Journaling...a lost art.
Prior to radio, television, computers, the internet, blogs, and Facebook, humans actually did have things to take up their time. Words. They read books, exchanged letters, and journaled. Journaling means different things to different people; here's my take.
Cheapest...therapy...ever.
Putting pen to paper is one of my favorite things to do. There's something so final about putting the ink on the page. There are things that flow off the pen that are very difficult to say out-loud, but once it's on the paper, you can't take it back. From there, you can work through the issue without having to worry about what other people think, what some expert says on the internet, or even what you want to think is the right thing.
Different people have different methods of journaling. Each one has its own advantages and disadvantages. I'll start with what I do: topic brainstorming followed by systematic free-flowing writing. It's kind of hard to explain, so I'll give you an example.
Every Tuesday night at 6:30p, I meet with 15-20 other people that have gone through the Jewish Hospital Weight Management Center's Core Program. It's called "Sustaining." Some people have been at their goal for 7+ years, but for some it may be their first week. During our sharing and discussions, topics will jump out at me as being something to journal through. One from a couple weeks ago was, "How will I handle not being able to run due to illness?" I hadn't thought about it. I wrote it down in my journal. Someone else mentioned a motivational saying that they liked to repeat. I wrote that down. There were 4 or 5 other things that I wrote down that night.
If I have time, I like to journal as soon as possible after making a brainstorming list. Ideally, I would journal through these topics on Tuesday night. In reality, it usually ends up being Wednesday afternoon or evening. I'll group them together (if practical) to journal in one dialog. For our example, I'll group together these two points: "How will I handle not being able to run due to illness?" and "How will my exercise need to change over the winter?" They are related, and many of the solutions for one will apply to the other.
Here's an example of how that would read:
Different people have different methods of journaling. Each one has its own advantages and disadvantages. I'll start with what I do: topic brainstorming followed by systematic free-flowing writing. It's kind of hard to explain, so I'll give you an example.
Every Tuesday night at 6:30p, I meet with 15-20 other people that have gone through the Jewish Hospital Weight Management Center's Core Program. It's called "Sustaining." Some people have been at their goal for 7+ years, but for some it may be their first week. During our sharing and discussions, topics will jump out at me as being something to journal through. One from a couple weeks ago was, "How will I handle not being able to run due to illness?" I hadn't thought about it. I wrote it down in my journal. Someone else mentioned a motivational saying that they liked to repeat. I wrote that down. There were 4 or 5 other things that I wrote down that night.
If I have time, I like to journal as soon as possible after making a brainstorming list. Ideally, I would journal through these topics on Tuesday night. In reality, it usually ends up being Wednesday afternoon or evening. I'll group them together (if practical) to journal in one dialog. For our example, I'll group together these two points: "How will I handle not being able to run due to illness?" and "How will my exercise need to change over the winter?" They are related, and many of the solutions for one will apply to the other.
Here's an example of how that would read:
I hadn't thought yet about what I will do when I'm kept from running, for some reason. Two different people brought up valid points at Sustaining: What will I do when I can't exercise due to illness, or due to weather? Yikes. I have relied so much on running for my exercise, stress release, motivation...you name it. The reality is that I will get sick at some point and that it will definitely get too cold to run during winter. I'll get to the weather part in a little bit.
I will get a cold, a stomach bug, whatever some time soon. I've used my training schedules to help stay on track and measure my progress. To make matters worse, I'm already going to be depressed from being sick. In order to get through it, I'm going to have to find some way to spend my time productively. Some ideas: reading about training, working on my website(s), researching races, and getting some sleep to help recover faster.
The weather is a little different because of its inevitability. In addition, I have some options to exercise. Running: treadmill at home, treadmill at YMCA, or indoor track somewhere in the city. Cycling: spinning, trainer work, or stationary bike. Swimming: indoor pool laps. I can also take the time to do some cross training on other machines and weights.
I will get a cold, a stomach bug, whatever some time soon. I've used my training schedules to help stay on track and measure my progress. To make matters worse, I'm already going to be depressed from being sick. In order to get through it, I'm going to have to find some way to spend my time productively. Some ideas: reading about training, working on my website(s), researching races, and getting some sleep to help recover faster.
The weather is a little different because of its inevitability. In addition, I have some options to exercise. Running: treadmill at home, treadmill at YMCA, or indoor track somewhere in the city. Cycling: spinning, trainer work, or stationary bike. Swimming: indoor pool laps. I can also take the time to do some cross training on other machines and weights.
The thing to remember about journaling is that it doesn't matter what you write; it just matters THAT you write.