The Danger of Journaling Is Introspection(bramadams.dev)
bramadams.dev
The Danger of Journaling Is Introspection
https://www.bramadams.dev/projects/the-danger-of-journaling-is-introspection
58 comments
On a side note, I forgot to mention that my inspiration for starting to write my own was reading the 1980's journals of Jordan Mechner, the creator of Prince of Persia. Still to this day if feels like there's something magic about them.
Where can I find those journals? google search didn't turn up anything.
Since it appears that everyone is sharing their experiences.
I have been journaling daily for close to 20 years, with the exception of a few breaks and skipping journaling in really busy days.
From my personal anecdotal perspective I feel that overall it's a positive experience. I've tried multiple mediums, Evernote, Workflowy, Pen & Paper, Google Docs, and countless of journaling apps. I find pen and paper the best, probably because I can parse my thoughts better when I write them down over typing them. Even though typing is much faster. There is something magical about making a moment for yourself with a fresh cup of coffee, some music, a pen and a journal.
I've also experimented with the type of content I want to journal. It feels like the standard is to write about your day. I find that the least fun way to journal. Albeit at times my personal day to day life bleeds into my journaling, I prefer writing about my thoughts, what I'm struggling with, debating to do, what I'm trying to improve.
Essentially for me, journaling serves as part self-therapy, part life strategy writing, part goal planning and blocker removal strategies. I can analyze my actions and their side-effects. Do it long enough and you start seeing patterns in your way of thinking, or you will catch yourself writing about the same thing yet again. I strongly suggest you don't just write when you journal, create flowcharts, make bullet lists, underline things that you think are important. It's a very undervalued thinking tool.
Usually when I talk to friends about journaling the common deflection is "I don't have that kind of time". Here is the thing, it's ok to write just one paragraph. Sometimes even a single sentence. I have journal entries that just say something like "I have nothing to talk about". The thing is you are building a habit. Most of my journal entries are about 2-3 paragraphs, about 10 minutes of writing. Occasionally if I feel overwhelmed, or troubled by something I might write for an hour. Other times I might write a short journal entry and 12 hours later make an update with new thoughts.
I hope this helps someone thinking about journaling.
To echo the linked article, what's interesting is reading past entries and realizing how you are often wrong, but tenacious, stubborn, a dreamer, someone that doesn't give up...because you are still doing it...you are still here, fighting.
I have been journaling daily for close to 20 years, with the exception of a few breaks and skipping journaling in really busy days.
From my personal anecdotal perspective I feel that overall it's a positive experience. I've tried multiple mediums, Evernote, Workflowy, Pen & Paper, Google Docs, and countless of journaling apps. I find pen and paper the best, probably because I can parse my thoughts better when I write them down over typing them. Even though typing is much faster. There is something magical about making a moment for yourself with a fresh cup of coffee, some music, a pen and a journal.
I've also experimented with the type of content I want to journal. It feels like the standard is to write about your day. I find that the least fun way to journal. Albeit at times my personal day to day life bleeds into my journaling, I prefer writing about my thoughts, what I'm struggling with, debating to do, what I'm trying to improve.
Essentially for me, journaling serves as part self-therapy, part life strategy writing, part goal planning and blocker removal strategies. I can analyze my actions and their side-effects. Do it long enough and you start seeing patterns in your way of thinking, or you will catch yourself writing about the same thing yet again. I strongly suggest you don't just write when you journal, create flowcharts, make bullet lists, underline things that you think are important. It's a very undervalued thinking tool.
Usually when I talk to friends about journaling the common deflection is "I don't have that kind of time". Here is the thing, it's ok to write just one paragraph. Sometimes even a single sentence. I have journal entries that just say something like "I have nothing to talk about". The thing is you are building a habit. Most of my journal entries are about 2-3 paragraphs, about 10 minutes of writing. Occasionally if I feel overwhelmed, or troubled by something I might write for an hour. Other times I might write a short journal entry and 12 hours later make an update with new thoughts.
