These are not all of my journals and notebooks, they technically begin in 1st grade, but they’re not very cohesive so I keep them separate. These are from my sophomore year in high school to my senior year in college! Very happy with my shelf so far :)

I have recently been reading a few of my older journals from 2002 - 2005. I was between 14 and 18 back then. I have long time not taken a look into these journals as they were at my parent's house. They gave them back to me only a few months ago.

Of course, I still remember what I was going through during that time but it was more like a blurred memory. Reading my specific thoughts, I was shocked- There are lots of entries full of hatred - against myself, my parents, even my friends, self-pity and harmful thoughts. I was also anorexic (and probably depressed) during that time and no one even noticed.

Of course, I know that these struggles are - at least kind of - normal when you are young. But after reading those journals I feel so sad. I started reading them bc I thought it would be funny to dive into those old memories - but now I am simply shocked and devastated.

Has anyone made this experience too when reading older journals?

Painted the edges pink for my first anniversary journaling

(Also don't flame me for the cheesy quote, I bought it because it's pink!)

I missed the one year anniversary by a week because I misremembered the date lol, I don't even have an entry on the 21st of this month but oh well.

Never thought that this would be for me but once I started letting go of expectations, perfection and everything else preventing me from giving myself peace of mind through this outlet; everything in my life became significantly better.

Starting a new journal today, any suggestions or words of advice?

I have recently discovered that I really like the physical aspect of writing. I like the feel of it all, holding the pen, feeling and hearing the pen scratching on the paper, etc. and seeing the efforts of my labor.

Here is the problem I am running in to, I am running out of things to write about. Currently I have been writing random journal entries of sorts and documenting a lot of quotes I have found on Instagram and Pinterest. In the not so recent past at one point I was copying down and creating all sorts of information and data from measuring units and conversions to information about the Tarot and pagan subjects.

I am in need of things to write. I have tried documenting my days, writing down how I feel about thing, a few journaling prompts and so on. Nothing seems to stick so to speak. I've tried browsing online to find inspiration to no avail.

I am beginning to believe that I may be my own worst enemy. Like I can't see the forest for the trees type of thing. I am hoping some recommendations and input from objective third parties might help.

If this makes sense to anyone please let me know what thoughts you might have that you are willing to share.

Also, is there anyone else like this?

Please do excuse my handwriting

Top left is the oldestand bottom right my currend one.

I startet Journaling in 2016 and up untill the last 2-3 Years never really consistent. I mean... Now there is still times where I journal Dayli and weeks without it. Also my style has changed in this time. I began with moleskin softcovers. I wanted it slim and clean. Only a few pictures inside, no color, no drawings, mostly consistand writing. Now i am in my second Leuchturm1917 with 120g paper. They get big and chonkey I write, i put in pictures, i doodle, i put in maps and flyers from places i've been Basicly it is now a mix of consistend writing, junkjournaling and scrapbooking And i feel it is for me the best kind to journal. I wanna keep my thouths and memorys in thouse pages and this mix helps me to not forget. And also the Stickers on the Outside of the Journal are kind of a mirror for what vibes I had when i started the journal.

I then dothouse kind of entrys in my journal For when i wanna talk about stuff that is going on but not wanna write "too much"

Anyone else doing that?

I feel like the answer is no but a part of me just feels like it’s too late. I’m 23M and I think about it quite often but I feel like 23 is too late to start. Am I overthinking it or do I still have time?

Journal - tomoe river Fountain pen - lamy safari 1.1 stub nib Ink - pilot iroshizuku konpeki

Hello everyone ♥

Am kinda new here and reading all of you here motivated to start a new journal.

i did some journals about my positive stuffs that i draw and write everyday since now 2 or 3 years ? But thanks to all of you, i started something more personnal and write more than i draw and i want to write a lot of things about nice memories, but also goals and my fav things to always remember all the things i'm proud of and all the thing i should never forget about me and things i love.

Okay, that, that was for the context and for thanking all of you for the inspiration and all!

Today i have a question and i took my courage to send it here, it's :

What kind of stuff do you paste in your journal ?

I know people use some stickers and memo notes to write on, but is there some things you love to paste in your journal that make the page special for you ? Some things that make you think about a precious thing you dont want to forget or to give more informations about things you write. Tell me everything, i'm very curious!

And thanks again for all the inspiration you give me daily, you're all amazing ! ♥

I bought a journal today this is the first page idk what I just wrote I need some important advice like what to do and what to write like I don't wanna write like a philosopher just some daily check list

I usually do a lot of visual journaling/art journaling, but I am participating in a project called “The Sisterhood of The Travelling Journal” and I had to make an “about me” page.

