The Journalist’s Journey

The proliferation of communication tools since the technological revolution of the “80″s has encouraged us to stay connected to more people than ever before. Phone, fax, e-mail, pager and cell phone can foster a global connection on a 24-hour basis with a plethora of people clamoring simultaneously for your time and attention, and the result is stress and fatigue. Factor in your spouse, children, extended family and friends, work and extracurricular activities and you have a case for an extended leave of absence from your own life. Enter: the journal.

Take a nice mental stroll through some of your happiest childhood memories, write down your deepest fears and most pressing anxieties, express your hidden desires, live out a fantasy all for the price of a scrapbook and pen.

Mental Health gurus extol introspection as a means to self-improvement. Tibetan Monks endorse the concept of individuation, separation from the mundanity of life to focus on the elevation of spirit. But where do we pencil in the time and how do we harness the presence of mind for this mentally daunting task? Your journal is the perfect medium to self-exploration and a closer understanding of and relationship to your inner child.

In the fervor of our daily lives, we often awaken already overburdened by a Things To Do list for the day. We accomplish our daily tasks halfheartedly, our minds weighted down by myriad appointments, our bodies poised for flight as soon as we’ve crossed something of our list so that we can swiftly move on to the next item. How easy it would be to just give up on “alone time” and give in to the cacophony of people, places and things!

But you need time to figure yourself out, to take control of your life and prevent it from controlling you, to plan the next phase of your career, enhance your marriage, refine your parenting skills. Your journal is your resource to the wonderful world of you.

Many writers utilize a writing tool called the Morning Pages. Every morning when they arise, they write three pages longhand of anything that comes to mind. This serves to unclog the brain, rev it up, and obliterates the built-in inner censor that assails us at the start of the day. We don’t realize how the negativity around us from well-meaning but fearful relatives or friends, difficult bosses and/or colleagues impacts us. In the morning many of us have to brush away the pessimism but it seeps into our core and we have to keep swatting it away like a persistent fly. Transcribing our feelings gives us permission to out the inner censor and triumph over it. Even if your writing commences with “I don’t feel like doing this; this is stupid,” by the middle of the second page you start to enjoy the momentum and towards the end of the third page you don’t feel like stopping.

Your personal journal can be anything you want or need it to be. It can contain an anthology of your poetry, it can serve as a collection of your favorite quotations, it can consist of lists of things that make you happy. Every day you are welcome to approach your journal with a new creative twist. Cut out pictures from magazines of hobbies you would like to undertake, people you would like to emulate, beautiful images that transport you to another realm. Make up stories to entertain yourself with, record your dreams or use your journal for a narrative of all the things you have to be grateful for.

It’s up to you. It’s all in your hands. Wake up 10 minutes earlier and take time to become reacquainted with yourself. Or if you can’t do mornings, write before you retire. If daily journaling is too big a chore, choose one or several days a week when you’re less encumbered. But do it. The only thing you have to lose is a little sleep and a lot of tension and unhappiness.