Going Inside

Just as I was getting ready to head west to teach a journal writing workshop, Elaine invited me to write a little blog entry for SrMeetUp! That started my brain going on the difference between journal writing and blogging—two things that many people think are the same thing. In fact, some of my students at the university equate putting their thoughts out there in cyberspace with journal writing. But I am certain that these are two very different endeavors—not mutually exclusive and not necessarily contradictory—but still very different.

If blogging is putting one’s thoughts and ideas “out there” to be visited and read by others, it doesn’t necessarily mean a blogger censors or even edits, but there always exists the idea that you are presenting yourself, in whatever fashion you choose, to the world. Now journal writing is a very different act and it’s not about “out there” but about “in here.” It might indeed be the very first step to a blog post, but journal writing is about self-reflection and not about self-presentation, about getting inside rather than going outside.

The more I think about this, the more important I believe journal writing is for those of us who spend a lot of time “out there.” In order to present ourselves to the world, especially at this point in our lives where we can take pleasure in knowing ourselves, we need to spend more time noticing ourselves . I just learned that scientists speculate that molecules in cells are in constant flux which makes me feel much better about my own mercurial thoughts and ideas. Of course some things stay constant, some values and evaluations, but if we are truly alive to the world, things change within us daily and we need to take the time to be introspective before we go blurting to the world.

So the idea which I offer to all of you “out there” is that we could all benefit from using the old notion of “tithing,” in this case giving 10 percent of our time to ourselves--to notice, to write it down, to go below the surface. Some years ago, I asked participants in a journal writing workshop to make a list of 100 desires. Seems like a lot, doesn’t it? But the trick is to write as fast as you can, and you’re allowed to repeat. Even with this instruction that was guaranteed, I thought, to get below the conscious mind, two of the “senior” women in the group never got around to listing anything for themselves. Their lists were all about their children, grandchildren, church and community. They needed more practice in noticing themselves.

So take a stab at that list of 100 desires—

1. Label the top of the page "I want," or "I desire";

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2. Write as quickly as you can and just let it all hang out. Write whatever comes into your head without censoring and without worrying about grammar or complete sentences;

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3. No need to feel foolish because no one's going to read it since it's in your journal and not out there in a blog post;

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4. Do it for yourself and then review the list and see if you find any patterns.

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Maybe when I get back from my workshop, I'll be ready to put more ideas out there, for example, what to do with that list!

-- Rita Jacobs

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Author Rita D. Jacobs teaches journal writing workshops around the world. Her most recent book is titled, “The Way In: Journal Writing for Self-Discovery”. She is a Professor of English at Montclair State University in NJ.

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