Again on Journaling

Property of Stormberry

 It wasn't until moments ago that I found the old posts I have written here about journaling, and up until that moment I knew I had written about the subject - because duh! - but I didn't know what have I written and whether I would repeat myself. Well, I have the pictures and I have some ideas, so I might as well share them, right? Right.

This has been prompted because I have started watching videos about journaling again. Most of what you can find, though, either it's about art journaling or junk journaling, or doing a sort of journaling that's more like smashbooking or scrapbooking than the basic concept of journaling people get from reading or hearing about famous diaries, such as Anne Frank's, Anaïs Nin's, Benjamin Franklin's and so on and so forth. But then, there's also the journaling that functions also as a planner or a time/task organizer. So yes, it can become quite a confusing thing, though it doesn't need to be so.

So, when someone thinks "I would like to journal", or maybe someone who has been journaling wonder if they are doing it well, I believe the more voices with can give to guide and assure people on this subject, the better. In this post I'll mainly concentrate on the process of starting, so let's dive into that.

Right or Wrong Way

First things first, to the question of "Is there a right way to journal?" the answer is "Yes and No". There's not really ANY particular way, format, aesthetic, periodicity or medium that makes it right or wrong. So, whatever format you pick or if you give it up or have no consistency, or switch from one way to another, it's all good.

The only way to do it wrong is doing it without liking it. If you don't enjoy it, stop. When you stop liking it, that's when it's wrong. But as long as you like it, it's absolutely right.

What to Write About

Property of Stormberry

Well, before looking for prompts and consuming five TB of Pinterest pictures, and invest 100 hours on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram researching the subject, be clear about why you would even want to journal. Maybe you saw some pics and felt like you want to try it, or you heard someone did it and you want to do it as well.Or you saw the aesthetics and liked them, and you want to create something like that.

Now, usually one would say, "well, there you go: copy that". And yes, you are right: it's not that easy, specially if you are inspired by artistic journals and you feel like you don't have the same talent. Or if you are inspired by travelling journals, but you can't really travel, and don't feel like writing a journal about where you would like to go.

In those cases, my advise would be to write about that, or if you want to create a more art-journal or collage-journal, then start by simply clipping and collecting pictures you like. You don't even have to paste them in, just collect them, stash them between the pages, let them accumulate there and try out a couple of ideas as you feel like.

If you felt inspired and are more into "words", it's much easier  - or at least for me because I am into words and writing - because instead of jumping right off into the thick of it, you can start by writing about your motivation or how did you get there.

Now, if it wasn't your idea but it's a assignment, or you were advised to write a journal for whatever reason, a couple of ideas until you warm up are:

1. Write about the news headlines. What catches your attention and what do you think about it.

2. Write about the gossip you have heard.

3. Write about what you have seen on social media lately, that catches your attention.

4. Pick a person, an animal, a plant, a thing... anything that catches your attention, and write about what you think of them or it.

5. Write about anything interesting (for you) that has happened or is about to happen.

Last year a lot of people found inspiration to journal in the events that have changed the world, deciding to record their experience with the pandemic. Those journals got to be known as the quarantine diaries. Whether they keep up or not, those people and those journals came from a moment of global life change and came to life to record a shift like no other. But then again, you don't need a global shift to journal. A personal shift is enough. And yes, you can still pick up a pen and paper and start right now writing your quarantine diaries or your climate change diaries or the "oh-hell-what-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-people" diaries.

Entries can be short or long and don't even have to be dated. I date them because I have a bad memory and my journals actually help me remember, but if you don't care about the dates or what you decide to journal about isn't time sensitive, skip it. Hey, you may even date some entries and some others don't.

How to Start an Entry

Well, dating it is the easiest way, if you choose that way. For a while now I've been adding the location and also giving a sort of title to my entries, but you do anything you want. If you want to follow an epistolary style, with "Dear Diary,", that's a way to do it. If you feel blocked, and you want to write, but have no idea how to write that first sentence, make a title with the general topic you want to write about. 

For instance, let's say that you had a hard day at work because there was too much traffic and meetings got cancelled and pushed to other days and you wasted hours trying to reschedule them. So how to start? You could say:

1. Today was a very hard day. ... and go on explaining why.

2. Make a title: "Hard Day" or "Wasted Hours" or "Rescheduling". Here go with the first idea. Then go on explaining what happened.

