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Originally Posted by wills11
I'm a big writer. Ever since I was a little kid I've always had a pen to paper and ideas running through my head. But I've only recently begun "emotional" journaling.
PROBLEM #1:
- I HAVE to be super organized. If my personal environment is chaotic - I'm internally chaotic. (This doesn't mean alphabetization or color chronology. Just an order.) I'm also ADHD so I have collections of notebooks that are unfinished. "Diary entries," poetry, musings, from several years. It's stressing me out what to do with these. Should I rip the pages out and tape them all into a book chronologically since they're dated and then just start a new book?
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i love journals and journaling so am enjoying reading this post. i don't know what would work best but i do date my journal entries. mixed in with my diary entries i write down my dreams sometimes that seem significant. what i do is inside the front cover of the journal i make a list of the dreams and the date i recorded them. that way when i want to refer to them i can find them easily. a friend recommended that to me and boy has it helped me keep track. really, you don't have to organize your unfinished journals unless you want to. it is okay to leave them unfinished but i do understand wanting to be able to access the info easily.
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PROBLEM 2:
Because of the variety of things I write, I'm also thinking it might be more beneficial to have separate notebooks for things: poetry, musings, emotional writing, etc. That way if I want to find something specific later on I'll know where to look, instead of sifting through a book which includes all of those chronologically.
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this sounds like a good idea. you might keep things that are more artistic (poetry, musings, quotes, etc) in one journal, or one for each category if you have lots of entries, and then another journal for the emotional writing.
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PROBLEM 3:
I've been waking up with terrible anxiety. So I've created a book where I write down my immediate emotions and thoughts to get it out of my system and acknowledge it and then hopefully start the day better. I've been doing that at night now too. This book is slowly becoming an emotional journal instead of a "get these stupid worries upon sleeping and waking out of my head" book. Maybe I should just keep a smaller book on the nightstand and try to keep it in a list format?
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if what you are currently doing is working i'd probably stick with that unless the book is too unwieldy. if it is then a smaller one might be easier. you can experiment with the list idea and see if that is better but if not just stick with the other.
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SUGGESTIONS/PROBLEM 4:
I read some therapy journaling sites for ideas. I'm thinking about buying a sectioned/divided off notebook and making sections for each one (i.e. emotional writing, poetry, musings, LETTERS I WON'T SEND PEOPLE, etc.) and then date it that way.
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that could work.
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I'm curious as to ways you all write. Some ideas I got from the sites were to make pages for lists to go and fill in whenever it strikes you, like a prompt: I worry that, what if, I hate that, I love, I feel proud, If I knew I wouldn't fail, Before I die, etc.
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i really like these ideas. i am currently taking an art journaling class and they have some similar prompts. i haven't quite figured out what is the best way to organize my journals so sometimes i have a bunch of journals for different things and then other times i revert back to one main one. mostly, i do emotional journaling, write down dreams & interpret them, have a prayer journal, now an art journal, a book of sayings, etc. i also keep a file on my computer of different quotes i come across online that i like. it's a lot of stuff all over the place but i love keeping all these things.