I hope this helps someone thinking about journaling.
To echo the linked article, what's interesting is reading past entries and realizing how you are often wrong, but tenacious, stubborn, a dreamer, someone that doesn't give up...because you are still doing it...you are still here, fighting.
I like the compassionate ending. No mud, no Lotus.
It's all good; be with yourself in relationship with the phenomenal or noumenal world.
Continue to strive out the mud. Continue day in and day out to climb this unforgiving fucking cliff [..]
I know you've done your best.
There's proof.
I now started to maintain a little bliki or digital garden, part journaling, part personal wiki, research and creative expression. I can look at it from a timeline angle or tag angle, tagged collections of rational thoughts and emotional expressions.
Struggle, fear, anger, uncertainty, doubt, jealousy. If only I remember briefly, that I am more. and know deep down I can connect to that which is beyond my own little troubles. Connect to that which inspires me, art, people, peots, my mentors, my friends, current, lost or deceased My "future", ¨"past" or "higher" self or selves They are there, always, in unconditional love, as fans cheering me on.
Continue to strive out the mud. Continue day in and day out to climb this unforgiving fucking cliff [..]
I know you've done your best.
There's proof.
I now started to maintain a little bliki or digital garden, part journaling, part personal wiki, research and creative expression. I can look at it from a timeline angle or tag angle, tagged collections of rational thoughts and emotional expressions.
Struggle, fear, anger, uncertainty, doubt, jealousy. If only I remember briefly, that I am more. and know deep down I can connect to that which is beyond my own little troubles. Connect to that which inspires me, art, people, peots, my mentors, my friends, current, lost or deceased My "future", ¨"past" or "higher" self or selves They are there, always, in unconditional love, as fans cheering me on.
maybe the danger of reading your old journal entries is to get stuck in the past.
the purpose of introspection is to learn about yourself and understand yourself.
at one point i had the opportunity to digitally scan a set of negatives that i have collected from my photography work over a decade prior. this forced me to review all my work at once, and only then i realized that most of my better photos were portraits.
reviewing my journal might allow me to make similar discoveries.
the point of introspection is to make those discoveries. to find things that i can learn about myself that were not obvious before.
i am generally aware which current goals i am not achieving. in my journal i might find some goals that i dropped, but those don't matter anymore. i dropped them. maybe i can analyze if there is a pattern in how i set goals and drop them, and maybe there is something to learn.
In a way, introspection has held me back. It has made me viscerally aware of my shortcomings in the financial, professional, romantic, and physical realms. Introspection has reminded me of dropped promises, awkward encounters, unfounded concerns. It reminds me of just how naked and vulnerable in the cold of space and time I really am.
i don't believe introspection is the problem here. being aware of my shortcomings always helped me to better deal with them, to find a way to work around them instead of letting them control me.
the conclusion the author makes seems rather a sign of not enough introspection. i would dig deeper, trying to understand where these are coming from, how to overcome them...
the purpose of introspection is to learn about yourself and understand yourself.
at one point i had the opportunity to digitally scan a set of negatives that i have collected from my photography work over a decade prior. this forced me to review all my work at once, and only then i realized that most of my better photos were portraits.
reviewing my journal might allow me to make similar discoveries.
the point of introspection is to make those discoveries. to find things that i can learn about myself that were not obvious before.
i am generally aware which current goals i am not achieving. in my journal i might find some goals that i dropped, but those don't matter anymore. i dropped them. maybe i can analyze if there is a pattern in how i set goals and drop them, and maybe there is something to learn.
In a way, introspection has held me back. It has made me viscerally aware of my shortcomings in the financial, professional, romantic, and physical realms. Introspection has reminded me of dropped promises, awkward encounters, unfounded concerns. It reminds me of just how naked and vulnerable in the cold of space and time I really am.
i don't believe introspection is the problem here. being aware of my shortcomings always helped me to better deal with them, to find a way to work around them instead of letting them control me.
the conclusion the author makes seems rather a sign of not enough introspection. i would dig deeper, trying to understand where these are coming from, how to overcome them...
