What Journaling for a year taught me

I kept this EMSHOI Graph Paper Notebook - 256 Pages A5 Graph Notebook / Journal for about a year and now up to the final couple of pages. I've kept journals in the past, but this was a special one, I was able to be more creative. Here are some of the things keeping a journal taught me.

You can do more than writing.

If you want to draw, draw. If you want to make a collage, collage. Want to glue random things, you can. Nothing stops you from releasing your creativity in your journal.

Writing down your feelings is the best thing.

Sometimes you just don't want to talk about something and you want to get it out. Whip out your journal and jot down your thoughts. It's like your personal therapist but in paper form. Even though there are good days and tough days to the point where you don't want to write in it keeping a journal is like a reflection of life.

You can use them as a time capsule.

Got a bunch of business cards, receipts, photos? Just stick them in your journal! Those papery goods won't get lost!

No judgment.

Social media is a double-edged sword (like most things in life). Some good, some bad. One of the bad things is the want of your work to be noticed. If your work doesn't get any views or likes, then you start to think your work is worthless. Doing whatever you want inside of your journal removes that guilt and shame, you're just doing it for you.

It's a reflection of your personality.

Back in the day (I'm old...) people showed their individuality by editing layouts on their LiveJournal, Xanga, Myspace, etc. accounts. Layout editing is a bit of a dead art now (Open a TikTok, Instagram, etc and you're set). Having your journal, you could customize it in whatever way you want. I stuck washi tape, and stickers of butterflies and flowers in my journal because I love butterflies and flowers.