Tag: mental-health

Journaling Series: On Starting a Journal

After finishing my previous journal I just started a new journal, which is both an exciting and daunting prospect whenever it happens. There is so much potential in a new journal – it makes me want to crack it open and fill as many pages as possible in the first sitting. Yet opening that first blank page also makes me freeze in fear of “ruining” a perfectly good notebook with my scrawls.

Stalogy 365 Days B6

There are many tips on how to overcome that fear, ranging from deliberately destroying the first few pages to using various formulas to inspire you to fill those first pages. What I currently do is just open a new Stalogy 365 Days notebook, turn it upside down (so the header, which I don’t like, is at the bottom) and slap 2-3 stickers on the back endpages. This time I chose a 10th anniversary fountain pen day sticker and a Goulet Pens dream pen sticker to start off, but I usually add a few more stickers as I use the journal.

Stickers on the back

I then turned to the first page and started my first journal entry with the following sentence:

“New journal! My third Stalogy 365.”

After that came my usual daily gratitude list, and so I had most of the first page filled up in no time and had no problem moving on after that.

For those still in search for “new journal” inspiration, here are some pointers:

  • Personalize your new journal in some way. It’s about to hold your innermost thoughts, so you might as well make it your own.
  • Switch formats mercilessly if you find an old journaling format isn’t working for you – page size, ruling, type, etc.
  • Have a starting formula for your journal. If you find it difficult to start journaling each day, then pick a formula that you can use each day – like a daily gratitude list, a quote, notes about the weather, your plans for the day.
  • The first few entries are the hardest, but they’re also only 2-3 days out of the entire life of a journal. It’s worth remembering that and plowing through those days.
  • When in doubt pick a quote from a book or article you’re reading and start a discussion with the author.
  • If you’re really at a loss for starting ideas, use the first page, not the last one, as an ink testing page.

Do you have any new journal rituals or tips? Do you enjoy starting a new journal or find it daunting?

Journaling in Hospital

  1. I’ve been spending practically every day for the past week or so with my dad in hospital.
  2. There’s this phenomena that when you most need journaling, the it will help you the most, you find yourself least able to do it.
  3. Hospitals are journaling hostile environments. There are no tables to use, there’s constant noise and distractions, there’s zero privacy and you never know when the staff will pop into the room with something. Whether you yourself are hospitalized or you’re there with someone else, there’s very little opportunity to crack open your journal and start writing.
  4. Hospitals are also where weird, interesting, scary and new things happen, so you generally do what to write about them, to process them on paper. Fo instance, today three policemen escorted a prisoner into the heart surgery department. It wasn’t something I ever expected to see, a sort of non-sequitur that took me a minute or two to process.
  5. The solution is to take temporary notes on your phone, put a reminder for an appointment with your journal in the evening or when things quiet down around you.
  6. If you’re the one hospitalized, try to journal two or three times a day, documenting what’s going on, how you’re feeling, what the staff said, who visited you, etc. The best time to journal is during the nursing staff shift changes, because that’s when nobody will bother you.
  7. Journaling is like running – oftentimes it’s really hard to start, but I haven’t regretted a run or a journaling session yet.
At night you can escape to these empty spaces and write