Comments on: How to Journal

By: Paul Piotrowski

Paul Piotrowski — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 07:31:53 +0000

I would start with one journal and give yourself permission to explore any topic all in that one place. If anything you can always put a category at the top of each entry. I always put the date first, so you could something like this:

Nov 10,2010 – Health & Fitness

By: Claudine

Claudine — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 06:45:14 +0000

Hi there Paul! It’s been a few rough years these last 5 or so, and feel like changing everything that lies in the wake of some hard times. So, I have come up with this little project, in regards to personal develepmont. I have chosen 4 books to inform and guide me in the right direction. It’s always hard to start journaling (it’s been about 20 years!). And I’m not sure whether to go mutiple in keeping journals, or not to. It seems a bit overwhelming (and almost schizophrenic) but I don’t see how one journal could possibly work . I remember taking notes in school, every different subject, a different book or two. But my project is a kind of “life make-over” and want to tie in all the reading and research into one integrated source. Got any suggestions, Paul? Anyone? I have a nice journal, a good pen, and I’ve put this off for two weeks and it is driving me crazy! P.S. Paul–Thank you for this website

By: Paul Piotrowski

Paul Piotrowski — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:13:58 +0000

@Karlene: Woo, nice. Where do you get them?

By: Karlene C

Karlene C — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:38:54 +0000

Journalling just before bedtime lets me wake up feeling calm. If I miss a day, I feel the difference. Yes, using a quality journal is key. I always write in handmade Italian journals.

By: Thomas W.

Thomas W. — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:40:57 +0000

Tip #5 is easy in TextRoom: CTRL+d inserts date and CTRL+t inserts time.
I use OpenOffice Writer though. I’ve never done handwriting.

But how do I benefit from all my journal entries? You mentioned skimming and looking for patterns, but is that all there is to it? Maybe a more specific method?
.-= Thomas W.´s last blog ..The Chicken or the Egg =-.

By: Voyage Montreal

Voyage Montreal — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 04:22:30 +0000

@Paul: Thanks for the kind words .

PS: You should have a reply feature for your comments :p

By: Barry

Barry — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 17:15:18 +0000

My motto for 2010 is ” Things work out best for those who do the best with how things work out”

I enjoy reading your Blog posts Paul as a high percentage of the things you say resonate with me. I am going to join the discussion much more from now on.

Barry OBrien

By: Aida

Aida — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:37:49 +0000

@ Natalie & Paul
I would disagree somewhat with disregarding gratitude journals. You are both correct in that gratitude should be a feeling generated throughout the day, not something you make yourself feel while you’re jotting down for 15 minutes about all the “positive” experiences that happened during the day.
However I’ve experienced many good things after keeping a gratitude journal for a while: first I ran out of ‘positive’ experiences to write about, meaning you can only be thankful so many times about a certain person, thing, etc… This in turn inspired me to be grateful for smaller things, and also inspired me to look at ‘negative’ experiences for what they could be in disguise. It was also very therapeutic for me, especially with forgiveness.
However the biggest benefit is that the act of writing what I’m grateful for has inspired me to continue to look for things to be grateful for throughout the day. It was a snowball effect where now I feel increased gratitude in my life.
What I’m saying essentially is that for some people it may be of benefit to start with the gratitude journal, and see if their gratitude for life in general increases.

By: Natalie

Natalie — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:45:03 +0000

I totally love where this discussion went. I did quite a bit of work with the same mentor on this. She describes all energy as neutral and so if you feel you are experiencing something negative, from another person or an event or whatever it is, you have the choice to reframe it (actually transmute it) to neutral energy that can be used in any way – released to the universe, returned to it’s source at a better vibration than it began or as fuel for a positive experience. Practising her body of work, we even transformed physical chemical pollution in water so that toxic water was transformed into non-toxic and was measureable by it’s pH and control. Imagine the applications in our day-to-day lives!

Though, I digress! :-[ I agree with you 100%. Often the difference between being a victim of circumstance or a conscious creator is looking for the gift in a ‘negative’ experience which can be the biggest door to transformation in disguise, and right now in my life I have the biggest respect and appreciation for that

I look forward to your next article about it!

By: Paul Piotrowski

Paul Piotrowski — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:27:42 +0000

@Natalie: Absolutely. Also, the other thing that I have found lacking in most “Gratitude Journal” theories is that most of the time they place too much emphasis on what we label as “positive” experiences. For example, if someone gets a promotion at work they may write that down in their gratitude journal, but if they get laid off they may not. However, getting laid off may just be the best thing for them which will set them on the path towards a much more deeper and meaningful vocation or finally push them to start their own business.

I think learning to “collapse” our negative labels in life to bring them to “neutral” and closer towards gratitude would do people more good than taking things we already label as “positive” and listing them in a daily journal. This may be an interesting topic to write an article about actually….hmm….