I'm making a list of all the reasons to love journal-writing... why it's so great.

Jump on in and add yours!

1. It forces me to slow down and de-stress; to think.

2. It's fun to capture moments and look back later!

3. Some times you can survive by thinking ahead about how you'll write about it later (See my post titled Bad Days, Bad People).

Okay, your turn!

It really helps me to sort through the events of the day. It gives me a chance to put them into perspective, learn something from them and hopefully be better prepared for the following day.

I do also like having the history, to read through later.

This sounds silly, I'm sure, but I feel like it's my one chance at immortality. I don't have kids, so my writing is all I have to leave behind.

That's not silly at all! It is nice to think that the things we write might be meaningful to others someday. We all have unique voices to share!

I have two children and have faced five miscarriages. I have written all seven experiences in my pregnancy journal. I keep two special journals- one is for my pregnancy and another one is for day to day life experience. To me pregnancy is a totally different time and needs a lot to write about. My first one reads the journal about herself and sees the picture done in USG. And feels how I sacrificed for her. the more she reads the more she gets a special feeling for me and my husband.

Farjana_ Environment, I know she will treasure that! I mean I know... I have my mother's journals, and what an experience it was reading them!

She made me promise to wait till after she was gone and then read them, and the only problem with that is that I had so many questions and things I wanted to talk about with her! The little stinker- she knew I would!

Journaling helps me make changes quickly in my life. I write every day, so I get sick of hearing myself complain about the same thing really fast! :)

@dreaming fish: That's the fun of journaling. It helps to step forward.

Doxi - that's pretty amazing that you have your mom's journals. I wonder sometimes if I'll end up leaving mine behind. No kids as of yet, but who knows. Did you mom write about similar topics to yours? Or did you find her focus totally different? It's so fascinating to me.

My mother's were little diary books... she had a talent of being able to paint a vivid picture with very few words.

Her life was quite different from mine. She made some horrendously bad choices, and the consequences- on all of us- were pretty bad. I forgave her long ago... part of surviving is being able to forgive even if you can't forget, you know?

Some of her writings were painful to read, like watching a train wreck about to happen... I wanted to scream, "No, NO! STOP, WAIT!!"

Hello to all my long lost journaling friends.
I was in the hosital recently and used my journal to document information and the names of people I would need to remember after returning home.

Before this, I also jounraled in hopes of leaving my loved ones some insite into who I was inside

Welcome back, Lynn Ann! I hope you're feeling better!

I took my journal with me the last time I was in the hospital, too.

I enjoyed very much reading my great grandmother's journals and found the same thing - that I wish she was here now so I could discuss them with her.

I sometimes worry about leaving my journals after I'm gone... I don't know if they'll be helpful to anyone or if they'll just end up a burden. I have over 100 of them already and I'm only 34 - the sheer volume could be staggering by the time I'm ready to depart this life! :) My friend lost her brother in a bicycling accident a few years ago and she found his journal an enormous sense of comfort that helped her through the loss. In that way I can imagine journals being a good legacy to leave.