Fall is my season of a New Year. Yes, I know January has the branding for it, but the start of school year is so ingrained in me that I always think of the fall season as a time to establish new routines, new patterns of organization, or new ways of self-reflection, like starting a journal habit.
Can’t you feel that too? It’s like that line from You’ve Got Mail when Tom Hanks’ character writes, “Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.”
So while summer is still lingering around, fall is knocking at the door. And fall is a great season to dust off your old journal or grab a spiral notebook and put pen to paper. If you haven’t used a journal before, there are plenty of big names who used it as an important practice for growth. One of the most famous is Marcus Aurelius, a Roman Emperor from 161-180 A.D. Meditations is a book containing his journal entries. Here’s an excerpt from The Daily Stoic blog about him:
Meditations is perhaps the only document of its kind ever made. It is the private thoughts of the world’s most powerful man giving advice to himself on how to make good on the responsibilities and obligations of his positions. Trained in Stoic philosophy, Marcus Aurelius stopped almost every night to practice a series of spiritual exercises—reminders designed to make him humble, patient, empathetic, generous, and strong in the face of whatever he was dealing with. It is imminently readable and perfectly accessible. You cannot read this book and not come away with a phrase or a line that will be helpful to you the next time you are in trouble. Read it, it is practical philosophy embodied.
No one is ever going to publish my journals as required reading for philosophy classes, but there are a lot of personal benefits that come from a journal practice. Here are a few ways to get started, or restarted, with your own habit.
Goal-setting Journaling
I got this idea of a fresh, goal-setting journal technique from a newsletter I subscribe to. The rules are simple, but it’s harder than I thought it would be to put into practice. Each morning and evening, you jot down in your journal a list of dreams and goals. But you can only write in present tense, and you have to write as if this goal or dream has already occurred or is currently happening.
The more sensory imagery you can use, the better. Another rule is that you are not allowed to look back at what you’ve written, but instead you turn to a fresh page with every entry and focus on that. Here are some examples of the right and wrong way to do it:
–Wrong Way: I hope to one day have a farm.
–Right Way: I swing on the front porch swing of my farmhouse, my yellow lab at my feet. I sip my herbal tea and look out over the wet grass of the field.
–Wrong Way: I’d like to get along better with my X (could be any person: spouse, parent, friend)
–Right Way: I have a loving relationship with my X. We do something fun together each week.
–Wrong Way: Someday I want to travel to Italy.
–Right Way: My family and I travel to Italy for three weeks every summer. Or, I sit at the outdoor cafe in Florence with my family, feeling the sun on my face, eating the cool and sweet gelato.
In a way, this journaling technique is reminiscent of Creative Visualization promoted by Shakti Gawain. She espouses a mediative practice where you visualize what you want. Creative Visualization sparked a movement; the book had over seven million readers and a 40th anniversary edition printing. The creative visualization techniques have been adapted by all types. Washington Wizards Coach Scott Brooks talks about how his high school basketball coach insisted he regularly visualize his free throws. He credits this drill with his shooting success.
Back to the journal — at first when I started doing this list of goals/dreams, I didn’t take to it. It felt childish and far-fetched. But after a while, I got into the rhythm of it. This exercise brought into focus the things that are really important to me. And it might sound hokey, but there’s something to writing that stuff down, sometimes over and over again, that gets into your mindset.
Your brain sees these goals as actual possibilities instead of merely remaining aspirations or distant hopes or dreams. This blog is an example of that. I’d been wanting to write more and had toyed with the idea of starting a blog. After doing this goal-setting journal exercise for a month, starting a blog seemed like something I had already done or was doing rather than something I hoped to do one day. Next thing I knew, I had a website and here we are!
Traditional Journaling/ Write Out Your Feelings
During high school, college and while traveling, I was good about writing in a journal. I’m not sure when or why I let that habit go. But the simple act of putting down on paper our thoughts and feelings, not meant for anyone else to read, is a cleansing act. When we write out our feelings, we’re able to move on from them or release negative emotions. Another benefit is the clarity we might gain once we organize our thoughts and set them down in paragraph form. Or freestyle run-ons — it’s your journal, so write it in your own style.
Putting a journal date down on the calendar, even for once a month or week, might be a good way to start. You’re locked in to crossing that item off your to-do list that day, so you have a set appointment with yourself for it. But you don’t have the burden of having to write every day in it or even every other day. You also could try setting a timer for 10-15 minutes. That way, it’s not so overwhelming to stare at the blank page. You’re going to write down whatever pops in your mind during those 15 minutes.
If you need to narrow your focus, you could write a letter to yourself about what’s been going on. Or, if you’re in a more self-reflective mood, you could write a letter to a younger version of yourself, giving advice, warnings, and perspective about the triumphs and challenges that lie ahead.
Gratitude Journal
One of the simplest yet highly effective modes of journaling is a gratitude journal. You could have it on your bedside table and write down three things you’re grateful for every evening. Or you could keep a small notepad in your purse, work bag, or your car and do the same thing. Even if you utilized your Notes App and titled it
For a while, our family had a group text chain titled Gratitudes, where we would text something we’re grateful for and it would be a way of keeping each other up to speed about what was going on with the others. The idea of noticing all the people and gifts of the world, all the things for which we’re grateful — it’s a transformative act that fosters peace. Even if you’ve had a crummy day, you can reflect on things that you’re grateful for. Maybe in times of stress of turmoil, we need gratitude the most.
Recognizing things that you’re thankful for is an empowering act. Paul says in I Thessalonians, 5:18: Give thanks in all circumstances (or, In everything give thanks). It’s easy to find a few things every day for which we can give thanks. Go ahead and grab your notepad and begin your list now. I’ll start: I’m grateful for you, dear reader, to share this experience together of writing and reading.
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To read a previous post that might further spark your journal-writing spirit, click here: Quiz: How Are You Doing At Life?
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