I’m sorry to hear. That is a painful situation – for both of you… Whatever happens, I hope you are both able to be with a person you can openly trust and be yourself with, whether that’s each other or not.

Hi Lee,

Thanks for sharing this with me, and I’m sorry you’re going through these hard times. I tend to agree with you, that journaling shouldn’t be bumming you out. Here’s something you can try that might help: create a page for your negative thoughts and keep them there. For example, if you open up your journal, allow yourself a single page as an outlet for your negative thoughts per day. And the rest of your journal is for positive thoughts only. That way, you are limiting the amount of negativity in your journal, while still allowing it to be an outlet.

This idea comes from one of our articles on how to stop negative thinking: https://www.trackinghappiness.com/stop-negative-thinking/#3_Create_a_worry_period

I wish you all the best, and thanks again for sharing your experience here.

Hugo

Thanks for sharing, Eden. I love the idea of allowing your sister to read it after you’re gone. It’s good that you have someone you feel comfortable enough with, that this person can read about who you are deep down, the good and potentially the bad. I like it.

Hi, If you truly want to journal you could. Do it on laptop with a password or
What I find therepudic is to journal on loose paper/draw /write words/emotions etc – anything I need to get out, then I burn the page in a pot with a ceremony of letting go of negative thoughts/ experience and honouring the good stuff. I hope this helps, Ruth

Ha ha, I always thought some of that grateful stuff was a bit difficult as well. Though I must admit I haven’t really tried it. It can help to look at the bright side – there’s almost always something. But yeah – sometimes things are just bad.

Hi Ben, Bob M, Hugo & anyone else:
Has anyone thought of just a lock and key? That’s what we used to do in the old days, before word processors and computers were in wide use (or any use).
Especially the little girls: we’d have our Dear Diary that came in a faux-leather binding, and it had a strap closing it that fit into a latch that could only be opened with a tiny key.
Of course one’s sisters would still figure out a way to get into it and tease you about the boy you likes. Also a strap can be easily cut, but then it would be obvious someone had looked! A grown- up version of this could be done somehow, no? Lock it in a box somewhere, hide it effectively, something.
Wrap a small chain around it and secure it with a padlock! Yes, that takes longer than entering a password. But if you want to write in a physical book, maybe that book could be locked somehow. Or just hidden.
Of course, writing on a device where it can only be viewed with a password is quite effective. I mostly just write digitally now too, but I Prefer real pen and paper, it’s just not convenient at this time. The idea of writing with an electric pen on an electric device when you could just click a ballpoint and get out a piece of paper seems insanely expensive to me. And troublesome. Maybe it’s less troublesome, but it just seems so absurd. Like you’re just putting money in some big company’s pocket, falling victim to the the gimmickry of a $100 pen when a stick pen can cost only a few pennies. If you buy them in a bunch. But, to each his own.
I will say, even though I was somewhat Addicted to writing during and try now not to overdo it (because it can be just a way to waste time), I am conscious, when I do write, that somebody might see it and use it against me. Because I have had problems at times with my family, and they can twist things and be cruel. If I don’t write down every detail, they might see something and take it the wrong way or even just find a way to hurt me with it anyhow. So I just don’t write down any of it sometimes. It’s less cathartic but you have to protect yourself. I can’t really write as freely as I would like to, but so it goes. it’s just safest to keep things in your own head sometimes and that’s what you have to do.

Keep up the good work! And the love of journalling. Keep spreading that love and creativity! xx