Developing the Journaling Habit

The basis of Journaling is forming a habit which documents people, their activities and lives, in the midst of passing time and unfolding events.  Time passes.  The days of our lives slide away before we can catch them.  Even our memories fail after a time.  The pleasure in Journaling is saving the days of our lives into a time machine called a Journal which can be savored when we re-read them, can be shared and left for our future generations. "This is what is important . . . Nothing else matters . . .We live and die and the earth or the sea swallows us whole and then we are gone.  But if we're lucky, we can leave something beautiful behind."  [The Sense of Paper, Taylor Holden, p. 40]

Every new year is the time many of us decide to change our lives in some positive way.  Perhaps we want to lose weight or stop smoking, so on January 1, we bravely make a resolution to change all that.  Right now.  Immediately.  And we try our best to follow it ... for a while.  However, for one reason or another, many resolutions soon fall by the wayside.  We don't have time.  It is too hard.  Our friends or family don't mean to, but they "sabotage" our efforts.  Whatever. 

The underlying issue is both simple and complex.  It means giving up old habits in favor of new habits.  The old habits have been a source of pleasure and are solidly ingrained, and the new habits are often full of the pain of some sort of withdrawal and are new and wobbly and full of a deadening sense of duty.  So in order to strengthen the formation of the new habit, we have to jetison the burdensome sense of duty and, though it may be hard to find, seek out the pleasure to be found in the new habit.  Maybe it's losing 2 pounds or being able to breathe again.  But one thing is clear, if we can find the pleasure, then we'll do it again.  Which leads to the question: What is the difference between pleasure and addiction?  Daniel Akst said, "The behavior we call addiction is really a love of pleasure that carries the force of habit." [Akst, We Have Met the Enemy.]


Some Words of Encouragement - the Journaling Habit [i.e., The Cornerhouse Rules , aka CR]:

• "Do several kinds of things, then take note of which ones gave a feeling of pleasure.  Follow the pleasures, as they are the basis of the Journaling habit."  [CR]
• "Be able to tell the difference between a habit and a rut." [CR]
• "Bring something new, something beautiful and something filled with light into the world.  Do something differenc, fresh, new, in order to explore new depths of pleasure, an enrichment in life.""  [Rose Bleckner, Ibid.]
• "Being still and doing nothing are two very different things."  [Jackie Chan, "Karate Kid"]
• "If we don't do it, nothing will happen." [CR]
• "Inspiration is for amateurs - the rest of us show up and get to work." ["Inside the Artist Studio," a Chuck Close quote by Joe Figg]
• "If you hang in there, you will get somewhere." [Ibid.]
• "Those who love, live on, in their handiwork."  [Jennifer Chiaverini]