SKYE stephenson

Have you ever kept a journal? Do you keep one now? If so, what role does your journal play in your life?

Today, I met a friend for lunch at a quaint coffee shop on West River Road in Brattleboro. I was sipping my cappuccino and nibbling away at a delicious almond and lemon curd tart while he recounted a recent trip to Berlin.

“For the first time ever,” he said, “I looked back at my journal from an earlier trip to Berlin years ago. And I found things that helped me plan my visit.”

“You keep a journal? I do too,” I mumbled between bites.

“Yep. Done it for years. If anyone ever read my journal, I would sound like a whiney person because I do use it to vent when my partner is really driving me crazy.”

I smiled. And thought of how I sometimes do the same in my journal. Especially earlier ones. I am now working on journal #95.

  “But sometimes I have found whole poems, really good poems, I wrote years ago and had totally forgotten about. It is really great when that happens.”

 My friend, by the way, is a poet.

 Writer and artist Julia Cameron in her famous books about creativity suggests the daily practice of what she calls ‘morning pages.’ By this, she means spending half an hour each morning before you do anything else writing freely in your journal. She gives examples of how many people have gotten ideas from their journals that become seeds for poems or books or songs or plays or films.

While journalling can sometimes lead to something beautiful that we share with others, more important is how a journal can be a kind of silent friend and helper. Because a great thing about having a personal journal is that it is just that – it is personal.

A journal is a safe space and place to process our feelings – whatever they may be. We don’t have to be ‘nice’ in our journal. We don’t have to put on any masks or fake smiles if we don’t feel like it. We can write whatever we want down, without worrying about what the ‘other’ will think or feel or say.

And once our hand has scribbled down our burning feelings onto paper – oftentimes we will suddenly feel calmer. More tranquil. Sometimes we even have a new slant on the situation, and greater clarity on what to do next.

 Journals can also be where we record our memories and dreams. And by dreams, I mean both waking dreams, and also dreams that visit us while we sleep.

I first became aware of the power of our dreams thanks to an article I read years ago written by Marc Ian Barasch. In it, he recounts a series of increasingly intense and surreal dreams that eventually prompted him to get a medical check for cancer. And then, help him find the best doctor for the operation to remove his thyroid.

After reading this amazing story, I began to study dreams. This included taking a course in dreaming with Robert Moss. He taught us to record our dreams upon awakening (and before we forget them). And to give the dream a title, and describe the feeling it aroused in us.

“Make sure,” he said, “to also list a few follow ups from the dream. Because a dream always has a message for you.”

Ever since this training, my journals are at least half filled with my dreams. This is yet another way to use a journal. To record your dreams.

And just as my friend was happily surprised to reread earlier journals and find such treasures as pointers for his Berlin trip and forgotten poems – the same can happen with your recorded dreams.

In many cultures and spiritual teaching, it is believed what we dream will later become our reality. In other words, it is our dreams while we sleep that shape our life while awake.

The great thing about journaling is that each of us can make of our journal what we want. A place to write down what we did or felt or thought. A space to vent, and also to experiment with new thoughts and ideas. A journal can also be a holder of dreams received, and the dreams we are dreaming of our tomorrows.