’ll surprise yourself as what you find won’t line up with what you think you’ll find.
Types of Journals
You can pretty much journal on all sorts of items. You might already do this and not even realize it. Examples of journals include:
Literally, just sheets of paper - blank or already printed on
Hard or soft bound books you get from stores
Books meant for writing
Books meant for painting or sketching
Bullet journals for both writing, drawing, painting, planning, and dreaming
Collections of captioned photos
Blogs
Word processors on your computer, tablet, or phone
Voice memos
Any of these journals can be private or public. It’s up to you and your comfort level with sharing publicly.
I prefer private journals for the act of introspection, because it’s proven that you act differently when observed (even if just perceived). This phenomenon is the Hawthorne Effect. So, if you keep your journal private, at least for the exercise of reconnecting with yourself to find your purpose, you’re more than likely to uncover what you’re truly feeling and seeking.
But, I’ve definitely dabbled in journal blogging back in the earlier days of Blogger and MySpace.
Do you remember when people first started spilling their guts on Live Journal? It was all new territory. Not anymore though.
Public journaling has its place when you already know yourself and want to connect with others over similar experiences.
An excellent example of a popular public, electronic journal in 2020 is The Bird’s Papaya by Sarah Nicole. Check out the types of things she writes about - life as a woman after divorce and losing a massive amount of weight and readjusting and moving on with a “chosen” family.
Look at how intimate some of the pictures are.
There is an intimacy involved in journal writing that people crave.
handwriting is better than typing
Part of the intimacy of journal writing comes from handwriting.
So many of us have gotten away from the practice of handwriting. There’s something about handwriting that cements learning into our brains as we practice putting words or pictures to paper in the physical form - using movement and taking the time to think about what we’re writing rather than letting the words flow in and out of us while typing so fast.
Our ancestors practiced handwriting as part of daily life, so taking the time to manually write your thoughts connects us to our roots in a way.
Tangent: Letter writing is a lost art, but I consider it a close cousin to journal writing. We can get into that another day though.
The Benefits of Journaling
Journaling is self care. It helps you remember who you are, can build self discipline, helps you remember your core values, and after time, helps you discern and recognize if the patterns in your life align with your core values. Then, you can determine which patterns you want to keep and which you want to change.
What you find is ultimately the answer to what being human means to you. When you journal, you aren’t letting events and feelings and circumstances pass you by. You’re intentionally thinking about them and in turn, are thinking about your humanity and the humanity of others.
Real quick, here’s a more specific break down of why journaling is worth your time:
You get to hone your voice because you are regularly using it.
You have an outlet for expression, which helps you avoid the negative consequences of suppression.
You get to process complex emotions.
You can pinpoint if an event, emotion, person, or action you’re taking is energy draining or energy replenishing and joy giving.
You are documenting events and how they make you feel or impact you close to when they’re happening, so you can remember more vividly.
You get to track progress.
Go Journal!
Here are high-level steps for how to get started.
Pick out the perfect little book with a few clean sheets of paper - it doesn’t have to be fancy. You can literally write on a piece of printer paper if that’s what you have.
Pick out a pen or pencil you enjoy holding and writing with - the ink flow should be smooth and comfortable.
Just start writing or sketching. Don’t think too hard - just whatever comes to mind. It can be coherent, or it doesn’t have to be. It can just be words, phrases, and/or shapes.
Write for at least 10 minutes, but if you want to go longer, do it.
Decide to do this again the next day. You can even use prompts to help your writing start to flow.
For your first week, try focusing on one of your five senses per day. Throw the sixth one in too at the end. What are you experiencing in the exact present moment from one of your senses?
At the end of your first week of journaling, look back over everything you’ve written or sketched. What’s there?
After your first week, keep going.
After a month, year, two years, look back at what’s there. How has it changed?
Take breaks when you need to, but never stop.
What have you learned from journaling? Drop a comment below to let me know!
Love,