April 16, 2024.
Welcome back to the third edition of my newsletter series on journaling. If you have followed me all along, you would know that in the last two editions I talked about my journaling journey from childhood days and the events that led me to pursue journaling daily as a habit as an adult.
Today, I will share with you my personal progress in maintaining a journal, what I write, my views on writing daily and how has it changed me as a person since I started doing it regularly.
My Personal Progress of Maintaining a Journal:
I started writing from October 1, 2022 and I haven’t stopped since.
I write one page entry regularly and number them serially.
I am currently on Entry 564, I have completed 2 journals and I am halfway through my third one.
As a Harry Potter fan, I love to call them Horcruxes as they really hold a small part of my soul in them.
I keep a few photographs of people I love inside my journal. I just love seeing the pictures every time I open my journal.
I carry my journal everywhere I go and I am comfortable with writing anywhere. It’s not like I need my own comfort space to write my personal things, nor do the new or unknown surroundings affect my writing mood.
Q. What do I write?
A. It depends on what type of a person you are and what things or events do you want to reflect upon. Some people write about their daily lives, some write about deep thoughts in their minds, while some write about their ideas and daily goals. Personally I write about my daily life in a very intricate way, things that happened to me, how it made me feel, day-to-day life chores, movies and TV shows I am watching or books I am reading at the moment.
Q. What are my views on journaling and how has it helped me evolve as a person?
A. To inculcate the habit of journaling everyday isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. It wasn’t mine too. But I didn’t think of it as a task, rather, I thought of it as a part of life, just like breathing. Journaling has instilled a sense of discipline in me and as an editor and writer myself, it has become a sort of daily exercise that is refining my English language learning capability and not to mention, my writing skills too. But there has been days when I didn’t feel like writing, but still I pushed myself to do it. Only one thought is enough to make me write one page every single day, and the thought is that when I grow old, I won’t have to rely on my memories to relive my cherished moments. I could just go to the entry of the exact date I want to remember and the memories would just flood in. This thought gives me security that no matter what happens in future ( worst case scenario, I get Alzheimer's), I will still be able to revisit my memories just by reading the entries once. This reason is enough to make me write one page about my life every day. In the end, I am writing my own story, what else can be better than that.
Tomorrow I will share with you the stationary accessories or items that I use for journaling and more. If you are reading it for the first time, please read my previous newsletters and to continue reading my upcoming newsletters, subscribe and it’s completely free. I upload daily. So see you tomorrow, happy reading.