Journaling and the Struggles

The title probably isn't exactly the wording of it, but yesterday was the first time I wrote in my physical journal after 6 months of not doing it; my last entry was mid-December, but I sorely needed to dump my thoughts out somewhere more tangible. I do still want to pick up physical journaling for the tactile feel of writing and truly having a non-digital way to blurt out my thoughts or the mundane things of life, I do realize I also already do journal in many different facets, which is probably why it also makes it harder to feel the need to physically journal.

Cause I:

• Write here on this blog to thought dump in a more cohesive manner
• Use status.cafe to offload 'at the moment' thoughts so they don't sit in my skull
• Have my listography page for scattered ideas in one area
• Write on tumblr to also offload momentary thoughts in a more public/interactive place
• Talk to friends to offload thoughts

... but I still want to do physical journaling to have something in my hands that I can look back on; it was fun flipping through my journal and seeing what I wrote about 6 months ago, plus I like decorating it with stickers. Though I think the urge to be uh ... what's the word ... to have a pretty looking journal brought me as well to a weird barrier, as well as feeling the need to do it daily and needing to write more than just a single line or two. As fun as it is looking through how others do their own for inspiration, it's hard not to feel a trickle of the need to join in, and write that much, and have nice journals.

Well, I'm going to force myself to at least write just a line, and no more. A simple highlight of the day. If I need to write more, I will, if I don't ... I don't and just leave it to the next day for another highlight. If I want to do stickers, I will, but I need to not make myself think it needs them.

Journaling is definitely hard with ADHD, but it can definitely be done in a lot of different forms; I've seen people who have digital diaries logged on their sites, or /now pages documenting what's been happening, or status updates, and so on. There's definitely catharsis and something about having a document of your life somewhere tangible, either in HTML, or handwritten. Especially as someone with subpar memory, it helps to be able to look back on a part of the past and know it happened, and what was going on then.

Anyway, this is me just rambling about my recognition of journaling in different forms and the desire to try to pick up handwritten journaling again.