Putting pen to paper

Henriette Lamprecht – The first sentence Anne Frank made in her famous diary on 12 June 1942 was, “I hope you’ll be a great source of comfort and support”. Between its pages she shared her small triumphs, her heartache, her fears and her dreams, because “paper,” she said, “has more patience than people”.

James W. Pennebaker, a social psychologist at the University of Texas in Austin who is considered the pioneer of writing therapy, says labelling emotions and acknowledging traumatic events (both natural outcomes of journaling) have a known positive effect on people.

Fundamentally, writing is an organisational system says Pennebaker because keeping a journal helps to organise an event in our mind as well as make sense of trauma.

According to him, when we do that, our working memory improves, since our brains are freed from the enormously taxing job of processing that experience.

This in turn improves our sleep, immune system and moods. We go to work refreshed, perform better and socialise more.

Pennebaker’s research has found even a one-time 15-to-30-minute session of focused journal writing can be beneficial.

Enter the bullet journal, created by Ryder Carrol, a New York–based digital product designer, which is all the rage to from the housewife to the businessman to the teenager.

In a nutshell, a bullet journal is a notebook-based organisational system used to track the past, organise the present and plan for the future. It’s a creative way to schedule your day, week, month or year and can be used to keep track of what you have and have not done.

In an interview with Anna Russell of The New Yorker, Carroll, described his invention as giving people an empty house that they fill with their own life.

“Only add what serves you, and be patient with yourself, because it’s a new thing. You’re not doing it right, you’re not doing it wrong, you’re just figuring it out as you go along,” Carrol said.

“It’s like every day is another chance.”

Numerous websites shares an avalanche of information on getting you started on journaling with suggestions ranging from protecting your privacy, dating every entry, writing quickly and naturally and to well, just start writing!

To get back to the beginning, start with what you want to write about. What’s going on? How do you feel? What are you thinking about? What do you want? Review or reflect on what you have written. Close your eyes, take a few breaths and start with “I feel”, or “I want” or “I think” to kick start sharing your thoughts. If you get stuck or struggle to find inspiration, re-read what you’ve already written and take it from there. Write for 5 to 15 minutes, writing on the top of the page the start time and the projected end time at the top of the page.

The first suggestion for new journal writers according to Journaltherapy.com is to protect your privacy, storing your journal in its own special place so that the temptation for others to read it, is diminished.

Reserve the first page of any new journal for your name and phone number or e-mail address, along with a notice stating it is personal and not to be read without your permission.

Set the scene before you start scribbling down your thoughts to get the ink and inspiration flowing – from candles to your favourite music.

According to journaltherapy.com if there is one habit in your journal you have to establish, it is to date every entry. This allows you to chronologically reconstruct your journal by date.

Don’t just throw-away those writings you feel are mere ramblings. You could be surprised by how much you knew that you didn’t know you knew!

One way of side-stepping the dreaded writers’ or journal block, is to just keep going, writing so fast no internal critic or censor can keep up.

It is often easier to start with the now, what is currently happening, how I’m currently feeling, or telling a story of something that happened that day. Never go back to edit or rewrite, don’t think, just write.

Your journal’s pages are patient, preserves no judgement and will protect your truth. Speak it.

But perhaps the best advice is there are no rules to journaling. Do what works for you, don’t worry if it’s the wrong or the right way. Like all journeys this one also start with a single step. Or word. – www.planningmindfully.com; www.justpenandpaper.com