I often wonder if too much introspection via therapy or yourself is a bad thing. When you are young you are filled with ideas and drive and confidence. After introspection you realize you aren't special, you aren't as good as you think you are and most people are indifferent to you or often dont really like you.
That seems more a symptom of cognitive distortions which would plague you whether or not you journal. Your self-perceived exceptionalism is not a determining factor for whether you are filled with ideas, drive and confidence - and most people like you just fine.
On the other side of the coin, you can't navel-gaze all day long. Action at some point is necessary. There's certainly value in deliberately calibrating them and choosing them through introspection, because we are creatures of habit - habits can work for us or against us.
I used to think action is the only hard part, but I'd suggest that making sense of our desires and making a choice is just as difficult.
On the other side of the coin, you can't navel-gaze all day long. Action at some point is necessary. There's certainly value in deliberately calibrating them and choosing them through introspection, because we are creatures of habit - habits can work for us or against us.
I used to think action is the only hard part, but I'd suggest that making sense of our desires and making a choice is just as difficult.
It can go the other way too, introspection can make you realise you're nowhere near as bad as you think you are. This is particularly true if you've grown up in one of those worldviews that give you a savage inner critic and attribute it to the voice of God.
Totally I have a big reel of embarassing moments that gets replayed. Its great to figure out later that either people didn't remember, didn't care, or still laugh along with the situation rather than at me.
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I think you can begin to answer that question by thinking of journaling/introspection as a treatment and the negative thoughts as a symptom.
There can be a few cases:
- If you apply the journaling treatment prophylactically, does it prevent those negative thoughts? - If you do not apply the journaling treatment prophylactically, what is the likelihood of having negative thoughts?
In my case, the thoughts came without journaling so I can confidently state introspection did not cause me to think I'm not special and worse than I thought.
There can be a few cases:
- If you apply the journaling treatment prophylactically, does it prevent those negative thoughts? - If you do not apply the journaling treatment prophylactically, what is the likelihood of having negative thoughts?
In my case, the thoughts came without journaling so I can confidently state introspection did not cause me to think I'm not special and worse than I thought.
Feeling that you are special, amazing, and that most people love you is not something common to all (or I would think even most) people. You must have had very supportive and permissive parents.
Hi I agree, and I myself never thought I was special amazing or everyone loved me. I did however think I was great at engineering and could write some great code.
I think the point was that most people think they're an above average on most things. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/getting-along-and-ge...
Now I realize I'm probably average at best and the stuff I look back was actually pretty bad.
I think the point was that most people think they're an above average on most things. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/getting-along-and-ge...
Now I realize I'm probably average at best and the stuff I look back was actually pretty bad.
I built an app for micro journaling but then mostly stopped maintaining it because I was very afraid of the danger of other people hacking into it, especially if it became mainstream and high-value state targets used it.
For those of you who keep journals, how much do you worry someone will gain access to it?
For those of you who keep journals, how much do you worry someone will gain access to it?
I occasionally worry about things like that, but mainly because I sometimes write about ideas that I think some people would find very upsetting rather than because of possible legal issues as you mentioned in some other comments below. But in either case, one possible solution is to write about things metaphorically, such that you know what you're writing about, but anyone else would require some additional information to know what you actually mean.
Yeah, I thought of something similar in that one of the best ways to keep it safe would be to automatically inject similar yet different emotions and memories into the journal, on the idea that only I would know what I was talking about, then realized memory can be super faulty and the closer it is to being believable, the more I might actually believe the chaff.
I think what you suggest might work better, especially if it's just me, where I may remember the metaphors/inside jokes better, and from the perspective of developing the app, I don't know if that would alleviate the fear I feel for how others will use it.
I think what you suggest might work better, especially if it's just me, where I may remember the metaphors/inside jokes better, and from the perspective of developing the app, I don't know if that would alleviate the fear I feel for how others will use it.
