Reader
The writer and psychoanalyst Marion Milner, on the value of writing and journaling:
I had often thought that novelists and poets had a special advantage in learning how to live, their writings providing them with an instrument that most of us were denied. By being able to dramatize their own difficulties they were in a far better position for solvin... See more
Celine Nguyen • Celine Nguyen on Substack
Writing in a journal will help you connect the dots of your journey. It’s a way of keeping track of your thoughts, a tool for seeing and understanding your progress. A journal keeps you centered; it allows you to see fears that recur—and to recognize ones that fall away.
Richard J. Leider • Life Reimagined: Discovering Your New Life Possibilities
there's something transformative about achieving a third-person perspective on the contents of your mind by externalizing them on paper. You know how it's often easy to see what someone else needs to do about their problems? Externalising your thoughts can trigger similar insights on your own behalf. And even when it doesn't, the shift in perspecti... See more
Oliver Burkeman • Three pages a day
the importance of journal keeping as a powerful tool for creative expression and self-healing, and a way to help solidify thoughts in both one’s personal and literary life.
Phillip Lopate • Writers and Their Notebooks
Writing a diary made me happier; keeping things-to-do lists made me more reliable (which, in turn, made those around me happier), and I learned never to go to a doctor’s appointment, or a meeting of any kind, without taking notes of what I heard. But there appeared to be creative benefits too. Every artist I met seemed to have a sketchbook to hand,... See more
Roland Allen • Moleskine Mania: How a Notebook Conquered the Digital Era
I keep a daily diary for many reasons, but the main one is that it helps me pay attention to my life. By sitting down every morning and writing about my life, I pay attention to it, and over time, I have a record of what I’ve paid attention to.