Weeks ago I became aware of a type of journaling that I never considered.
Like a seed, it got planted in my brain and has bloomed into a new possibility.
Years ago I wanted to keep a traditional journal. You know ... the hand-written kind using paper and pen. I think of it as an analog version of blogging - but a private one. Five days into the process, however, I decided it was too cumbersome for me. My brain did not engage with my pen well at all, and when it did, the first words would be not quite right, crossed out, erased, edited, ending in ... a mess. I wanted to be neat and clean, but my writing is neither neat nor clean. I deeply edit over and over until my brain narrows things down. Blogging on an electronic platform allows all that massaging I need and is why it has been such a consistent practice for me - even if only episodic as of late.
But recently I discovered a journaling method that won't leave my brain. It is called 5 Year Journal.
A 5 Year Journal typically presents as a normal diary that assigns each day of the week to a full page, but each page is divided into 5 equal sections - one section for each year. As shown below - all the journal entries for January 1 are shown on one page. The first year of this journal you are writing only in the top section. Then when January 1 of the next year rolls around again, you return to the January 1 page once again drop down to the second section for your entry. Obviously these are short sections - usually only 5 lines. It is just a short snap shot of what is on your mind on that day. Brief, concise, specific entries.
Doesn't sound like me at all, does it!! Ha!
In my research of these journals, I discovered that some versions offer a one sentence prompt per day. I was intrigued by that idea as I don't feel my personal life is all that eventful or interesting. Then I drifted into the possibility of only one word prompts - something to comment on as it relates to your life. The choices of journals are beyond describing. Some of the books are leather bound creations of great beautiful. Some books' pages are stitched into the book while others can be refilled or switched out. There are small books and large ones. There are expensive and cheap ones. Believe me - if you have problems with choices, don't Google a topic - it can be overwhelming.
But still it attracted me.
I tried to determine why this type of journaling was haunting my thoughts and why did I feel like I must begin one this January 1. It was hard to put my reasoning into words - maybe a sign that I was attracted to the materials rather than the practice of a 5 year journal. So I Googled "Why keep a 5 year journal" thinking maybe someone's words would capture my thoughts. Hahaha. Like Googling something EVER made anything more clear. NOT!
So after much thought, here is what I have come up with from my own brain!
If I looked back over my last 5 years - if I had started writing a 5 year journal in 2014 and I was writing in the 5th year of December 2019 section today - I could look back at all the Decembers - specifically I would see that in December 2014 I struggled with mom's last days, facing her death, struggling to do the right things for her. I would find it interesting to see what my mind and heart were dealing with at that time 5 years ago - the things I felt important to put into words.
Over the last 5 years other changes have happened as well. Big ones. We moved. I became a grandmother! I reconnected with a childhood friend. I lost 2 dear friends. I had knee surgery. The list goes on. My life was eventful in many ways. I think as time passed, and I approached this book to post another entry, I would find interest and remembering of things that happened to me on those dates a year or more ago.
I sort of wish I had that book today.
But looking back is only half the story. My next 5 years will also be filled with events - some sad and some joyful. I think about the next decade or so - and at 72 it is a daunting thought. My brain shies away from what the future might actually hold at this point. Might it be a good idea to put pen to paper now in an abbreviated way to capture these last important years for myself?
Why doesn't the online blog do this? Well, for me, the blog is a public forum, but a written journal is a place where only I will visit - a private thing. I seldom look back in my blog to past entries, but in a 5 year journal that snap shot entry would be evident every time I opened the book. Is that important? I am not sure - but I wish I had the previous 5 years recorded in a useable way.
I think if I were younger and had the expectation of many years ahead of me - I might not see a value in this kind of journaling. But time passes by very very fast the older you get and sometimes the brain starts to stutter a bit. Somehow putting pen to paper puts more stability and continuity into my daily living than launching a blog post into the great electric unknown of the web. I will still blog because there is a social interaction in that type of journaling that is good for the soul. But once the post drifts into the distant past ... it fades - no matter how important the topic was. The 5 year journal seems to fill a different need.
Will I still have problems putting pen to paper? Probably. I guess it is time to exercise a 'mental muscle' that hasn't been used since the 90's - 'from brain, to hand, to pen, to paper.' It will be hard at first - but new skills are good for old folks like me.
So I think I am going to start this for 2020 and hope it goes to 2025!
The journal is ordered. Leather covers, but mid-priced and refillable as opposed to pages stitched in place. I might change my mind on that after I see the book in my hand. I loved some of those leather imprinted covers. I have opted for blank pages - knowing I can set up the dates and the years easily. I might change my mind on that as well. I may use one word prompts for each day of the year - but who knows, I might ... you know, change my mind on that as well. :-)
Have you kept a paper journal?
Have you heard of 5 year journal?
If so ...
how has traditional journaling worked for you?
And why did you keep a journal?
This 'journaling mind' wants to know!!
12 comments:
I have kept a journal for 25 years. I fill 2 sides of a piece of notebook paper every morning while having my coffee. I have notebooks full of them. My children want me to burn them as they don't want to read them. They are afraid there might be some "truths" in there that they don't want to read after I'm gone. So, I am starting to burn them. I have never in my life purposely wanted to hurt anyone but those journals do hold a lot of truths and hurts. After all, I had no one to turn to but God and my journal and part of my journal was a written prayer. So, I think one needs to think about why you want to journal and what do you expect to get out of it. I got out of mine what I needed both then and now. A place where I had a voice, where my feelings mattered and where I could connect to God and further that relationship....the only one that truly matters.
i have been writing in notebooks since childhood. The entries are much more self-centered and full of confusion, anger, sometimes crazy...
