The Importance of Journaling: Take a Sip 

Guest Post by Chandler Rawson

“Keeping a journal: The short entries are often as dry as instant tea. Writing them down is like pouring hot water over them to release their aroma.” ― Ernst Jünger, A German Officer in Occupied Paris: The War Journals, 1941-1945

Journal entries can, at times, be as dry as instant tea.

Yet, even the act of producing something so seemingly unpalatable as one of these stale pouches can be an incredibly difficult and taxing process. But it is in sitting with yourself to journal, in pouring out the ingredients of your thoughts, feelings and memories, that allows for the aromas of the soul to aerate. As they rise steam-like from the page, you are able to take a more objective look at the experiences that you have and continue to live through. 

After a sip-sized read of what you have written you cannot avoid tasting the complexity of what you are actively experiencing, reminiscing upon, and even sometimes what you are attempting to avoid. All rise indiscriminately to the surface. Journaling allows the flavors of the day, as well as the year’s-past memories to pour hotly over you- giving you the opportunity to appreciate all of the good and bad tastes that make up the present day you. 

To take a drink of yourself.

That is what journaling allows you to do. The act of journaling barriers through obstructions between you and your most soulful, heartbroken, courageous and vulnerable center: it allows everything trapped within the tea bag a chance to be enjoyed. 

The combination of all your memories, affinities and feelings that bubble to the surface when journaling inform your individual and unique brand of creativity. 

Black, green, peach, mint, earl grey, oolong, English breakfast, rooibos. To understand the full-bodied form that your creativity takes you have to intentionally take the time to appreciate every nuanced scent and mouthfeel of memories that ultimately creates you. You have to journal to better understand your flavor! 

Journaling allows you the opportunity to come to understand the flavors that make up your creative central self. The more intune with this creative center the better equipped you are at fully drawing out the subtleties, artfulness and beauty of a single note of yourself. 

Journaling and Writing: 

The elaboration of self is storytelling. 

“Listen, and you will realize that we are made not from cells or from atoms. We are made from stories.”― Mia Couto, Mozambican writer and activist. 

The more fully you know the flavors of yourself the more convincingly and creatively you can tell stories. As that is what we are truly made of, what gives our souls relish – stories. 

Stories live within every aspect of self. If there are aspects of the self that are never acknowledged, seen, sipped or savored there is no opportunity for these stories to be fully known and resultantly convincingly shared. Journaling ensures that not only the tea-bag-tidbits of our beings are acknowledged, but that the full five-course stories of the soul are fully elaborated upon and thus able to be lasciviously enjoyed. 

With journaling playing such a pivotal role in coming to understand oneself and the scents and stories that make us us- it is important to recognize that there are many ways to engage with the practice of journaling. 

How to Journal: 

1. Select your writing implement(s): this can be your hands and your computer, a notebook and a pen, a restaurant napkin and a sharpie, five different markers and a pen pad, etc. Pick that which you are most familiar and comfortable with! 
2. Find a quiet place: situate yourself in a space that is as quiet and distortionless as possible. 

Note: You do not have to be quiet- you can sing, play music, rip pages, tap your legs, hum, talk out loud. What is important is that you are able to be safely yourself. That if there is noise that it is an expression and continuation of yourself!

3. Begin writing: you do not have to start with “Dear Diary” or write the date. Cementing yourself to a routine is not needed- what is most important here is that you simply begin. My advice would be to follow your first thoughts, allowing your instincts to guide you to what needs to be felt, processed and appreciated the most. 

Note: You do not have to stick to a schedule. Your journal will always be there. Approach journaling with an open and excited heart. It is alright to be daunted by the task of journaling. But if possible, decouple the idea of journaling as a homework-like, drudge. It is an opportunity to embrace yourself and the savor-worthy stories that create you. 

No timers, outstanding guidelines, quotes of the day needed: you just need to have yourself and the courage to take a sip. 

Chandler Rawson is a publishing professional: working as a Field Sales Assistant for Scholastic and a freelance writer and book publicity agent. She is passionate about independent bookstores and those that contribute to their success- like you! 

Image courtesy of PxHere, by Nexus 5