Having a place to write whatever you want to write, to yourself, in the total privacy of your own mind, is so therapeutic!
It’s simple: You just write any old thing that’s on your mind from the most intense life-altering stuff to the most meaningless fluff. In a private place for your consumption only.
The point of journaling for me is that it makes me feel better after I do it.
When I write about something that’s happened, or that I’m thinking about, worried about, happy about, confused by — it relieves me of having to keep that particular thing in mind.
Writing it down concretizes it — puts it on the record — separating it out from the mind cloud of things to do or share that all too often weighs on and overwhelms me.
Writing something down is like having somebody else hold it for me: I know its been stored someplace so I can let it go and come back to it later if need be. It’ll be there, in the journal. Something like that.
Meanwhile, though, for quite a few years, I haven’t liked writing long-hand anymore. I have tried to talk myself into how using a pen and paper might foster a better connection to my inner self. And I do a little scribbling or brainstorming sometimes in my current paper journal (not to be confused with my Desk Notebook [link]), but I really prefer typing. I type fast (I took a typing class at 30) so it’s kind of fun in and of itself. (I don’t have to look if I don’t want to.)
So, during this last bunch of years that I’ve been writing less frequently in a paper journal, I’ve also been typing journal pages in MS Word on my computer. The pages are pretty unorganized in various dated folders and files over the years and their state of dispursion, all over my hard drive, makes me feel anxious when I think about them.
I wanted it all in a good journal app that was easy to use, secure, and synced between my phone and laptop.
So, I started using a free online diary for a while. But, then I thought this other one would be better so I switched over. Then I started using the first one as a regular journal and the second one only for affirmations.
But, I never got going consistently with either of them. After a while, I realized that I was repulsed by using two.
I also realized that I was afraid the apps companies would go out of business and that the apps would eventually become incompatible with my computer’s ever-updated operating systems and I’d lose everything I wrote. I guess you would call this anxiety or compulsivity….I just couldn’t get a magical little energy this-is-my-journal habit going with them. I needed something more organized and secure.
Finally, I realized, I should find one that was secure (it allows export to other apps, encryption, seems like a good company that will stay in business), and pay for it! So, even though I dislike subscription apps, I bought One Day link and I love it.
I love it largely because I syncs with my computer, so I write in it either on my laptop, or on my phone. I also really like that it has the date on each new entry, and your location and the weather. And that it’s very simple.
I really love it.
What if you wrote a few sentences a day, everyday?
