What Does 30 Years Of Journaling Look Like?
To look back on the writings we did when we were children can be a nostalgically eye-opening experience. If you've been a consistent journal writer or an occasional one it's always fun to look back on thoughts from years ago.
Letting people look inside your journal can be a very vulnerable experience, but it can also be extremely therapeutic and inspiring for others. We've shared photos of journals made by our own JB Crew members and received a lot of positive feedback. These are some of the photos of how Lauren used her One of a Kind Journal:
So we wanted to share this article, 30 Years of Journaling for the website Yoganonymous, in which Kimi Marin shares photos of her writings:
"Throughout my life, whenever I was asked “If you could do anything, what would it be?” I would reply “I’d be a writer.” In my head I would negate my statement and tell myself that I would never have the talent to write.
Yet, I have been diligently writing for as long as I can remember. I don’t know why I started keeping a journal—maybe one was a gift, maybe my mom kept one, or may, just maybe, my heart passion truly is to write.
Over the past three decades, my journals have been the keepers of my poems, my secrets, my art, my life. In my journals I have fallen in love, felt rejection, fought against myself, and found myself. As much as my journals are a refuge, they have also left me raw and exposed. Like the time in high school when a friend stole my journal and passed it around to his friends or the boyfriend who found my journal and read my indiscretions. These events, too, made it into my journal alongside the pages of painful calorie counting, memories of old friends, sexcapades, stories that still make me cringe, and writings that make me giggle.
I would love to say that my writing has evolved like my handwriting has changed over the years. Yet, the truth is I am in a lot of ways the same person I was when I was a kid. Although my focus has changed from chasing love to chasing a career to chasing a toddler, I still write about my dreams (both the night dreams and the day dreams), about love, and about my desires. Journals create space for the soul to come alive on paper. In all my journals, the outline of who I am is the same because although my body has changed, my face has aged, and my experiences have left me wiser, my spirit has remained the same.
1982-1986: Here is my first journal. I began it when I was seven years old and wrote in in sporadically for several years. This is an entry from 1983.
1987-1988: First Love. I spent every summer in Canada and had my first summer love when I was 13. I looked forward to seeing this particular boy every summer.
1988: "My Private Journal." A journal full of writing prompts that I took very seriously.
1991: My first acid experience. (Sorry, Mom.)
2000: For much of the first half of my life, running was my lifeline.
2007: My first summer in graduate school I went on a solo backpacking trip to Mexico. I intuitively knew it was my last chance to take a trip by myself—I met my husband several weeks after returning home.
2008: Interesting fact: This journal is mostly blank pages.
2011: I had been teaching yoga for about year. Not surprising that yoga was beginning to take over all my thoughts.
2014: Pregnant. Being a mother was never something I desired, but I was thrilled to be having a child.
22 Months: My son's first journal. He sits at his table and draws in it."
(Via Yoganonymous)