People write journals for many reasons. Remember when many young teenage girls kept a diary and wrote an entry every day about something going on in their lives? It had a little lock and key so you could write your most secret thoughts. After you grew up, you could look back and see what you were doing each year—that is if you stuck with the “Dear Diary” that long!
During an incredibly difficult time in her life, Anne Frank turned to journaling to channel her thoughts and comfort herself as she and her family hid from the Nazis during World War II. She once said, “I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.” As she wrote, her circumstances didn’t change, but her outlook on life did.
Many of us use a journal simply to capture memories for our children or grandchildren. We may keep a journal to capture the memories of a trip that was special to us. Some authors have turned their journals into books, and some have even become bestsellers.
Journaling has become more popular of late. Many people come into the store looking for a simple journal with lined sheets. Now, however, there are “how-to” books about journaling, and interactive journals with suggestions and illustrations to prompt your journey and guide you along The following are some good examples, and after you have pondered the various ways you can keep a journal, you might just find yourself starting one for your legacy or for that book you always wanted to write.
1. Overcoming: A Workbook by Michelle Obama
Former First Lady Michelle Obama has written several books, and all have been bestsellers. Now she has published a workbook based on her book The Light We Carry. It features tools for handling life’s challenges in the face of uncertainty and self-doubt. With her signature warmth and kindness, she draws from her own experiences to offer readers the tools and principles to overcome the many challenges they may face.
2. Start Where You Are: A Journal for Self-Exploration by Meera Lee Patel
This interactive journal helps us learn more about ourselves and our creativity. We are guided through the chaos and confusion of everyday life by learning that the more we know ourselves and our dreams, the better able we are to understand the world around us and achieve these dreams.
3. A Year of Us: A Couple’s Journal: One Question a Day to Spark Fun and Meaningful Conversations by Alicia Muñoz
Most journals are for individuals to do alone, but this is one for couples to do together. For just a few minutes a day, you and your partner can create your own journal and strengthen your bond as a couple. You will be guided with questions and prompts that are both lighthearted and heartfelt. This journal is perfect for you and your partner or as a special gift for a couple you know.
4. Get Untamed: The Journal (How to Quit Pleasing and Start Living) by Glennon Doyle
Award-winning author Glennon Doyle—described as the “patron saint of female empowerment” by People Magazine—brings the lessons she learned and shared in her memoir Untamed to this journal to help other women stop trying to please others and begin living their own lives. This interactive guide for women will show them ways to do that. It includes thought-provoking exercises and illustrations with quotes from Untamed, and meditative coloring pages.
5. Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith
There are several editions of this journal, for teens and kids, and all the rest of us. Many of us have started a journal and abandoned it, afraid of making mistakes or saying the wrong thing. But that won’t happen with this journal—in fact, it encourages you to make mistakes! Author and artist Keri Smith prompts us throughout this journal to paint on the pages, add photos, color outside the lines—to do many of those things we were told not to do in school. This is a way to help us experience the truly creative process and express ourselves without fear.
6. Question a Day Journal for Kids: 365 Days to Capture Memories and Express Yourself by MaryAnne Kochenderfer, Ph.D.
This journal is wonderful for parents and children to work on together or even for kids to do by themselves. There are amazing prompts for children to ask themselves about their favorite music, or their superpowers, and even questions about things that make them nervous. They can answer a question each day for a year and then look back on it at the end of the year. Or even get into the habit of keeping a journal every year. This journal would make a great Christmas or birthday gift for kids to start them on their own journaling.
If you have thought about writing a journal but just couldn’t get started, one of these books might be just the thing to give you the nudge to just do it! And if your journal turns into that book you have always wanted to write, let me know, and we can schedule a book event!