A question for anyone who journals

[AmICrazyToEvenBother]

Are you completely honest in your journal entries or do you censor yourself somewhat or omit certain things?

I've dabbled in the past but have never felt completely comfortable or 'safe', I suppose, in downloading completely and never stick with it.

A recent thread on going through a deceased family member's things and unsettling discoveries got me thinking about this.

I think journaling is great.
One of my regrets is that I didn't start one years ago when looking back on it would have been so useful to know for sure when something happened.

I did start one a few years ago, but couldn't get into the habit of journaling consistently, so gave up on it unfortunately.

I did realise though, in my short time of journaling, that I began to censor what I wrote. I wrote 'as if' someone close to me was reading it, because of course, eventually, they would do.
So my advice, if I was to give it, would be to just jot down something notable in your daily life, and the date, just for you own information if you need it someday, but not reveal your inner thoughts and feelings if you would wish to keep them private from others.

I do. I'm not truly honest - I've always got that thought in the back of mind, 'What if someone reads this'!

I've been keeping a diary on and off for a very long time. It's fascinating to read the old ones (reading about people and places you'd never have remembered).

It's also very cathartic to write about your day and feelings.

One way to get over the fear of being to open, is too journal in an art journal. Write first, and then paint/ collage over it. You have the catharsis of getting it out, and it still exists, but it is unreadable to others and to you, so you are not committed to it in the same way.

I'm glad it's not just me! I do like the idea of reading back over my life, but it's that fear of truly letting everything out an who might read it.

@Sajacas that's a good idea.

I suppose there are a number of ways of coding or concealing certain things, I hadn't thought of that.

I don't know if it counts as journaling

but last year during a severe health crisis, I started recording myself talking and then write down what id said as I felt it seemed to open up more to general letting it all out and then being able to dissect it

recently I have progressed to just writing a monologue/poem/couple of lines of something that just comes out of nowhere - i.e. sat on the bus, cooking dinner

and again I'm using it to explore my internal world a bit,

I have recently used these poems, with me in therapy, and have also shared some of them with a close friend, when i felt i didn't have the words to explain