3. Pretend you are talking to a friend. Start with "People need to be more reliable. I can't have another day like this. Today I had a busy day..." and go on.

Sometimes it happens that you are very tired but would like to journal because you want to keep a fresh memory of the events, but really, you are too tired. Well, you can either make a short entry in list format or with just a few words or sentences to jug your memory, and leave it for some other day. If you have the chance, record it on a voice note. Deal with it later.

I have a couple of entries I have written through many days in order to record the particular events of a given day. It not only works, but oftentimes, taking more time to record certain things becomes cathartic and also gives you a new perspective.

Oh, and it's always ok to add stuff. Recipes, photos, clippings, notes. And no, it doesn't have to be artistic, just meaningful for you.

How to Start Journaling - the First Page Question

Property of Stormberry

Yes, it can be intimidating. The last two photos are actual pictures of the first pages of my journals. Sometimes I have added a printed out article I liked, and used it to write my first entry as a omment to it. Another first entry said something about my journaling habits, specifically how I choose to write the date and how that holds throughout the journal.

Other times that first entry reads as what it is: a continuation of the journaling process that comes from a long line of journals written through many years now.

This page doesn't have to be perfect, doesn't need a cover or a design or a grand opening. Just write. You don't even have to worry about reading it in the future, because unless you are like mee and have a bad memory, journaling is about recording, writing it down, recording, filming something for the very pleasure of doing so.

I don't really like it when people talk about "making a habit of journaling" or advise people to "keep doing it, even if you don't like it because it will eventually come naturally to you". You should make journaling anything you want it to be, and if it naturally becomes a habit, well, great. If not, if you write only once a year or every other month or god-knows-when, that's ok too. Write when you feel like it, and about what you feel like it.

The only person your journaling has to satisfy is you.

Now, something I would like to mention here is that journaling doesn't have to be strictly writing or writing by hand. You can type if you want, do it on a document on your computer, on your phone, or an app, or some online journal or even a blog. But it can also be audio recordings or videos, or any other way you find to express yourself in a way that satisfies you.

This is how I journal now

Picture property of Stormberry

I found recently a picture of how I used to manage my planner some years ago. Oh boy, kids, this is from 2017! And back then I still used filofax inserts (Wo2P - week on two pages). I think this is the one that came... no. The one that came with the planner were the Wo2P in columns (it is an A5 Malden after all), and since I've got my planner in Europe (it was too expensive to have it shipped to the American continente), and I think I shortly after visited my friend Tina and we switched inserts because she loved the vertical distribution, while my way of planning (appointments to the left, tasks to the right) works better on a horizontal set up. I was crazy for color (as I still am, mind you) and back then I used frixion pens because they allowed me to write in ink and erase the notes when something needed to be rescheduled. Before that I tried using colored led mechanic pencils, but colored led was hard to come by (and then I've got a shipload of them, and now I have them here to use, and haven't used them in quite a while. This is how I function.).

I still remember my boyfriend from back then, who was mindblown that I had spent about 180,- € (including the shipping) for a planner. Three-four years later I'm still using that planner, and am completely in love with it. One of the best investments I've ever made, if you ask me.

I no longer use inserts, but I get dotted paper (have stocked up on a few of them... several times, so I think I'm safe to go through the quarantine for a while solely on my stock), or cut graph paper to size, punch it and use it for bullet journaling, which is how I plan today. Curiously, I migrated my appointment/task setting to my bullet journal, and I don't use indexes, but instead keep on using the sections all filofax lovers adore, and fitted both worlds to my personal need. As everybody should.

Property of Stormberry.

Something else that has been changing is how I journal too. And when I say journal, I mean that sort of sit down and write your thoughts, impressions, events, personal analysis of what goes on, gossip you don't want to forget... or whatever you write in your journal. And yes, not all of us are Anaïs Nin's (I know, I LOVE Anaïs Nin. Deal with it.), but our thoughts and impressions and experiences are all valid and all deserve to be recorded.

