I am a terrible journal keeper. In spite of this, I do feel that journaling is very therapeutic. As a nurse I have encouraged my patients to keep journals. I assigned one particularly depressed patient to keep a journal of one good thing that happened that week, until I returned for the next visit. After she complied with that, I upped the goal to one good thing that happened each day.

Slowly, over a couple of months, she began to realize there were more good things happening than bad. I've used that same technique for myself. I bought a specific journal to note thoughts/moments of gratitude in. This helped me to get past a time when a lot of negative things were happening.

Another thing I've done is use the computer, as typed messages are much more legible than my writing. I use this especially for letters I've written in the e-mail to family, etc. I copy and paste it over into my word processing program, or visa versa, and print it, and then add it to my loose leaf journal after punching in the holes. This is a time saver as it combines two tasks into one. Granted, it is not a chronological journal, but it's a lot better than if the only journal entries are the ones I take time to write out. At some periods of my life the time between those type of entries have stretched into years.

Someday, I hope to find the time to scrapbook all the family pictures I have. For those persons whom I have seen do it, the result is a unique type of journal that will be a family treasure and heirloom.

Happy Journaling,
Margaret Turley