<story><title>How to Keep a Journal</title><url>http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/07/15/how-to-keep-a-journal/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Fraterkes</author><text>This is what I find appealing about journaling, but I just find the thought that someone might find mu journal and read all my thoughts over the years kinda scary. Do you do anything to protect your journal?</text></item><item><author>DarkTree</author><text>When I started journaling, I promised myself that I would be honest with myself, because the purpose of journaling was to chronicle what I was thinking at that time in my life. I not only write out moments that stand out in that day, like things that went wrong or went well, but how I feel about those events. Most of the time this revolves around my interactions with people, or lack of interactions with people. I also write about what I am especially grateful for that day, what I&amp;#x27;m looking forward to, and what I&amp;#x27;m doing today to get me there. It is a very cathartic experience to go back months&amp;#x2F;years later and read it. You get such an insight into the person you were, but more notably, realize that you do actually change over time even if sometimes it doesn&amp;#x27;t feel like it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tgb</author><text>I sometimes write in encrypted files through vim for this reason. :X does the trick.&lt;p&gt;It feels juvenile to hide it when I know no one will care, but the idea that it can be entirely personal opens the option to being more honest. Future self can still be judgemental, but the only way to avoid that is to pipe it to &amp;#x2F;dev&amp;#x2F;null instead.</text></comment>
<story><title>How to Keep a Journal</title><url>http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2016/07/15/how-to-keep-a-journal/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Fraterkes</author><text>This is what I find appealing about journaling, but I just find the thought that someone might find mu journal and read all my thoughts over the years kinda scary. Do you do anything to protect your journal?</text></item><item><author>DarkTree</author><text>When I started journaling, I promised myself that I would be honest with myself, because the purpose of journaling was to chronicle what I was thinking at that time in my life. I not only write out moments that stand out in that day, like things that went wrong or went well, but how I feel about those events. Most of the time this revolves around my interactions with people, or lack of interactions with people. I also write about what I am especially grateful for that day, what I&amp;#x27;m looking forward to, and what I&amp;#x27;m doing today to get me there. It is a very cathartic experience to go back months&amp;#x2F;years later and read it. You get such an insight into the person you were, but more notably, realize that you do actually change over time even if sometimes it doesn&amp;#x27;t feel like it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Posibyte</author><text>Inside the front cover of my journals, I have written &amp;quot;You wouldn&amp;#x27;t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I snatched that from GoodQuotes. I&amp;#x27;m no poet, but I feel like it carries a lot of truth. If somebody wanted to rob my house, if all of my most private thoughts and truths were stacked on the coffee table in the front room, they would still make off with my TV, and those books would still be sitting there when I came back to the aftermath.</text></comment>