What Do You Use For Journal For?

I'm looking for nouns, quick phrases that describes why you journal. As soon as you read this, what popped in your head? 

Why do you journal? 

I journal to...

plan
focus
understand
ramble
vent
share
record

And I am sure there are other reasons, but these are the ones I thought at this moment.

What about you? Why do you keep a journal? 

Meet A Journal Keeper - Shane

I began journaling on January 1, 1991, my Freshman year in college. I don't know why I started. I just had an empty notebook and wrote "journal" on it and never looked back. I am so grateful I stumbled across this incredible pastime. I was 22 when I started and have been journaling for 20 years now. I love journals. I have been on the hunt for manly journals ever since I bought my first hard back journal. There's plenty of blank books with kitty cats and flowers, but I have to dig deep to find the type I like. I like nostalgic covers, preferably with superheroes or Peanuts characters. My journals must be hard back covers and ruled, not that I've never made an exception. I like the standard size journal. Too big and too small messes up the visual on the bookshelf.

What do I journal about? Life. When I first started, my entries were pretty boring, just giving the run down of my day, but I ended each one with a prayer. I look back on some of those expressions to God and am overwhelmed by how much I needed His assistance in life. Now I write out my prayers (still), observations from my Bible study, funny or poignant things my kids say, victories and failures (because you can learn from both), revelations about marriage, and just over all how I'm feeling. When I was single, I journaled a lot. I would fill a book in 2 months. Now that I'm married with three kids, I don't have the same gumption for writing as much as back then, but the passion is still there.

I have filled over 50 journals and have about 25 waiting for me. I never start a new one until I've finished the current one, which is really hard when I have a really cool one waiting for me, but it's a rule established early on and I've kept it. I'm proud to say I earned the title of "Notebook Addict of the Week" from Nifty over there at the website Notebook Stories, and never knew how obsessive my passion for journaling was until I wrote about it to get nominated. But it has been fun to find websites like this and people like me who are fellow "Journal Addicts."

Coffee: The Greatest Addiction Ever

What Do You Do With Your Journals?

We all journal for different reasons. But what do you do with them after you have written them? Do you keep all your journals? Have you ever destroyed any?

Do you know - when you start keeping them - what you will do with them afterwards? Do you ever read your journals? Do you analyse them? Do you make notes in them or modify them?

I hope many of you will share your methods / madness / experiences...as I would love to start a discussion about what we do with our journals.

How is Your Journaling Going?

I haven't been regular on the blog lately - but it happens. Life takes over. That is precisely why I have always refused to make a schedule for this blog. Because I love this blog - it's supposed to be fun, to share my thoughts and ideas about journaling process. 

I follow the same principle for journaling. With the exception of rare challenges I go through, I don't have a schedule, or a ritual, or a particular place or time to journal. I journal whenever I feel like, wherever I feel like, and write whatever I want in it. And it works for me, because journaling is supposed to be personal. Us humans have whims and fancies, so why shouldn't our journals? 

How many of your whims and fancies go in your journal? Does your journal reflect the pattern of your life? 

Notebook Addict of the Week

This week's Notebook Addict ....yours truly! 


Check out my journal / notebook craziness here

Journal Writing Prompt 22 - Dare to Dream

Journaling is not just about facing facts of your life...it's about opening your mind and your heart to possibilities. It's about believing in yourself. And if you are generally big on feeling down, it's about believing that good things CAN happen to you.

So today, Dare to Dream. Journal about something you would like to be, or achieve, or see. Anything....it might be something like travelling to a dream destination, or finding the man/woman of your dreams, having a child, having grandchildren, being famous...anything. Go all out. 

BE DARING.

DREAM OUTRAGEOUSLY.

Don't even think about it not being realistic. Don't tell yourself that it probably won't happen. Who cares about reality....this is your time to dream. So go and dream. And have fun!