The Power of Journaling

Recently, I've taking a stab at keeping a personal journal again. When I was younger, I used to keep journals quite a bit. I'm not sure where they are not (probably somewhere in my parents' attic) but I used to write a recap of my day ever single night. Journaling has taken a different route for me here lately since I've started to pick it back up. No, I don't write every day, nor is it really the goal. Sometimes I recap my day but mostly it's just a think aloud. Things I'm grateful for or things or situations that may be frustrating me, it's a great outlet to think things through. It's also a great place to jot down where my thought process is sitting during different decision points in my life. That way, when I'm at a potential crossroads later on down the road, I could take a look back and see why I've made the decisions I've made. Or if nothing else, just take a nostalgic trip down memory lane.Since then, I've gotten away from the idea. I have a hard enough time doing a few other small tasks that I like to get done every day. Why worry about journaling?

So, do I journal digitally or hand-written?

Right now, it's digital. I think there's something more handwritten could be better. Having something in my own handwriting may have more meaning looking back. However, I've found a great app. Currently, I'm using Day One for journaling. It's not a free app at all. It's about $10 for the Mac app and has an accompanying iOS app. The design is really clean and the mobile app allows you to geo-tag your memories and the weather of that day to each note. That's a cool function that I wouldn't think to write on my own. The design of Day One is super clean and the cost is less than a Moleskin so...why not?

Journaling has been a great stress reliever. Sometimes decisions seem more clear after taking the time to write them out. I'm not the best at talking out an idea, so it's been a great avenue for me in that regard. I've also found that if I have trouble sleeping, just writing something down is a great catalyst for a good night's rest. Sometimes, if I'm mad about something, I'll write it down, sleep on it, re-read it the next day and realize how dumb I'm probably being at the time.

Also, just the lifestreaming aspect of a journal, even just jotting down memories or what I did that day, is valuable. It could be valuable for my kids or grandkids to read one day. It'll even be valuable to me later on down the road as moments of reflection.

So for now, it's the occasional entry in Day One, which has been a great tool to flesh out the random, sporadic thoughts that pop in my head. Not every thought is bloggable but it helps to write it out somewhere. Journaling is becoming a fun thing for me. Something I look forward to a more as my frequency increases.

What about you? Do any of you journal? What's your approach?