The Gifts of Journaling Maintenance

Sep 10

It’s no surprise to anyone how passionate I am about journaling (or daily writing). I’ve talked ad nauseam about its immediate benefits to our health and wellbeing, but one thing I’m not sure I’ve talked about is how a journaling maintenance ritual/system can be just as beneficial as the writing itself.

I will admit that I haven’t always been meticulous in my journal maintenance…it’s only in the last couple of years that I’ve learned of its immense benefits. But what I can tell you from my experience is that it’s well worth starting the process now, if you can.

What is a Journal Maintenance Routine?

Simply put — it’s an intentional amount of time spent re-reading your journal entries, then reflecting on the patterns you see. For me, personally, I’ve changed journaling systems over the years, so part of my maintenance routine is transferring the journal entries from one place to another. This has allowed me to re-read and also keep all my entries in one place. This process may look different for each person, but the consistent re-reading and reflecting is the important piece. I even have a monthly reminder on my calendar to read the past month’s entries to make sure I’m on the path I want to be on. It’s incredibly cathartic, too.

The Gifts Explained

In general, I think looking back and reflecting on our body of work (whether that’s career-focused, personal-focused, journaling-focused, etc) is a good thing. It allows us to see things we couldn’t see then. Hindsight is 20/20, right? But what a journaling maintenance routine can provide you is consistency in the reflecting process. You can “track” things in a way that allows for intentional change. Here are just a few “gifts” I’ve been fortunate to experience while conducting my journal maintenance routines:

Recognizing how the weather plays into my mood, energy, and decision-making. This can also back up health results that you may not have realized (or you may have, but didn’t have proof/evidence of). For example, I have Seasonal Affective Disorder. In my winter entries, it’s VERY clear to me how much this affects my moods, my energy levels, and how I make decisions during the winter months. There is a somberness to my writing in the winter that reflects the way I feel about the external world, too.
Recognizing the seeds of joy and happiness. We are socially conditioned to recognize the “bad” stuff in life more than we are the “good” stuff. But when you take time out of your day to write down and explore the things that are giving you joy and happiness, inevitably, you begin to see patterns emerge. For me, I realized that whenever I’m engaging in active creativity (writing, painting, creative projects), the writing has a joyful essence. When I’m in my “element” of creating, I am at my happiest. I knew this to be true… in my head… but seeing it so clearly in my journal entries makes it clear that this is a pattern that won’t be going away anytime soon. I can now use this information to make changes in my daily life to ensure I’m getting more joy and happiness in my life.
Discovering your own “seasons” of life. For me (and a lot of people I know), January first of a new year brings with it a sense of renewal, rejuvenation, refreshed energy. This isn’t abnormal, but it’s nice to see it reflected so accurately in the entries. What I didn’t expect was to see the way my life has other patterned seasons. For example, the beginning of summer ushers in a sense of freedom and possibility for me. My early summer entries are chock full of ideas to execute during the summer. This happens every year and I didn’t even realize it until my last journal maintenance session. The fall is a season of grieving for me which is interesting given that fall is my favorite season and October is my favorite month. Yet, I never realized that I’m often in full-on grief by that time of the year.
Confirming your “aha’s.” One thing I didn’t expect to see in my entries was confirmation of so many of my “aha’s” or “epiphanies.” But it’s wild to see so much of what I thought was correct or happening actually was true. Of course, we can’t see that in the moment, but down the road, we start to see how our intuition is usually correct. We are so quick to second guess, judge, or overcomplicate the things we think we’re experiencing, feeling, etc. But more often than not, once the event/situation/feelings are over, and we have a little distance, we find that we were right. This is extremely validating and cements the theory that we are more in **tune with ourselves and the world around us **than we think we are.
The devil is in the details. Another thing I didn’t expect to get from my journaling maintenance system is how the little details add up to something bigger. I track my habits and I data-mine my own life. I use a program called Exist to help accumulate all that data and at the end of the month, it spits out a report for me. What this does in conjunction with my journaling is provide a clear picture of what’s happening with me. It often brings up points I hadn’t considered since we get so mired in the day-to-day activities. For example, in July, my data showed that I had more steps and exercise (started a new kickboxing program), my productivity was extremely high, I had a lot of “completed” projects, but my mood scores were lower. Combined with my journal entries — a clear picture emerged. I was burned out and stretched too thin trying to keep up with my dedication to my self-care, but also with the work I was doing, and the projects I was working on. This really took me back to wondering, how can I make some changes so that my mood matches my life? What changes need to be made so that I can feel a bit more balance?
Gratitude in spades. There’s a reason why daily gratitude practices or even noting when we feel immense gratitude is common advice. Because it works. While I already knew that gratitude plays a HUGE part in my life, what I didn’t know was just how much it would affect me down the road… looking back at it. Re-reading my journal entries, especially the gratitude parts fill my heart with love and compassion for myself and my life. Just the act of remembering why I’m grateful brings more gratitude into my life in the present. Gratitude begets gratitude. One life lesson that has stuck with me since I learned it is that there is always room for gratitude. Even on the darkest, stormiest of days/nights — gratitude is there.
Fodder for future material. That is exactly how this article came to be. As I was re-reading my journal entries, I realized just how many gifts it’s given me. It also made me wonder: how many of us are going about our days, journaling, and never going back to experience the wondrous amount of time, energy, dedication, and compassion we have given ourselves? How many people aren’t accessing the magic of their own power? So yes, our journaling gives us so much ripe material to work from for future projects, introspection, and healing.

During my certification program for Journal to the Self™️, there is a specific exercise when you want to go back and re-read a previous writing exercise or entry. It’s simple but effective. It’s a great way to get your brain acclimated to re-reading your entries and it’s SO easy. It looks like this:

As I reread this entry, I’m aware of…
As I reread this entry, I notice…
As I reread this entry, I’m surprised by…
As I reread this entry, I feel…
As I reread this entry, I realize…

Conclusion

I truly believe in the power of self-empowerment and having a journaling maintenance system is a great way to do just that. It offers us as many benefits as the actual writing and I hope that this write-up has given you a bit of inspiration to go back and start this process yourself. To end this piece, I ask, if you’re an avid journaler and haven’t gone back to re-read your entries, what’s stopping you? What would it feel like to experience even ONE of the gifts I mentioned above? What would it look like to feel confident in the work you’ve been putting in by having a journaling practice?

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