I do worry about this, but I also have two counterpoints when I think about it:
1. There are things which I write which are private, but if they were forcibly revealed then I would stand by my truth, including mistakes and things I'm ashamed of.
2. It's better to act as though you are in a free and decent society than to become your own policeman!
1. There are things which I write which are private, but if they were forcibly revealed then I would stand by my truth, including mistakes and things I'm ashamed of.
2. It's better to act as though you are in a free and decent society than to become your own policeman!
Good points. I especially like #2. I also had this concern, but actually in the context of pen-and-paper vs digital journaling. I was worried that a physical notebook may more easily fall into the wrong hands than digital but in this day and age it might well be the opposite.
What really bothers me about society in the context of personal notes being made public is that I feel like we don't recognize that people can change their opinions on things. Writing can be a way of thinking through and playing with ideas and beliefs that one doesn't end up holding long term. But people are routinely judged harshly for things they wrote/said/tweeted years ago even if they no longer feel the same way. Or at least that's my cynical view.
What really bothers me about society in the context of personal notes being made public is that I feel like we don't recognize that people can change their opinions on things. Writing can be a way of thinking through and playing with ideas and beliefs that one doesn't end up holding long term. But people are routinely judged harshly for things they wrote/said/tweeted years ago even if they no longer feel the same way. Or at least that's my cynical view.
I appreciate both of these points.
Maybe a more optimistic look is that if more people were that open publicly, then maybe we would judge less, recognize the uncertainty and ebb and flow of thoughts and feelings, and see ourselves and each other more humanely.
Maybe a more optimistic look is that if more people were that open publicly, then maybe we would judge less, recognize the uncertainty and ebb and flow of thoughts and feelings, and see ourselves and each other more humanely.
I try and remind myself that "they" are in the same position as well. I may feel some type of way about something written, but everyone's human, so do they've got something similar, I just don't know it exactly.
I appreciate this reminder, even just thinking about them having a similar dilemma can help me remember they may share similar fears.
I appreciate these and have some follow up questions/comments.
1. What about when these things revealed may show that you broke the law, intentionally or even accidentally?
2. Amen. I've been reading more papers lately about the emotional burden of keeping secrets and not expressing ourselves and have been personally dancing with it for years. Thank you for saying this.
I wonder if my worry is not so much if people were to gain access to what I wrote in the journal, but by being the creator of the journal, someone gaining access to what someone else wrote and either the legal repercussions of that, or more likely, the physical and emotional ramifications of such.
1. What about when these things revealed may show that you broke the law, intentionally or even accidentally?
2. Amen. I've been reading more papers lately about the emotional burden of keeping secrets and not expressing ourselves and have been personally dancing with it for years. Thank you for saying this.
I wonder if my worry is not so much if people were to gain access to what I wrote in the journal, but by being the creator of the journal, someone gaining access to what someone else wrote and either the legal repercussions of that, or more likely, the physical and emotional ramifications of such.
Have you considered a more simple setup such as a local text file that is encrypted? Of course, there is always a risk but reducing the attack surface can help.
I designed it to be local-first (local-only on Android, iOS didn't let me turn off internet permissions) and using an on-device encrypted database with required password to login. I think it was as secure as I could have made it, but I think I still have the worry of not being able to protect against state-sponsored attacks, or others that can get root access on the phone and install keyloggers, etc.
While I understand those are rare occurrences, I also didn't necessarily want to become a target like Signal. But maybe I'm blowing this out of proportion because Apple and Google have an incentive to make sure their phones aren't rooted, so maybe it would be a lot safer than I imagine.
I guess I also worry about law enforcement getting devices (legally or illegally) and having access to such deep info. What we say to ourselves in a journal often can be a LOT more honest than what we say to others in text messages, emails, etc.
Any thoughts on this?
