Joys of Journaling #4 | A Heartfelt Journal Story

One sunny day, a few years back, I was sorting through a keepsake box of stuff from my childhood and discovered some diaries from when I was a child between the ages of 8 – 12.

As I read the diary entries, I was thrilled to re-discover these musings from long ago. I was even more thrilled to gain this precious insight into my thoughts and feelings at such a tender age.

Sadly, I had only recorded a handful of entries in each diary and was left with a deep yearning to read and learn more about myself as a child. Over and over again this one question haunted my mind – “Why did I stop writing?”

The answer came to me quickly.

As a child I was simply overwhelmed with all of the blank lines in my diary and with the deep obligation I felt to complete each and every page.

I realized that my ideas of how to journal had taken the fun out of keeping a diary.

And so I quit.

Fast forward to today. That story is the beginning of what eventually became my Journal Buddies books.

But that’s not what I want to talk to you about right now.

I want to ask you to contemplate these questions about how you keep your journal:

• Are you taking action to ensure that your journaling remains fun?
• Do you need some help keeping your journaling enjoyable,
  focused and empowered?
• If your journaling gets serious that is ok, but is it serious
  every time you write?
• In what ways have you limited your journal writing and what actions
  can you take to expand into new frontiers?

I would love to hear your ideas about how you keep your journaling exciting, fun and fresh and invite you to post of comment below telling me all about your journal keeping ideas.

Happy journaling!

Sincerely,

Jill

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Jill Schoenberg is the author of the award winning books Journal Buddies: A Girl’s Journal for Sharing and Celebrating Magnificence and Journal Buddies: A Boys Journal for Discovering and Sharing Excellence, available from Amazon.com.

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