But after realizing that my personal opinions will outlast ME , well, i have become reluctant to put them on paper... or internet...
Kept a journal/diary way back when I was a teenager. When I went back and read it several years later I thought, geesh what a dunder head and threw it out and haven't kept one since. However a few years myu daughter bought me one for 5 years. It was on notecards, like a recipe box and I tried briefly to write what I did that day, but found it very boring so haven't done anything with it since. Feelings and thoughts might be more interesting than things done...don't know. When my Mom was dying I found blogging very therapeutic. I started blogging in alphabetical style to come up with a memory of her that started with that letter. There were a few I still haven't come up with something for a few letters. I find I have gone back and re-read many of those posts (which are still on my blog with a tab across the top), and once in a while I do re-read a blog post...particularly if I'm looking for something or a picture. I re-read a lot of the posts on my travel blog. Perhaps I'll take a look at the file box thing come January and see if I feel any differently about the chore of writing something daily. Keep us posted how it goes for you.
I love my journaling. Having never heard of a 5 year journal, it has peaked my interest. my journal is a daily bullet type of journal. I divide each page in half. On on side is my "to do" list and on the other side are my thoughts for the day. 2020 will be my third year of journaling. Wish I had heard of the 5 yr journal when I started. Lije you, there have been some monumental moments over the past few years
An intriguing idea. I used to keep a journal almost all the time. My only regret is throwing them away over the years. I would love to read them now. Now my blog is my journal. I keep it topic specific, however, so it only covers one aspect of my life. But it's an important one, so it's useful to me.
I've tried journalling in the past but never seem to be able to keep it up for very long. Blogging helps to fill the void but of course I'm more careful about what I post. I've recently started keeping a gratitude diary where I just jot down something I'm grateful for each day. Good luck with your new journal.
The closest I ever came to a daily journal was a gratitude journal which I kept every day for several months. I found I didn’t need it after that, I approached life with a spirit of gratitude and I was happy. It’s not that life hasn’t been hard at times since then, but I have approached things differently. It was a life changing experience for me!
I kept a journal for years before I started blogging. Then I stopped.
I had books and books of journals in a box that I NEVER looked at. You will probably cringe when I say this, but this summer I threw them all in in burn barrel out back!
I was definitely a "journaler" for much of my life, and blogging has definitely taken its place. Yes, it's more public so I don't share as much, but I am hoping I will be able to read between my own lines, so to speak, and remember more of what I was going through along the way than I explicitly typed out. I doubt anyone else will ever be interested in reading the journals I've written in and kept, and like several have said, I'm not sure I'd want them to. My mom told me that my oldest aunt burned hers.
On the other hand, I recognize in looking back over my 58 years of life that I only remember a fraction of the details. If I had recorded more, would I go back and read about the years of which I remember little? If I start now, will I reread them later? I have no clue.
I have journaled all my life since I was 13 and a friend gave me a little diary with a key for my birthday. Remember those?! I’ve purged dozens of books over several moves but I kept the one of the first year of my first daughter’s life and another one with memories of the first years with my adopted daughter, as well as a few others. The ones I purged were ones where I had poured out my hurt and confusion over difficult life events, things that in the end I did not want to remember, or anyone to read my crazy thoughts!
Picking a journal for the year ahead has been a sweet end of the current year ritual for me. I need lots of room and I like one with an inspirational cover. In my current life I have two, one where I record the important events of Paul’s and my life, along with the practical things we forget like the name of some new restaurant we visited or the name of someone’s new baby. Annoyingly, more and more as we two get older it seems we need help with those details! The other is my personal journal where I write about feelings, doodle art thoughts, poem excerpts, quotes that inspire me. Nobody reads this one but me. i have a selection of pens I use, old-fashioned fountain pen, art pens of different widths and colors, plain old ballpoint freebies, kept in a little pouch. You might want to try out some different pens as you start journaling.
I really enjoyed this post and all the comments. And I look forward to hearing more about how it goes for you.
This is such an interesting idea to me. I have handwritten a journal off and on throughout my life. Lately, more off than on, and - like Michelle - blogging has definitely taken the place in many respects. I write - handwrite - probably more when I am angry or need to work something out on the page. Of more use to me in more recent years, are Morning Pages. I've done what Julia Cameron calls Morning Pages at various points in my life. These work for me particularly when when I know I need to work on something, but I'm not consciously sure what it is. Things bubble up on the pages of Morning Pages and they are so very helpful.
My Dad had a 5 year journal when he was in the service. This was probably the only way he would have written anything down at all, because he doesn't like to write. He didn't fill it out completely, his girlfriend was in a horrible car accident, and he wrote about that. When she recovered, he sort of stopped writing.
I write on my blog, I have thought about a journal, but I need some way to keep it private, some members of my family, well, don't seem to understand boundaries... Ahem. I do use a gratitude journal, though... Does a gardening record journal count?? :) I tend to be blabber-fingered, so I think a very short space to write would drive me bonkers...
Cat
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