What is Our Life Journal.
A little re-write and refresh, talking about Our Life Journal (previously journaling here) - we all have one
Photo by Thom Holmes on Unsplash
Dear Substackers,
Is this you, when you hear the word ‘journaling’?
When I first heard about journaling, many years ago, I tried it. Lasted 2 days and I couldn’t be bothered. I couldn’t see how it could help and it was just another drain on my time and energy. Another thing to do that made me feel inadequate as I couldn’t (or was it wouldn’t) find time.
So by trying it twice in the past, I thought, well now I know this is useless. However, that was not enough to know, not enough experimentation and definitely the wrong attitude! If I go into something knowing it won’t help, then of course it is not going to help. I will find every justification that it won’t work and ‘evidence’ that it is not working. More, I don’t know at all, as I have not given it a good chance.
I was not born liking chocolate, I tried it out and now it maybe my most favourite thing or, for you, it might be crisps, or whatever your thing is, but you get it right? We have to give things a go, a proper go, before you say, it’s pants.
Why a life journal?
This is a term I have come up with over the years. We all have a life journal. When I think in a balanced way back over my life, there is so much in my life journal. Successes, bombing out and coming back from that. Memories, people, pets, experiences, holidays, problem solving, jobs, the list is endless.
I often get the most pleasure out of remembering the things that went pear shaped and how I learned from it and came back from it. That makes me feel capable and able to manage life. It is good for my self-esteem. At the time it sucked, but I can reflect on the skills I used to come back from those things. I am unconsciously drawing on all that experience in everything that I do. My life manual.
We tend to just get on with life and don’t stop and think about how we did and do things, the things that went well and what is important to us and how we have and do live our lives according to those values. We often can focus on the more difficult stuff and perceive things as failures rather than learning. As I keep saying, there is no such thing as failure for me. It is learning.
So if we can think about ourselves in these ways, it actually makes sense to record it in some way, for something for us to look back on in the hard times, remember how our younger selves learned things. And anything else that is important. Our life manual in journal format.
After all, we are quick enough to google things we want to learn to do. This is like your own, written google about ourselves!
So lets talk about the nuts and bolts of writing our stuff down.
I am gonna make you cry now. A journal is more effective if you get an old fashioned pen. Remember those?
Photo by Content Pixie on Unsplash
The upside is, it is an excuse to go stationery shopping!
Evidence base (if you are curious to the science):
There is quite a lot of research suggesting that that the physical act of writing by hand activates different areas of the brain compared to typing. This contributes to better memory encoding and retrieval. Additionally writing by hand involves complex motor skills and sensory feedback, enhancing the learning process (Mangen and Velay, 2010). Longcamp et al. (2005) research indicated that there could be improvements to long term memory. Kiesler et al. (2011) research suggested that writing with a pen can improve our critical thinking. And there is much more if you are interested.
My idea of what a Life Journal can be
It is whatever you want it to be that will aid you to move forward in your life, in a helpful way. Wide open eh? But it is true. It is a space for you to write down and process and think about whatever is going on right now and how you can move forward.
My journals or notebooks, whatever I am doing at the time, change all the time. If I look back on earlier ones they are all different. And is it really nice to look back on all this stuff. Even my to-do lists are interesting as it makes me remember how proficient I am at things now that I really really struggled with at one time.
Journals are traditionally things you have learned, things you like, ideas from others that you like and want to remember or to think about. A space for things you want to think about and plan. Things you want to decide if they are for you or not. If you want to write about your day each day, do it. If you want to chart your progress towards something, great. If you have a big goal and want to work out what the steps toward are. Things you want to remember. Things you do well, or have gone well and what life skills you used. Maybe something you did outside your comfort zone that you want to remember to look back on. Acts of kindness you have done or received. You can see, the potential is huge. You can write in it everyday or once a week. If you decide daily, and you do it once a week because life got in the way, that in itself is something to think about. You can stick photo’s or tickets or anything in there too. My personal instagram account is a journal of my setters (setter_crazy if you want some cuteness!). But I have more written stuff. You can be as creative you like. If you really can’t face the pen, electronic is fine. I mix it up. It is totally endless.
I would love you to share your ideas and experiences.
If you think for a moment, about what the research above suggests, maybe you can start to see how writing things down can help with the process of life and figuring life out?
What will I need for my coaching journal?
Basically a note book of any sort you have, or you can go and buy something fancy. Honestly, I got distracted for about 2 hours when I googled “buy journal”. There is SO much out there. Fun, fun, fun if you like that sort of thing.
And a pen. That is it! Make sure it is a pen that you like to write with, whatever form that might be. It just makes it easer while you build up those writing muscles! I am learning calligraphy, loving that. But for everything else I use a bog standard Pilot rollerball. It is so easy to write with and I like the blue ones.
How are we going to create a coaching journal in Floreo?
Moving forward from today’s re-write (October 2024) I am going to just publish some ideas, anecdotes and anything else that comes to mind to help maybe spark an idea about how you could benefit from some kind of journal, whatever that form that might take.
What is there to lose by trying it out? but more importantly, what is there to gain by trying it out?
Warm wishes
Jane
Floreo (Latin for flourish) Self-esteem is not just about confidence, it is the foundation of your human experience. It is your right to feel comfortable with yourself and flourish.
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