I have been journaling since a little girl and my daughter will inherit a huge pile of my life written down. Even with Meniers I continue to write and record my daily life. It is great for stress relief and a pile of fun if you also illustrate your books. I write with fountain pen and a cup of tea beside me and somehow it is a special time of reflection. And, a really wonderful help with anxiety. Any other folks who journal out there? ...Janny
I never have and never will keep a journal--I do not want anyone reading my thoughts and feelings after I am dead. I am very uncomfortable with that.
Janny. That's super cool. It takes discipline. I try and write a small paragraph of what happened each day. And include bits of conversation. I do it just because I see older people forgetting their life. Either through natural memory loss or dementia. So I do it just as a record, so I don't forget my life. I'm not diligent about it, so write only once every week or two. I write a lot in code. Because twice people have read my journals. When I was about 12. And again in college. When I was 12 I had a friend who was 2 years older and very big, strong and bullyish. We were in my bedroom and he saw my journal on the bedside table. I remember desperately struggling with him on the floor to take it away from him. I'd written a few bad things about him in it. Really bad. He won. I left my house. And sat on a nearby curb until he came out of my house. That's the last we ever talked. He lived across the street. I feel awful to this day about what he read. But, what an immense bastard for him to do that to me. It was good in a way to be done with him. The time in college was with a girlfriend who was mad at me. Maybe I'd broken up with her...can't recall. Anyway she read my journal and later told me about it. She said she could barely understand it. Hah. That's because I'd learned from when I was 12, and wrote the private parts in code. It's a great thing that you're doing. Very useful to historians. I'm big on World War II. Really enjoy soldiers journals they made during the war. My mom likes reading frontier women diaries from the 1800's.
I journal, but most of it is just getting the brain barf out of my head. Some of it is working out more positive thoughts, to do lists, etc. I keep a second much shorter notebook with helpful stuff I’ve learned from self help books, spiritual readings etc and just life lessons. I also started a gratitude journal a few months ago. I’ve been meaning to throw out my brain barf journals - I also fear they contain stuff that might hurt someone- really unnecessarily because once it’s on paper I usually feel better and it’s not such a problem anymore.
Hi Pupper, oh it is good to meet another person who journals. There are many reasons to journal but the most important one is to leave my children a part of me when I am gone. For me personally it is not always a daily thing as my life gets rather dull at times but I make note of world events as well as observations and quotes of interest. I illustrate parts of the pages sometimes to add a bit of variety and so they are not too boring. And I really feel it gives this old lady something to do along the road of life. Great fun and a great way of expressing oneself. Thanks for sharing your experiences. I certainly understand the reason for code as you have in a way been violated by the snoopers. Yes those letters and journals from the soldiers interest me also as well as the women settlers who came from Europe to the new world. Their journals and letters are simply a window into another time. At the moment I am reading "The Back Woods of Canada 1836" by Catherine Parr Traill. They are letters she wrote to her mother of her coming and settling in Canada. Definitely a glimpse backwards to a simple way of living. So keep writing ...it is a wonderful harmless past time and brings such joy....Janny
Hi Anne journaling for me has been very therapeutic but one journal most of all helped me. My daughter passed from cancer 4 year ago followed by my sister a year later. I started a grief journal after my daughter passed to express my pain. People don't know what to say when they know someone you loved has "gone" but a journal page will listen to every word for as long as you want. I expressed all my emotion for both the loved ones that were gone from my life. I drew out my pain on paper and simply made it part of getting through the grief and to the place of coping better. For me expression of emotion needed to be heard and the pages and pen were my healing companions. It doesn't have to always be positive. Some of what I wrote in that book definitely were not but it was an aid for me when the long days and nights of pain crowded in and blanketed me. Journaling has been for me an accompaniment through my life. I am sure glad that you do it too....Janny
Yes I am in Canada, I just moved to Alberta from BC. My violent attack of Meniers just as I was finishing a house selling transaction. I was in bed ill for 10 days and still had packing to do to get over here. It was a total nightmare. But I am here now and close to my daughter and grandsons.
I ask because there's a curious amount of people here from Canada, and goodly portion of them from Alberta. My thesis contends that Meniere's sprang from the Menimurple plant found in southwest Alberta. A variety of poison mushroom.
I only just moved to Alberta. I lived in BC when I got my first major attack and I have prelude events to it for years. I can't agree with your thesis as it doesn't work in my case and also because others from around the world have suffered and do suffer and they are no where near Alberta.
How did you come up with that? It makes no sense at all to me. How can a poisonous plant cause harm unless it is handled or ingested in some manner? Then there is the fact that there are people all over the world who suffer from Meniere's.
It speads first through direct contact with murple, then through human contact with those infected. We're talking centuries.
To speak on Pupper's behalf, frivolously, I presume. Silver dolls never conflate plants with mushrooms absent a stitched & crooked smile.
I’ve been keeping a journal for a few months now. At first, I hated it. Then, I started looking forward to writing. It’s like confiding or talking to a close friend.