While I understand those are rare occurrences, I also didn't necessarily want to become a target like Signal. But maybe I'm blowing this out of proportion because Apple and Google have an incentive to make sure their phones aren't rooted, so maybe it would be a lot safer than I imagine.
I guess I also worry about law enforcement getting devices (legally or illegally) and having access to such deep info. What we say to ourselves in a journal often can be a LOT more honest than what we say to others in text messages, emails, etc.
Any thoughts on this?
for me, journaling should should be balanced by new input--usually from a combo of experience and reading. when i write, i only do so because i want to see how my inputs have changed me--the output reflects this.
I have been journaling for 9 years now. Actually closer to 12 but we'll discount the first 3 years because it was done haphazardly handwritten in notebooks in fits and bursts. Repeatedly throughout the journals I wrote about how circular it felt whenever I was examining the deeper self. It felt like I had written this or that before and then I came to the realisation that the deepest sense of self or sense of consciousness never really changes throughout life. You are who you are. What surprised me was the regularity that predictions or goals written in the past would come true in the future. Seemingly impossible (within a realm of reason) things would always come true given enough time, enough persistence and enough continuous progression. And if it hasn't come true yet, have you moved along the scale of making it happen?
That's where journaling becomes powerful. It lets you hold yourself accountable, lets you measure your current self against your past self. It lets you document those little life victories, those turning points to judge whether a past decision was good or not. Life is a combinatorially explosive decision tree (borrowed from John Vervaeke), journaling helps you to better guess the best future path and keep you on it.
That's where journaling becomes powerful. It lets you hold yourself accountable, lets you measure your current self against your past self. It lets you document those little life victories, those turning points to judge whether a past decision was good or not. Life is a combinatorially explosive decision tree (borrowed from John Vervaeke), journaling helps you to better guess the best future path and keep you on it.
Damn, my experience with journaling is so different! I write whatever comes to my mind, usually some existential turmoil or insatisfaction. Just writing them make me feel so much better. It help the bad feeling go away and grow over it. Over time, those small changes adds up and I really think I'm someone very different than someone who I wouldn't without it.
Same for me - journaling has been huge, as it lets me get thoughts and feelings out of my head, and makes them ‘real’ where I can deal with them - even if dealing with them is just shrugging and moving it, or laughing at myself. It makes a huge difference in processing them.
Part of it is sometimes in my head they are swirling so fast they are hard to process or recognize, and if too much is going on, it gets frustrating and exhausting trying to keep coherent enough I can remember any of them enough to do anything about it, even to let them go.
Meditation also helps, though for meditation a huge part is just bringing my mind to be aware of my body too, so it can process whatever is going on there.
I find the work we do to be quite mentally stimulating - sometimes to the point of exhaustion, and without balancing it out with a corresponding amount of attention to our physical body and exercise, it’s easy to get unbalanced and unhealthy.
And since our minds sit on the foundation of our body, that is a recipe for not being in good shape overall.
Part of it is sometimes in my head they are swirling so fast they are hard to process or recognize, and if too much is going on, it gets frustrating and exhausting trying to keep coherent enough I can remember any of them enough to do anything about it, even to let them go.
Meditation also helps, though for meditation a huge part is just bringing my mind to be aware of my body too, so it can process whatever is going on there.
I find the work we do to be quite mentally stimulating - sometimes to the point of exhaustion, and without balancing it out with a corresponding amount of attention to our physical body and exercise, it’s easy to get unbalanced and unhealthy.
And since our minds sit on the foundation of our body, that is a recipe for not being in good shape overall.
> Life is a combinatorially explosive decision tree (borrowed from John Vervaeke), journaling helps you to better guess the best future path and keep you on it
Beautiful turn of phrase.
Beautiful turn of phrase.
Does re-reading previous entries add value?
Reading old journals used to be tedious and embarrassing. It was frustrating to see how many times I had profound, "life changing" realizations, only to discover I've had the same realization over and over again in the years preceding - seemingly never retaining the lessons and ideas.
