Journals

[Latter Days Guy]

Was wondering how good people are at keeping a journal account? I must admit that I am not very good at it and often miss days out. My friend who introduced me to the church was an amazing journal keeper, he seemed to write pages and pages of stuff. I've got a copy of a journal keeping programme and have used it, but not very often How are you like at writing up your journal?

[Dr T]

The journal that you talk about-is that a general journal where you write stuff about your life or is it an LDS thing?

Thanks

[MBASS]

President Wilfrod Woodruff was an amazing journal keeper. As a result, we now have a lot of valuable info on church history. There is an LDS reccomendation to keep a journal or "a book of rememberance". I am doing better at journal keeping. MOstly it is notes in my dayplanner, but a lot of time I pull out the ole journal. Should be interesting for my posterity, hopefully!

[Latter Days Guy]

I think i'm going to give up on the computer version and get a book to write in, I think it will give me more of an incentive if I have a physical object to write in.

[MBASS]

I think i'm going to give up on the computer version and get a book to write in, I think it will give me more of an incentive if I have a physical object to write in.

Thats what I do! I have an actual book to write in!

[Palerider]

I have been keeping a Journal for 30 yrs now....I don't write in it every day but I like what I do with it.....I write in it as well as keep things in it that are special to me.

[Dr T]

My wife and I keep a journal of "cute things" our children say. They are fun. :)

[begood2]

My wife and I keep a journal of "cute things" our children say. They are fun. :)

Great ideas people!!!!

I think that something like that would be a family treasure as the years roll by!!

[MBASS]

A good way to get started is to start with a gratitude journal. A friend suggested this to me, you write in it everyday one thing you are greatful for. Before you know it, you end up writing more and more.

[angelbaby]

i think the gratitude journal is a good idea. I really ###### at keeping a journal, mostly because i don't always have good days and don't want my kids to read them in several years time and think what a hopeless i was. LOL. Another suggestion i heard was to make weekly entries instead of daily. you could keep notes of all the memorable things that happen during the week, then make a full entry at the end. even if it is a sentence for each day.

[shanstress70]

I keep a journal, but have realized that if it is my goal to write in it daily, I won't do it at all. However, if it is my goal to just write in it whenever I feel like it, I do it a lot more often since I don't feel like I'm 'failing'.

I mostly put the cool stuff that my almost 4 yr old says. Some of it is hilarious and I know I would eventually forget it. Just reading it now after he's been talking for less than 2 years, there is a lot that I'm reminded of by the journal.

I'd give anything to read stuff like that about me as a child. My mom wasn't good about taking pictures, journaling, and we definitely didn't have a video. I have no clue what I was like as a child, and that's kinda sad.

I imagine that my journal will become more 'diverse' when my child gets older, and will not be just about him!

[Palerider]

I don't write in my journal every day.....when I would write in my journal if one of my kids would walk by I would take their hand and trace it in the book and then put whose hand it was and how old....or I let them draw or write something in it.......

[shanstress70]

I don't write in my journal every day.....when I would write in my journal if one of my kids would walk by I would take their hand and trace it in the book and then put whose hand it was and how old....or I let them draw or write something in it.......

That's a great idea. I'll have to start that.

[PureWolf386]

I don't write in my jounal everyday, but major events in life are recorded, and simple thought of my friends end up being put in there tooo. My friends jokes, and thoughts help me to lift my spirits when I am battling depression. I've been doing my journal for over 8 years. Adding art work or doodles makes the writing process easier because it allows me to collect my thoughts.

[Dr T]

What is going on with "######" popping up in the posts?

[Guest MrsS]

I first started writing a journal after being inactive for about 8 years. I read in a womans magazine that by writing your thoughts - negative thoughts of others, negative thoughts about your life situations - that you would be better able to turn the negative into positive without hurting yourself and others around you.

At the time I was in an abusive marriage and didn't really consciously admit it. I also was not capable of even understanding what DENIAL was and that I was doing it. My spouse and I owned a Tavern, I was working 12 to 18 hours a day. Bartending, doing the bookkeeping/ordering/hiring & firing. My spouse was doing PR work. i.e. drinking, playing pool/pinball/cards/chess/backgammon/etc with the customers - then going on to the local taverns and bars and continuing to do PR work to get the customers to come to our tavern.

I had to vent - I actually took a plastic beer pitcher and brained one of the customers on the head with it - yes, it was full of beer

I just could not listen to one more story of his about how his wife don't love him anymore, his kids ain't got no respect for him, the boss don't have no respect for him, he is better than all of the human race, whine, whimper, cry, snivel, snort - - - I hauled off and beaned him. Did he leave for good? Nope! He just kept on whining, but now he added how I had no respect for him.

Before I started to bean/brain and beat up all of my irritating clientele (which was darn near all of them) I took to writing what I was feeling in a journal. I kept that journal with me at all times. I carried it in an airline tote bag. I told everyone that I was writing a book about all of them and that I was using real names and real incidents, only the innocents had nothing to fear - leave me alone or I will send copies to your spouses, parents, employers, authorities.

For the next 18 years I wrote. Not every day, or week/month/year. But when I felt that wonderful urge to pick up a large pitcher or #10 cast iron skillet, or even a garden shovel and seriously brain someone with it - I would hunt down a pen full of ink and grab my journals, and write, write, write. It kept me sane. It kept me from allowing hate and all those emotions that satan thrives on from eating me alive.

Yes it mostly contained what my spouse said and did to me, how I felt about it and even my silent cries for help.

Once I became active - I quit writing in it. I was unable to get rid of these journals, I know I should. I should sit down, read through them again - and write how I feel now about them in a Good Journal, then I should burn the old ones. Yet I just can't do it.

I am divorced from that husband, I am divorced from that prior life. I am active in Church, endowed, married and sealed to my soul mate. I have told him of these journals and asked if he thought I should destroy them. Did he wish to read them. He told me that the decision was between me and God. Put the query on the 'altar', and allow myself to listen to God as to what I should do. My husband knows where the journals are, they are not hidden, but he will not read them until I hand them to him to read. If I ever do.

All that said, I now find it nearly impossible to write a Good Journal. I have bought different journal books. I don't use spiral bound 5 subject notebooks by Mead ® like I used before - but rather I buy the journals at Wal Mart or Dollar Store for $2 or less each. I have tried to make daily entries, starting with the weather highs, lows, etc. - my lifes' highs and lows.

There is just no burning need to put my thoughts on paper.

MBASS - I have yet to try a Gratitude Journal - what a wonderful idea.

One elderly Sister I know picks a word out of the dictionary, than tries to write about it as it pertains to her life history. She made up counters - she used these round and square plastic discs she bought at the craft store. She hand wrote on them the page numbers of the dictionary on the round ones, then she painstakenly counted every word per page and then numbered the square discs with the amount that was the most words per page. She kept the discs in separate containers, and on the day that she had set to write - she would pick a round and a square disc. Then she would write about the word that came up. Sometimes it would be a fairly quick entry - other times the word would require weeks of writing.

She also had a Daily planner that she used to write the Daily things in her life. To me, it seemed a fascinating way to trigger memories of her life to write about. She is assembling them according to the word. Thus her life history is alphabetical, rather than chronological.

Maybe I should try that too??? Do I have the time to count words per page????

[shanstress70]

What is going on with "######" popping up in the posts?

That happens when certain words are filtered. In the most recent example, Angelbaby wrote the word 'S-U-C-K'.

[Dr T]

I had something filtered then but I have no idea what I wrote that would cause that. Thanks for the info.

Dr. T