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Always Be Journaling (2018)

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Re: Always Be Journaling (2018)

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, since I strive to journal on a factual based tone. Barely do I jot down any emotions or opinions about people. Phrasing a situation down into facts helps to change perspective away from the ego pov and to dissolve any anger or other negative emotions.

Emotions _are_ facts. By not reporting your emotions around a subject, you're omitting the facts of the situation.

"Emotions _are_ facts."

No, they are not. They are your emotions. Not saying that they are less real or that they should be dismissed, but a threat is a fact, your fear is your emotional reaction to it. There is a difference.

The difference is that you have control over your thoughts, reactions and emotions. If you do not differentiate between the outside world of facts and the inside world of thoughts and emotions, you mush them together into a mess.

I can learn to master my emotions and for example dissolve my fear. That will not remove the threat. If I learn to assess the threat regardless of my emotional reaction to it, I get a better grasp on the severity of the threat and can react accordingly.

That is not to say that emotions should be ignored. I'd recommend against that. Listen to yourself. If you feel the desire to journal them, by all means, do it. But for journaling _I_ prefer to differentiate and try to keep my emotions out of the narrative. You are free to do otherwise.

Re: Always Be Journaling (2018)

#72

Has anyone here ever refrained from being too honest in your journaling, out of fear someone read it some day?

The idea of journaling was filling the need to talk to someone about something, but another person could never be trusted. Anne Frank would be mortified that people read her most private thoughts and fantasies. It's rooted in psychological well being, much like therapy. It's why I was most offended by the judge mocking Ross Ulbricht for committing his private observations, including criminal ones, to his diary. Moder…

I believe most versions of Anne Frank's diaries, at least those versions that appear in school curricula, are edited and censored in places. That is fair, because the historic value of the overall ideas shared doesn't justify violating a deceased person's privacy 100%.

Re: Always Be Journaling (2018)

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I absolutely love(d) being able to look back and read what I wrote and what happened on those days. Did you actually look back or just liked the idea that you could? If you did what sorts of things prompted you to do so? I am asking because I have journaled on an off but never had the impulse to go back and read what I wrote.

I did read back and look more than a few times. One was what I wrote when a person, wondering what I said then. Other times trying to see the first mention of an experience. I definitely didn't go back and read sequentially though, because mostly I didn't do anything interesting day to day. But I've found that sometimes things stick out that I didn't realize when I was writing it. By the end of that stretch when I di…

I’ve used DayOne for journaling for 6+ years, with varying degrees of consistency. One of the things I like about that is a) the ability to attach photos, and b) when I open the app it shows me all of the entries from the current day, over the years. Lots of little memories that I’d have forgotten if I didn’t have that ongoing reminder.

Re: Always Be Journaling (2018)

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have two sections in my digital notebook that are off limits, encrypted and password protected (with passwords I never share and 2FA) that contain "Dark Thoughts" and "Bad Thoughts About People." Dark Thoughts section is where I journal about some internalized toxic negativity, usually fabricated by some mild background depression, running through my brain. Dark Thoughts section lets me compartmentalize and objecti…

Is your journal on your laptop? What if you are asked to decrypt at the airport?

I can happily decrypt the laptop the airport. Doesn't mean all the data in the laptop is decrypted. It's way too much data for a non-forensic team to sift through without concerted effort. My house has multiple doors with multiple locks. Just because you made it past the front gate ("please unlock your laptop") doesn't mean you got in to the fire safe inside the locked office inside the locked house. And so you opened the very obvious fire safe where we keep a little cash and some spare keeys and you looked inside. Congratulations, there's four other safes in the house that aren't in plain sight with different combinations, not including all the other stuff that is locked up securely. Just because I entered in an easily recalled and easily typed password that gives you access to 4TB of data, it doesn't mean you can easily access all of that 4TB with the same set of keys. It'd take you "quite some time" to fish through to even find the encrypted data.

Re: Always Be Journaling (2018)

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have two sections in my digital notebook that are off limits, encrypted and password protected (with passwords I never share and 2FA) that contain "Dark Thoughts" and "Bad Thoughts About People." Dark Thoughts section is where I journal about some internalized toxic negativity, usually fabricated by some mild background depression, running through my brain. Dark Thoughts section lets me compartmentalize and objecti…

Is your journal on your laptop? What if you are asked to decrypt at the airport?

I would be more upset if they confiscated the physical hardware for analysis than the encrypted data that is on it.

Re: Always Be Journaling (2018)

#76
post #19

To those of you who like the idea of themselves journaling but don’t do it currently or consistently: What’s stopping you?

Being too tired in the evenings and too little time in the mornings.

Same for me! The last thing I want to do after work is get back on the computer and type more.

The last thing I want to do in the morning is get out of bed to get on the computer!

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