What We're Reading Now

What to Do With Your Feelings

17 December 2024

Barbara read Now Is the Time To Start Keeping a Journal by Glenn Kramon and had reinforced a habit that can restore serenity.

Tags: balance, barbara read, mindfulness, writing

I love journal writing. I use it to work out frustrations, find words for my memoir, record happy times, deal with loneliness, make expansive, complete to-do lists. I cheered at Glenn Kramon’s words, “It can be like therapy, only cheaper, and provides a chronicle of our times.”

If you’ve been feeling a bit blue and don’t know what to do with your feelings, write them down. If you’re overly excited and need to calm down, get back to work, record your joy and relish reading it later.

In his article, Kramon said, “The best journals are the most brutally honest. Perhaps that’s why far fewer people keep journals than use social media postings to show only their happy faces. As in good therapy, such honesty helps get to the truth, and the best path forward. It helps you think through your challenges. Sometimes, as you write, you realize you are worrying too much about something. Sometimes you realize you are worrying about the wrong thing.”

You can put your thoughts and feelings on paper, in your computer, or on your phone. If you’re mad, sad, angry, afraid, you can figure out why and sometimes leave the feelings on the page. Several days ago, I was annoyed, and I don’t remember about what. I could find out if I read back in my journal, but I don’t want to know. Often when I’ve written such feelings down, I’m able to let them go.

Exhilaration or despair can keep you awake. To stay healthy, it’s a good idea to take distracting negative and positive thoughts out of the constant repeat in your mind, which is called rumination, and put them in a journal. Earlier this month, my colleague Janie blogged about The Power of Weekly Reflection in a journal to help her evaluate, learn from, and celebrate her week.

I’ve been passionate about journaling since 1976. It was a requirement in my second graduate school class. I had to show evidence of, but not the content of, my journal to my professor every week by flipping through the pages, and the habit stuck.

Journal writing enabled me to get more things done when I worked full time. During the ten minutes of morning pages (as named by Julia Cameron), I’d randomly list all the projects that needed to be done and then number them in order of importance.

I enjoy advising the Allison Partners team, blogging, and serving as the part-time executive assistant. However those responsibilities only fill some of my time post-retirement, so I often find myself wondering, "What should I do next?" (It's a fabulous problem to have!) Now, I figure out how I want to spend my days by listing the things I like to do—read, write, paint, sew, walk, dance, or play the piano—and then pick one for what fits my mood at the moment.

Writing each morning gives me courage as I work through disagreeable arguments with family members, worries about my children, the death of my father, mother, and husband. If you write something no one should see, tear it up. You do not have to keep it to benefit from having written it.

I have been adamant about the importance of writing longhand. I think the thoughts start in my brain, travel down my arm, and come out through the smooth flowing blue gel ink of my pen on to the wide-ruled pages of my spiral notebook. I'm not the only one who believes longhand matters, and there is even compelling research about why students who take notes by hand do better in school than those who use their computers. “But a growing number of journalers swear by apps that allow them to include photos, videos, sketches and audio recording. You can even dictate rather than type and use any of your devices,” said Kramon.

I struggled with the idea of using technology. I did not want to, but last month I made myself try one of the apps—Day One. I started to use my fingers on my phone but then pushed the microphone icon and dictated all the fun things we did with my son’s family over the Thanksgiving holiday. I signed up for a month’s free trial  to evaluate whether I wanted to pay $34.99 a year.

After several days of trying it, I admitted to myself that I don’t want to hear the sound of my voice in the early morning. And I find more good words when I write than when I speak. At that moment I said to myself—I’m sticking with my beloved five-subject spiral notebook.  When my supply is low, I buy ten in the August back-to-school sales sometimes for as little as $1.37 each.

But then a few days later, I used the app to record and transcribe positive feedback I received in my writing class. I looked at the typed words and made the decision—I’m definitely paying for a year.

We all want our thoughts and ideas heard and our true selves to be seen. That’s not always possible. But it is possible to put them in your journal. I start my entries with Dear God, Thank you for the sleep and for the day. So, I am declaring myself seen and heard by my higher power while starting my day with gratitutde which many happiness experts say is important.

Whether you explore the power of longhand writing or decide to embrace technology, I hope you’ll experiment with journaling in 2025.

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