Journaling
I’ve kept a journal/ diary throughout my life, but more consistently since I was 25. I find it invaluable as a tool to reflect on each day as it passes and figure out how I’m feeling.
Recently, I’ve been using [[ Lynda Barry ]]’s observation journal method, suggested by Kathleen Jennings.
I’ve also added in questions I found from Struthless:
- What excited me?
- What drained me of energy?
- What did I learn? – Campbell Walker, aka Struthless
(It’s worth checking out his videos, especially this one which highlights some of the reasons and ways to approach journaling)
I might ask myself some Questions for Self Reflection in order to prompt a response. If I’m feeling lazy I might do 54321 journalling instead. Recently, I’ve started keeping a Bullet journal.
I’ve also found keeping a haiku journal useful to develop my poetic craft and also observe small moments. Tiny observations is good for this, as is the writing exercise of Write a Detailed Observation.
I love the diary because it knows itself to be a minor form; it isn’t trying to be anything but. It isn’t constructed, like a memoir; it is life as it happens.
My planners, I know, will lie on the shelf where I have placed them, containing exactly what they contain, the concrete evidence of my hours, the things I did and the things I didn’t do, tallied. -How To Plan For The Worst Day Of Your Life*- Helen Phillips
I might not know what I meant 25 years or even 25 hours ago, but I do recognise the same essential impulse: to grab at life, tug at the details and hold onto them in the knowledge that although each moment, each thought may be fleeting and tenuous, together they make up the substance of our lives, day by day, year by year until we reach the final page.