[This series of posts called “Journaling for Men” is designed to help everyone, and especially men who may be unfamiliar with journaling, learn how daily journaling can help them improve their physical, mental, and emotional well-being. It brings together ideas from two of my recent books, Redesign Your Mind, in which I describe how you can upgrade and redesign “the room that is your mind,” and my most recent book The Great Book of Journaling, co-edited with Lynda Monk, in which we gathered contributions from scores of journal experts and enthusiasts. Please enjoy this series. I hope that you’ll begin to include journaling as part of your daily self-awareness and self-care program.]
Journaling is about self-awareness. But it is also about self-compassion. Our journals help us better understand why we did what we did and that knowledge may aid us in forgiving ourselves. In her chapter for The Great Book of Journaling, Elena Greco describes how journaling can lead to self-compassion. She explained:
Journaling is obviously incredibly helpful in the present. But its greatest value might well be in the future. Reading from past journaling brings back memories and helps me recall what really happened. I often forget much of my past until I’m reminded by my journal, and I sometimes have an altogether different memory of past times. Reading the journal brings back those times more realistically, correcting the whims of my memory. When I read past journals now, I’m amazed at the experiences I’ve gone through in my life in a way that I could not possibly appreciate them when they occurred in the present.
Reading past journaling helps me know myself better. I can listen to what I was saying mentally, experience it objectively and learn from it. My challenging tendencies become clearer so that I can overcome them. What strikes me most when I read my journaling from a time past is that I sometimes feel compassion for that person—my Past Self—in a way that I couldn’t at the time—and maybe in a way that I can’t feel for my Present Self in the moment.
I listen to that Past Self as I would a friend in the present, I see and feel her pain and struggles, I feel benevolence for that Self, sometimes suddenly realizing that that person is … me. That helps me feel a little more compassion for myself now, something I often have trouble getting in touch with. Reading the words of my Past Self soothes and heals my Present Self.
Reading my past journals also sometimes allows me to appreciate my positives in a way that I sometimes don’t in the present. I see resourcefulness and tenacity, the rising above unfortunate circumstances, and I feel stronger knowing that my Past Self survived and contributed to the current circumstances and strengths of my Present Self.
Write now. Your future self will thank you.
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Get your copy of The Great Book of Journaling now!
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