Journaling for Men

I wanted to introduce journaling to a wider audience, and especially to men, because journaling can be your daily go-to self-awareness practice. It can effectively support your intention to identify and live your life purposes, improve your indwelling style (the way you inhabit the room that is your mind), and help you solve personal and professional problems. It can be the go-to way you use your mind, maintain daily awareness and take responsibility for your life. That’s a lot!

Journaling is “just” a certain sort of conversation that you have with yourself. But what a “just” it is! Having that conversation is you taking the time to consciously stop amidst your hectic day to ask yourself, “What’s on my mind?”, “What’s going on?” and “What should I be aware of?” It is a conscious, intentional stopping, one that signals that you intend to live wisely rather than blindly or impulsively. That you have done that stopping signals that you are on your own side and that you care about your own life. It is not about “doing a little writing.” It is about your abiding and honorable commitment to yourself.

It is a tenet of my philosophy that I do not get to arbitrate the meaning in your life. You get to decide what’s important and what’s meaningful. For instance, it may move you deeply to connect up nature and journaling and find a spot outdoors to write. Personally, I’d rather write in a bus station or a train station. But that’s just me! In this series of posts, I’d love to help you find your personal route to daily journaling.

We have been through trying times, individually, as a society and as a world. Those trying times are continuing and will continue. We have ongoing epidemics of sadness, anxiety, loneliness and isolation. The world has its enormous problems. Each individual is taxed to the limit and struggling to make sense of things. There is no “answer” to all of this.

But there are responses that we can make. We can take responsibility for our own thoughts and actions. We can put the world on our shoulders in our own small ways and lobby for justice, fairness and goodness. We can love, give comfort and occasionally smile. And we can endeavor to maintain courageous self-awareness by adopting practices that support awareness.

Journaling is one of those practices. It is not the only practice that you might adopt—but it is a great one. Let me tell you more about it in this series of posts. And if you’re a man who typically keeps things to himself in a tight, secretive way, this series is for you especially. You may find that you are dramatically helped physically, mentally, and emotionally by engaging in some daily self-reflective writing. Let me explain how in this series of posts which will follow on this blog.

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