I am not used to writing in my journals, but it was actually quite fun. I used other bits and pieces, but I enjoyed the process of putting pen to paper.

I thought it might be appropriate to share here - so, I am! Please have a lovely day!

Slowly but surely I think! I’ll just write a little each day until I can feel good about journaling again 💕 also the “I’ll be back” 28 days later lol

I've been in the family house for past few months waiting for college. I was out of here for past two years preparing for exam in another state and hardly stayed home without work especially for this long period.

The thing is when I just started writing as a preteen my parents read my diaries. Later I started writing on a piece of paper that I used to rip and throw away but once my dad found one about him yelling at me and then yelled at me again 💀

Since I came back I've written 2-3 entries in 3 months when I used to write daily. I admit for first few weeks after exam I didn't write because I was feeling burnout but even now if I try I can't (sorry if it feels repetitive)

Last week I was writing after a month or two and as soon as my mom saw it, she sat behind me in a chair too and started talking to me and asking me to read it out loud to her which I obviously didn't but wrote that in my journal lol

It's frustrating because they don't let me stay in my room too. After I went away they turned my room into a guest room but it is still my stuff yet I can't even go there for just nights. Idk why because it's not like we sleep at same time, even when we're sleeping in same room I stay awake 2 hours more than them as that's my only quiet time which I need before sleep

Sorry for the rant 😭 this is what happens when I can't journal and i guess I wanted to share it to someone who will understand

for those of you who have been keeping journals for years, do you prefer to always use the same plain journal cover / same model, or do you prefer to have a different style of journal for each new one?

I’ve been experimenting with journaling and was thinking of adding daily mood tracking to it.

On one hand, it seems like it could help me notice patterns (like what triggers stress or motivation). On the other hand, I’m wondering if it’s just “busy work” that doesn’t really move the needle.

Has anyone here tried mood tracking consistently? Did it actually improve your self-awareness, or did you find it became another thing to do without much payoff?

Would love to hear different perspectives.

Do you ever suffer from brain fog? If so, do you have any suggestions?

When journaling, sometimes I’m holding my pen in hand and I can’t get my mind to work. It’s like feeling tired, can’t think. Sometimes I feel sleepy, or the weather is too hot. I can’t keep a train of thought.

I tried getting more sleep, which is hard as we have several grandkids.

Drinking lots of coffee doesn’t do it. It’s like I have a high tolerance. To caffeine.

I try writing whatever comes to mind, like doing the morning pages exercise from “The Artist’s way”. Sometimes that helps.

I’ve been journaling faithfully for 13 years and sporadically before then. I used to try to do an index for my journals but it was so time-consuming that I gave up on it. But I’d still like to find a way to index from here on out as I go. So what I’m thinking is color coding. For example, in one entry I might cover 2 or 3 topics, sometimes more. So I’d have a separate color for work, travel, big purchases, holidays, events, deep thoughts, etc. I would either bracket on the edge of the page in colored pens, or use big colored dots, stars, or some other way of denoting roughly where on the page the topic appears. So after each time I write, I would mark the entry with the colors (however I decided to do it), and have an index either in back or front of the journal, with an alphabetical list of topics (one or two letters per page). Have any of you done something like this? Do you have a more streamlined way of doing it? I find it very useful to go back in my journal to read about an event, or something I bought, and if I had an easier way of finding it, it would be super. Looking forward to your clever ideas.

Like if anything happens, triggers me whatsoever, I feel an instant urge to write it down and rationalize the stuff. Like I won't even stay over at my partner's house because I can't bring my journals there.
won't even start my actual tasks before journaling، and sometimes (frequently) I procrastinate on some journalings because I have to face everything there.
Does anyone get the same feeling?

I used to write “diaries” a lot when I was in elementary school until High School but when I went to college life kinda became busier and tougher yet I stopped doing those bc had no time… And recently just figured that out again why did I stop? I should have kept doing it despite the busy life because that's how we keep on track with our schedules and to-do lists. My question:

1. Do you have any suggestions on where and HOW I can journal for these three topics:

✅Journal in general (like to do list/up coming schedule), ✅Daily/weekly budget, and ✅Gratitude (for my mental health). To whoever does these do y'all write them in one book journal or separate for each topic?

1. How do you keep consistent in writing a journal everyday?

hi everyone, wanted to make this post because I want to be creative and solve a problem for the public. What would you say your ideal journal template looks like? what are some things that you currently hate in your journal template, what is unnecessary and what would you like to see?