One thing that helped was building in space for dialogue with myself. Now, I only write original journal entries on the left side of a notebook and leave the right side for future responses. I make a habit of revisiting journal entries from a week, a month, and a year prior, etc, and expounding on the right side of the page with lessons learned later, counter points, and context from an "outside" perspective.
Naturally, this forms a sort of distillation of ideas, refining the concepts most relevant to me at any given moment, and keeping them present in my mind. It promotes a sense of continuity of self, and self-compassion as I'm frequently reminded of my growth and ability to change.
One thing that helped was building in space for dialogue with myself. Now, I only write original journal entries on the left side of a notebook and leave the right side for future responses. I make a habit of revisiting journal entries from a week, a month, and a year prior, etc, and expounding on the right side of the page with lessons learned later, counter points, and context from an "outside" perspective.
Naturally, this forms a sort of distillation of ideas, refining the concepts most relevant to me at any given moment, and keeping them present in my mind. It promotes a sense of continuity of self, and self-compassion as I'm frequently reminded of my growth and ability to change.
> ...Now, I only write original journal entries on the left side of a notebook and leave the right side for future responses. I make a habit of revisiting journal entries from a week, a month, and a year prior, etc, and expounding on the right side of the page with lessons learned later, counter points, and context from an "outside" perspective...
This is the sort of thing that if one was a famous person...then after their death, historians would consider a gold mine to discover! For example, when the journal of Nikola Tesla waas found and in addition he had entries years l;ater of his thoughts about aid original entries, that would be doubly-amazing. This is no less amazing of an idea for us mere mortals! Thank you for sharing this seemingly simple but awesomely wonderfuly idea!!!
This is the sort of thing that if one was a famous person...then after their death, historians would consider a gold mine to discover! For example, when the journal of Nikola Tesla waas found and in addition he had entries years l;ater of his thoughts about aid original entries, that would be doubly-amazing. This is no less amazing of an idea for us mere mortals! Thank you for sharing this seemingly simple but awesomely wonderfuly idea!!!
I've experienced the same repetitive realizations/ideas. I have kept 3 different files going back 10+ years: did.md which contains notes/thoughts about any interesting events by date, ideas.md which contains business/project ideas, and resolutions-yyyy.md. Whenever I revisit them, I'm always struck by the same thoughts/ideas that come up over and over again. The ideas.md file is the one that cracks me up the most--I have repeating project ideas with the same/similar set of features that occur every few years.
Yes it does. I don't journal every day, I keep each year to about 40-50 A4 pages and I won't write down all the banal stuff. The value lies in the fact that I will usually look at what life was like a year ago, 3 years ago, 5 years, 10 years ago and past-self is there telling me without the rose-tinted glasses. It makes me grateful for what I have today. If I need motivation today, the struggles that were written down serve as a reminder of what needed to be done to get to the present and that effort is required now to get to a higher plane tomorrow, next year, 5 years from now.
I started journaling 4 years ago. I have not missed one day in 4 years (except for a couple of days after a mild bicycle accident where I was sleeping in bed). I built myself a system that sends me an email every day, and the replies get stored in an sqlite db. The system accepts answers up to five days after the date (meaning, if the replies is sent more than five days after the initial email was sent, it's not filed). I did this to force myself to never reply too late.
The funny thing is, five days is waaay too long a time to remember what you have done. When I describe my day at the end of it, or the morning after, I usually remember incredible little details and thoughts. But after a day, only a rough outline remains. After two days, I usually remember nothing (save for exceptional circumstances).
That's why I started journaling: to be able to tell what happened in the past. Not just the big milestones, but all the little steps.
The funny thing is, five days is waaay too long a time to remember what you have done. When I describe my day at the end of it, or the morning after, I usually remember incredible little details and thoughts. But after a day, only a rough outline remains. After two days, I usually remember nothing (save for exceptional circumstances).
That's why I started journaling: to be able to tell what happened in the past. Not just the big milestones, but all the little steps.