In my earlier journals - you can find pictures, I believe, if you go back far enough - I used less media and more text. Here and there I would paste a news clipping, but it was all mainly text written in a single color ink. I wasn't much of a spread creator or a visual arts enthusiast, nor I consider so myself up to this day, but I have been starting to cut and paste more and more pictures from magazines or pictures I print out from photos and internet searches, and add them in.

Washi tape sometines also gets involved in my entries. And now sometimes I draw too, or do some lettering, or add an extra page in this baking-sheet-like paper (this translucent, resistant paper, like the one you can see in this second picture, from which I folded a simple envelope to keep some of thsi cut out and clipped pictures), on which I paste whatever memento in order to save pages I can use for writing.

Property of Stormberry

I have always been one to keep souvenirs and either I collected them in a box (or more than one. Don't ask.), or just put them between the pages of my journals. It was through the influence of my friend Tina, who does a lot of art journaling. I started experimenting more and more with this sort of journaling, and then tried to scale it back, because I am not an art-journaler or an artistic-spread-making kind of journaler. I don't think I would ever try to make whole artistic spreads in my journal, for my way of journaling is through words, and I strive for all pictures to have something to do with the entry. Or so I try. ^_^

In my last journal book (a Leuchtturm 1917 A5 Copper), I tried to regain the old style, minimizing as much as I could the use of art, with not much avail. It did was significantly reduced compared to my previous one, an A5-ish, jaw-dropping Bomo Art plain paper journal of absolute beauty. Yes, I'm adding the link and I'm promoting it shamelessly (but not being paid in any shape or form by them or any other company) not because they are a Hungarian company I love, but mostly because the product is GORGEOUS and the whole universe should know about them.

So, that Bomo Art journal was my most artistic so far. Now I'm writing in a HEMA, which was gifted to me by my friend Arjen. This notebook has been in my collection for a while - as about 10 others, I gather - and though I wanted to start another Bomo Art notebook, my hand went to this one.

Lined Paper, which is not my preferred, and a cover/inside combination that I LOVED when I first got it because it took me from light to darkness - the hearts desire of many a witch ^_^ as we don't fear darnkess but learn to work with its power - and yet now, with such a hard 2020 under way, I needed to find light in me, and so I changed the cover. And what to know something? HEMA notebooks are sooo cooperative! Even an unskilled person like me (yes, I am actually quite clumsy, but fix all mistakes with washi tape and good attitude) was abe to change the cover so that it looks like that was how it was originally planned to be. And this forgiving, yielding, happy, considerate, ample notebook has tapped again my visual veins and I've started perusing Pinterest and clicking, printing, cutting and pasting again.

The point, my dearest Reader, is that when it comes to journaling, all you have to do is just do what you want to do. Just that. Journal for yourself, and if you are proud of it and want to share it, share it! Hey, and if you need some encouragement, write to me ^_^ or just link here the pics of your journal entries or your journal book, and I'll go and give it some love. Because whatever you do, for yourself, it is BEAUTIFUL.

Quaratine Diaries and Journals

Property of Stormberry.
From my own journal.

Maybe you have heard of these diaries and journals, but the first time I did was throught an article in the New York Times published on March 30th, 2020. The article spoke about how people around the world has been turning to pen and paper in these days of staying at home and isolation to record the flow of their days, their thoughts, their fears and their experiences.

Some people has taken pen and paper for the first time to write about what goes on, making do with the art of journaling or keeping a diary as their days stretch into weeks and months in confinement, with fear of the outher world while at the same time yearning for it. Others have already been journaling ad have now turned to their trusty pages to record their experiences or find solace to the angst and burdens that now bend their backs and hearts.

I do not know of anyone around me keeping such journals, though I do know of people who journal. I am, for one, the kind of diary-keeper that would be considered the most unreliable one for recording events that happen around me or in the real world, to call it some how. I journal about my feelings, about intimate recounts of happenings with a handfull of people from my environment, with usually no information that might help place these events in any sort of social or historical context. For the love of the Gods, I just spent four months recording the events of a single day spent with Fritzl!

Property of Stormberry
From my personal journal

And yet still...

And yet still, I have found that I want to record some things that have been happening, that have affected the general tide of the society in which I live, and thus affecting my relationships with others as well as my state of mind. I'm certain my journal won't be listed in any book of history, nor it is my intention to record anything in it for anyone but myself, if I ever decide to go back and consult it, but I do find it important to try and illuminate in my notes the fact that there is a pandemic swirling around the world and upending life as we know it.

