I’m Finally Learning How to Keep a Journal

I have tried and then failed probably 20 times.I distinctly remember the Fall of 1999, when I began the diaconate formation process, and hearing advice that I should keep a journal of the experience, that it could prove to be most illuminating.I still have that journal.It has maybe fifteen words written on the first page… and the rest is blank.

There is no scarcity of evidence of the advantages of journaling, in general.Many have studied and shown, quite convincingly, that keeping a journal has benefits.These include:

• Helping us to track patterns of thoughts and feelings so that we can better understand them and ourselves.
• Offering us a new perspective on our own lives, including how we have faced and solved problems in the past.
• Tracking our progress toward goals.Social scientists have shown that breaking our goals down into smaller habits and then recording our progress toward repeating those habits and…