That last line is probably the one thing I love about facebook, the "5 years ago today" posts that show you little snippets of your past activity. You probably wouldn't go and actively look for them, but seeing them is always a nice surprise!
A while ago I built basically what you describe but via whatsapp instead of email [1] and I think those are the perfect interfaces for filling out a journal, so many people recommend writing "as if you were writing to a friend" and that makes it so much more natural than any app or website could.
[1]https://github.com/caruano95/diarist
A while ago I built basically what you describe but via whatsapp instead of email [1] and I think those are the perfect interfaces for filling out a journal, so many people recommend writing "as if you were writing to a friend" and that makes it so much more natural than any app or website could.
[1]https://github.com/caruano95/diarist
Very nice! Does WhatsApp have an API that you can talk to, or is this all handled "magically" via Twilio?
(Making a smart chat app on WhatsApp sounds like a kind of fun project...)
(Making a smart chat app on WhatsApp sounds like a kind of fun project...)
> That's why I started journaling: to be able to tell what happened in the past. Not just the big milestones, but all the little steps.
This tracks for me, especially with little kids. I feel more peaceful knowing that these days won’t just completely disappear into the past. Just knowing I can look back later gives me solace now.
This tracks for me, especially with little kids. I feel more peaceful knowing that these days won’t just completely disappear into the past. Just knowing I can look back later gives me solace now.
i can support that. also journaling for the same reason. when i miss a day sometimes i can reconstruct it by examining the messages i sent for that day, but if it is more than a few days past, unless it was some special day, the memory is gone.
Just never read the past, problem solved. That shit also takes way too long, 400 words per day = 146k words = 300ish pages
The value of writing to me is to refine thoughts and then take action upon them. That is the here and now rather than introspection.
The value of writing to me is to refine thoughts and then take action upon them. That is the here and now rather than introspection.
Isn't refining thoughts necessarily what introspection is?
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I have been journaling for 2 years on and off. In the beginning it had extremely positive effects on my development as a person.
After a while the sense of effectiveness that came from writing constantly started to fizzle out and I'd feel like going in circles in my writing.For a while, I wouldn't write and I'd feel guilt and would attribute negative aspects of my life to my lack of writing, which led me back to daily writing. This was a recurring thing in my life.
After a while I just concluded that the valuable thing journaling teaches you is the importance of exploring your ideas and thoughts. Doing it religiously or with harsh constraints is no good. There must be time to explore and to just do things for a bit - that until some sort of critical mass is reached or some idea shows up that you want to discuss.
I think what confuses a lot of people is what one means with "journaling". If it's just writing about your day, I don't see that much utility in it. Effective journaling ends up being an alternative name for writing and reflecting without objective in my experience.
After a while the sense of effectiveness that came from writing constantly started to fizzle out and I'd feel like going in circles in my writing.For a while, I wouldn't write and I'd feel guilt and would attribute negative aspects of my life to my lack of writing, which led me back to daily writing. This was a recurring thing in my life.
After a while I just concluded that the valuable thing journaling teaches you is the importance of exploring your ideas and thoughts. Doing it religiously or with harsh constraints is no good. There must be time to explore and to just do things for a bit - that until some sort of critical mass is reached or some idea shows up that you want to discuss.
I think what confuses a lot of people is what one means with "journaling". If it's just writing about your day, I don't see that much utility in it. Effective journaling ends up being an alternative name for writing and reflecting without objective in my experience.
Few days ago I found a very interesting, short blog about journaling (I've just posted it seperately [0]). It's very interesting for me as it combines themes of journaling per se and self-dialogue.
0. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32237190
0. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32237190
Thank you for that insightful find which deserves more discussion comments.
I'm not sure if you are joking / being sarcastic or genuine, but I do Voice Dialogue, which is in fact talking to your voices, for a living and it is a big deal. This post is a beautiful, personal account of dialoging internally using writing. Post does not provide _content_ of any of such dialogues of the author, which, in my opinion, is elegant, yet it is written in such a way, that may be encouraging to some. YMMV.
I am definitely not being sarcastic. Sorry to hear that was even a consideration.
The article you posted has a lot more epistemic value. In contrast, the article in this thread is a very basic frustrated rant. It is just unfortunate that the seemingly more discussion worthy article did not receive more discussion.
I am intrigued by Voice Dialogue. Would you care to expand a bit on that? Pointing to any resources would be much appreciated.
The article you posted has a lot more epistemic value. In contrast, the article in this thread is a very basic frustrated rant. It is just unfortunate that the seemingly more discussion worthy article did not receive more discussion.
I am intrigued by Voice Dialogue. Would you care to expand a bit on that? Pointing to any resources would be much appreciated.
Oh, apologies for reading your comment this way, my bad.
Voice Dialogue is amazing. Perspective that we have different, very much independent sub-parts to our personality is not new and it is gaining more and more popularity (both in professional context (different modes of psychotherapy, etc.) and in popular culture (more and more references which use this 'many parts' view)).
Voice Dialogue in core is _practice_ of talking to these parts of our personality (or rather consciousness) (edit: engaging with them in a conversation). This is where one person engages in a conversation with different parts of another person.
To give you an example, one could talk to Your Inner Child (in fact, one could talk with diffrent child-like energies in you), your Rational Mind, your Cautious One, your Joy, and so on...
If you do it well, a certain shift in consciousness accurs. You just realise that these are in fact 'voices' or 'parts' ('energies' is also a good term) in you and you are not them. I dont hesitate to call it an insight.
Even reading a book about it can make that shift happen for you. I am pretty sure of what I write here. :)
In English there is https://voicedialogueinternational.com
Seminal work by Sidra and Hal Stone, authors of VD, is their book "Embracing Our Selves", which I highly recommend. You can check it out in Open Library: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL8683721M/Embracing_Ourselves
You will find similar approaches, I favor VD for many reasons.
Voice Dialogue is amazing. Perspective that we have different, very much independent sub-parts to our personality is not new and it is gaining more and more popularity (both in professional context (different modes of psychotherapy, etc.) and in popular culture (more and more references which use this 'many parts' view)).
Voice Dialogue in core is _practice_ of talking to these parts of our personality (or rather consciousness) (edit: engaging with them in a conversation). This is where one person engages in a conversation with different parts of another person.
To give you an example, one could talk to Your Inner Child (in fact, one could talk with diffrent child-like energies in you), your Rational Mind, your Cautious One, your Joy, and so on...
If you do it well, a certain shift in consciousness accurs. You just realise that these are in fact 'voices' or 'parts' ('energies' is also a good term) in you and you are not them. I dont hesitate to call it an insight.
Even reading a book about it can make that shift happen for you. I am pretty sure of what I write here. :)
In English there is https://voicedialogueinternational.com
Seminal work by Sidra and Hal Stone, authors of VD, is their book "Embracing Our Selves", which I highly recommend. You can check it out in Open Library: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL8683721M/Embracing_Ourselves
You will find similar approaches, I favor VD for many reasons.
My wife set up an app that shows us a carousel of kid pics all day. It's sitting on top of my microwave. This is my journal.
I don't mean this to sound negative, but you are more than a parent.
Don't knock it till you've tried it! It makes me feel great about my life and requires no additional work on my part.
I have two college aged kids and soon they will leave home and return only to visit. That may be a ways off for you now, but it will be here sooner than you think. When that happens, those photos will continue to give you positive feelings about your past but I'm not sure they will do much for your present or do anything to help you navigate into the future.
I started writing about 10 years ago, whenever I felt the need, coming to around 10-15 entries per year. Looking back through the entries, I can't say I'm a different person from the one I was 10 years ago, more like the opposite. The external circumstances have changed ofc, I've reached some goals, etc, but how I feel about myself and my reactions to life seem to have mostly stayed the same. Regardless of the apparent lack of progress, I am still writing occasionally, whenever I feel like it.