Journal writing is deeply personal and each of us has our own way of keeping and using our journals. As I’ve said before, there is no “right” way to do it—the best way is what works for you. Having noticed my own journaling practice evolve over the years and talked with different people about the way they use their journaling practice, it’s clear there are many varied approaches—all of which serve a purpose. Reading James Pennebaker’s excellent book Opening Up By Writing It Down, I was interested to hear what he discovered when looking at the journal-writing habits during his research. If you’re not familiar with James Pennebaker, he is a psychologist who studies, among other things, the use of language and has written several books on journaling. One of the things that struck me about his findings was just how varied people’s journaling habits were, yet at the same time, we are almost certainly not alone in the way we journal. While there are individual differences in the way we journal, it seems like our general patterns of behaviour around journaling might not be all that dissimilar from other people.
For example, in one study Pennebaker found over 50% of students he sampled never used a journal, 40% wrote in one once or twice a week, and only 3% of students wrote daily. Interestingly, the people who wrote daily were no healthier or happier than people who never used diaries, (although it’s hard to tell what their health would be if they weren’t writing in a diary!). This could be down to personality differences, but it could also be attributed to what they were using the diary for.
Among the people they interviewed who kept “intimate and emotional” journals, these fell into one of two groups. One group wrote only during periods of stress or unhappiness. The second group (which was less than half the size of the first) wrote daily until they experienced some kind of trauma or hardship, at which point they would stop until the emotions around that situation eased, then picked up their practice again.
The researchers surmised these different approaches reflected people’s different motivations for writing. People who only write during stressful times potentially use writing as a way to cope with these stressors (perhaps as a substitute for talking with others), while people who refrain from writing during times of trauma might do so because it’s too painful and the feelings associated with the situation are too intense in writing. As I wrote about in How to Be Kind to Yourself, it’s OK to take a break from “feeling our feelings” if they are too overwhelming and we need to be a functioning person in the world. Compartmentalising is a valid strategy for getting through tough times. Either way, for me these findings add further weight to the idea that there isn’t a “right” or “wrong” way to journal—different approaches serve different purposes.
So, how do you think you use your journaling practice? If you’re someone who writes about the more personal side of things, do either of the approaches above resonate for you? What about if you write a few times a week versus daily? I know I’ve found it interesting to reflect on how I journal and why I do it the way I do right now, and I hope it’s interesting for you too!
P.S. If you’d like more journaling tips, techniques and prompts, I invite you to take a look at my books.
Photo by Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash
