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For many people the word "journaling" is mentally the same as keeping a diary - and diaries are for little kids. But journaling is more; it has structure, timelessness, and is unique to everyone who writes in one. They are not for little kids, as many journal writers can attest.

Also, there are many different titles one could give a journal. It could be a health journal, every-day accounting of life, fitness journal, dating journal, and so forth. It also helps if one gives it a title.

A dating journal might be facetiously titled "Oh My Dear Heart!" A daily journal could be "A Day In The Life Of An Extraordinary Woman" [or Man]. A fitness journal could be "The Best Of The Best". Yet one should never choose a title that is negative. Negative titles get under one's skin after a while,defeating the purpose.

Keeping track of one's thoughts on any given subject is very freeing: If a person, for instance, is tired of family members nagging him/her to lose weight, s/he can write that they should bug off, plus what s/he would say back if given the chance.

When I was trying to lose weight, my husband nagging me made me so angry. I wish I had known about journaling back then, but tracking my thoughts and life experiences didn't occur to me until I was diagnosed with cancer, in January 2007. I know my life is extraordinary enough - and having cancer makes me mad enough - to warrant a journal to start with.

There are days when I'm too fatigued to write more than "too tired to write today", but there are other days when I pen page after page of how my life since 2007 has changed.

I have entries full of sadness, and poetry that reflects that; entries where I saw three baby hummingbirds at my butterfly bush, even small snippets of silliness.

Writing at the end of one's day is also important, because it lets a person get it all out when it's quiet, and others are asleep. It's relaxing to write then - like having a fabulous, warm back rub, or listening to gentle rain. It is also a time of reflection if that's what one wants. My house is comforting that time of day.

The best part of keeping a journal is more than mere words on paper; it is opening a stress valve that's gathered steam all day; it's more than thoughts on whatever the theme is [a fitness journal, etc], it is a chronicling of how one feels from day to day. Such as below:

January 29th, 2007

Since being diagnosed I am SO mad, I just want people to leave me alone. They haven't got a clue how hurt I feel,

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