On Journaling

A recommendation for a valuable habit

Photo by Jess Bailey

Journaling is one of the most life-changing habits you can undertake.  Organizing your thoughts and feelings, capturing the here and now and making it permanent to help clarify and show progress.  I have found that, when I start to journal for the evening, there are thoughts and feelings roiling below the surface that would otherwise be inaccessible.  The relief that journaling brings is powerful because it is so personal. The journal is not for anyone else to view; it’s just you, alone, wrestling with yourself.

A journaling habit can be difficult to start.  In the busyness of life, how can you make time to write about your inner workings? After starting my own journal, the question quickly morphed to “how can you not?” The inner sanctum of our minds tends to be the most neglected thing in our lives.  It is so easy to displace ourselves in the service of others or work.  Everyone is pressed for time, so we relegate self– the only thing we have true control over– to last place. But this could not be less productive.

Emotional selves and inner thoughts dominate our day, whether we acknowledge them or not.  Our mood, attitude, and responses are all tied to our inner self.  If we are hungry, for example, we may get irritable or angry (hangry!).  To solve this, we eat and relieve our body of its immediate need.  Even that level of self-awareness is lost on some, due to exhaustion, anxiety or any other number of external impediments.

How far removed, then, is the thought-life? When anxieties start to rise in us, our conscious brain is often the last stop.  First, we feel them in the body. Then, we feel them in the subconscious mind, just below the surface. Last, they come to the forefront of our minds and then we try to deal with them. How unproductive it is to wait until the last step to start to deal with them?

Journaling is a good way to reduce the impact of this— deliberately parsing through our bodies and minds to see what is lurking below. Often, when I start journaling, I have a difficult time stopping.  The conscious mind is the tip of the iceberg; so much rests beneath the surface.  Thus, the impetus of taking time to reflect and dig deeply, to pull the hidden to the surface and take a look before it becomes an emergency.

It can be difficult to know where to begin.  The format that I use is (predictably) taken from the Stoics, who were adamant about the importance of dedicated self-reflection in journaling. Marcus Aurelius recommended journaling in the morning, to clarify the thoughts for the day ahead. Seneca journaled in the evening:

When the light has been removed and my wife has fallen silent, aware of this habit that’s now mine, I examine my entire day and go back over what I’ve done and said, hiding nothing from myself, passing nothing by.

Either of these is great place to start.  If you only have time for one, I recommend starting with the evening, right before bed.  Evening reflection allows you to find relief right before bed, quieting the mind to approach rest.  Further, parsing out your every action from the day will help you reflect on how better choices can be made.  Examining your character is the only way to improve it.

When I journal, I do both morning and evening. This is the method extolled by Epictetus:

Every day and night keep thoughts like these at hand—write them, read them aloud, talk to yourself and others about them.

Evening reflection allows you to clear your mind before sleep and decide on better actions, morning reflection allows you to follow through— to plan for virtue. 

Edited by Jeremy Harr and Abigail McKay Cherry

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