By Elizabeth Gates
Confidentiality is a mega-advantage of the journal. So where you keep your journal depends on how secure you want it to be. Wrap it in red ribbon and leave it lying on the kitchen table if you want it to be read. But, if you don't want the world and his wife browsing through it over a cup of coffee, you'd better think again.Personally, I would find locking a journal away in a safe an extreme alternative. But I did once have the mortification of someone - uninvited - reading my journal because I left it under my pillow. When the gales of his laughter had finally died down, I resolved never to keep a journal again.
Years passed with no record of my inner life at all. And these were some of my most significant years - relating to the advent of my children and my divorce and my re-marriage. I believe this lapse was partly due to having to write daily as a journalist. (And I've probably written several novels' length of prose in my time!) But an unbreakable silence was maintained.
However, I am now maintaining a journal again although I'm cautious where I leave it. And where you keep your journal and when you write it are closely enmeshed.
To re-start journal keeping, I had to break free from habitual writing patterns to reacquaint myself with my intuition. As a journalist, for over twenty years, I had had to write in the morning between 9am and 12 noon because people I needed to interview kept office hours. But for me, this meant cramped intuition. So now I take a notepad and pen with me always and I can write anywhere. My journal has adopted the guise of the Victorian Commonplace Book.
But other people write their journal in bed last thing at night or first thing in the morning. In the morning, you can use your journal as your 'morning pages' - free-writing on a daily basis for ten minutes as you wake up.
Or you could keep your journal in your writing space - where you can prime your subconscious for clarity and intention. Getting to this place, according to creativity guru Eric Maisel is the most important walk of the day. This is the one that gives meaning to your life.
But, the when and the where of journal keeping is fundamentally your choice. And that depends on whatever floats your boat.
Elizabeth Gates is an experienced published writer who coaches others who write for professional or personal development. She specialises creativity, writers' well-being and the route to publication. For more information, please see her website, http://www.lonelyfurrowcompany.com and read her blog at http://lizziegates.blogspot.com
