Friday, February 27, 2009

Keeping a journal.

A journal is more of a personal collection of thoughts, feelings, events and opinions of what happens in our daily lives. It is more personal than a diary because here one can explore their deeper feelings, without worrying about space and how much they have to write i.e. it is more of free writing.
I have kept a journal for over seven years and it is really helpful in assessing how much I have changed and what still needs to be worked on.
How to keep a journal:
-First, you could walk through the various stationery shops and buy an already formatted journal.
You could also just pick an excercise book and preserve the top most corner for the date, and just get to writing
Having journaled for years, I simply find myself writing at any time or place about what is going on and how it affects me, at times I end up recording people's conversations without even noticing it.
- It is also crucial that if you are keeping a jornal for the first time, that you select a time when you would be free of distractions and just get down to writing.
-Just write anything about your day. It could be a sentence, word or just a paragraph, take your time.
Most people see writing as a very tiresome experience but with journaling it actually is very interesting because you only talk about your day, thoughts, feelings and just open up about your expectations. Journaling is all about you, no one will evaluate what you say but you.
You could try it out and just write something about your day.
This would become a routine, if you have time to commit because it is one way of seeing a change in yourself.

4 comments:

  1. so, hey, chic, aki you were serious with this writing thingy? I didn't know...cool stuff, unafaa ujoin hiyo writer's club inaformiwa, so am not going to say who i am but as a pal you oughtta guess.keep up.

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  2. I was just wondering, if there is anything else to keeping a journal other than being able to like document your life? and if there is, isn't keeping a diary almost the same as this? help please!

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  3. hi, well in answer to the second comment, I would have to say that keeping a journal is more reflective than a diary because you have enough space to write about what happened in the day, with a diary you could skip out on some aspects of your day but with a journal you write to explore and better understand your feelings.It is true a journal is more like a handwritten documentary of your life, I am glad you could relate the two, a journal is deep, and it consumes a lot of time when one has to sit down and write their daily experiences. Let me also add that there are 2 types of journals: student journal and personal journal. A student journal could be used to think critically while reading or annotating a text.
    Hope I helped you out.

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  4. i have a journal too.i was first inspired to have one when i watched the tv series'roswell'.Shiri appelby used to have a journal.journals are great.i used to think they are a waste of time but last week when i was reviewing things from last year i just thought-gee i was so stupid and naive.gosh it helps to see how youre changing which is a good thing.

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Thanks for Reading!