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Thursday, May 04, 2006

Journal - a record of ideas

I really like the following from "The Lively Mind" by Jules Z. Willing

Excerpts from Chapter VIII – Your Journal: Embodying The Inward Mental Journey

“….write it, write it, put it down in black and white…get it out, produce it, make something of it – outside you, that is; give it an existence independently of you ….” – Sigmund Freud

Keeping a Journal is an excellent way not only to promote mental vitality, but also to develop the habits that sustain it. When you make a daily note of what you have been thinking about, you:

foster the habit of giving some time each day to reflexiveness,


preserve – make a collection of – ideas and thoughts you will later develop and respond to,


improve your mental fluency, the ability to allow thoughts to flow without intervention,
draw a portrait of your inner self and chart the evolution of your ideas and attitudes,


provide a first draft, a starting point, for expressing the ideas you will later share with others, as in your correspondence,


intensify your hold on the present – we tend to live far too much in response to the past and in anticipation of the future, and far too little in the present moment.

What we are talking about is not a diary, which is a record of events, but a journal, which is a record of ideas, thoughts, and opinions.

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