Things change, human contact change. I find myself wondering whether I'll be able to experience a long, sustained hug again, if I'll be able to hug, to feel against my arms the sure warmth of and solidity of someone I love. If I'll be able to kiss again, burry my nose in the crook of the neck of someone and breath in their scent, feel their hair against my face and between my fingers.

I'm still moved to write about my feelings and their evolution, collect and systematize my memories in the minute dissection of someone, holding their actions between the steel tines of my nib, beating softly as ink pours over them and cut them into tiny pieces with my words as I find new and new meanings of every action, every word and every gesture, combined with the yuxtaposition of other collected memories and experiences that help me draw parallels.

I change. We all change, and our old coping mechanisms might have been compromised. Mine have, as I can no longer drive to a coffeeshop, order a specialty coffee and claim a table for myself to write and sometimes also do some people-watching. We must adapt, and quarantine journals or diaries, or just our regular journals and diaries can help us navigate these new waters.

The Art of Recording Your Experience

Source: Book of Shadows, Charmed Wiki.

In recent days I've been going back more and more to my Book of Shadows, striking out things that are no longer part of my believes, and also adding anotations from the practice I am doing. Nothing fancy, just usual comfy-witch-doing-stuff kind of things.

The funny thing about my Book of Shadows, is that I see it as a dynamic, changing thing. I started keeping one ages ago, first in a spiral bound book and then moved to a large hard bound book a friend gave me. This had some lettering, some structure and some uncertainty. In it I sought to embrace the witch in me without going against my believes of the time, which was difficult, because the consensus of my believe frame went against my nature and my very own believes.

Slowly I grew, and learned to shed the frames imposed by third parties and reach out in a direct connection to my believes and the world around me, and so some things in my Book of Shadows became obsolete, so I have started striking out what no longer works for me. I'm also taking up again some studying I wanted to do during my Year-and-a-Day period, but yeah, that didn't quite happened. That is also recorded in there.

I've a new book - leather bound, handmade pages, and much smaller than my current one - and I've been thinking about moving into it, with the anotations better organized and curated to my current system of believes. Now, my Book of Shadows is personal, not a public record nor a book for public consultation. It can hold all my tries and errors, and nothing happens. However, as I was revising yesterday, I was thinking how different it is from my journals, which I don't go back to correct. I do have similar feelings for both of them, both are personal books, but while one adapts to my current needs, the other remains fixed.

This got me thinking about some things we do. Sometimes we are tempted to go over our past and past decisions and fix them. We want to go back and erase them, or tell them differently, in the light of what we have learned later on. We don't want to admit that we had a crush on that person that turned out to be so embarrassing, and we don't want to admit that we didn't do something or didn't get to be picked for something we really wanted. I've met people who had lied about the score they've got to enter a beloved university, claiming they didn't get into this or that career because "back then they decided against it". The truth? Back then their results came below the required score. -- Yes, I had back then the means to check on their allegations.

The point is not that people lie - people always lie and it's not always a bad thing - but the issue here is the revisionst attitude to one's own past. Why do we feel the need to do so? Because, at the same time, most people are perfectly fine rewriting their past, but do nothing to fix their future and improve those perceived flaws. We want to change what we can't change (our past), but ignore what we actually can change (our attitudes and actions in the present).

If it bothers you that you couldn't enter to your beloved career, instead of lying about why it didn't happen, why don't you try to enter now? It's never too late to study. Or was it that you let go the love of your life? Hey, unless they are dead, you can still pick up the phone and drop them a message. And if they are dead - I know, that's my case - you can always dedicate them some time to write or paint ot think about them.

Honor your past, learn from it. You don't need to share if it makes you feel uncomfortable, but embrace it, observe it, draw out lessons and apply them to your present. See it this way: if you want to change something you did in the past, or that happened to you, what could you do now to correct its effects?

I keep a journal for my past, to remember the things I did, I said, I thought and those I witnessed. I keep a Book of Shadows for my spiritual practice. My personal past and my personal present. Life is also separated in two books for all of us (or more). Use them wisely.