Journaling as a way to record and let go

hello computer

Hello there. Good week? Another tough one? Anything going on? I’ve spent time this week thinking about the past, present and future. I’m happy to announce I’ve solved time travel and I am out of this year. Cya pals! phwush … If only right?

A year ago I started this newsletter. Thank you for following along, for sharing, for donating via Ko-Fi, and for reading. 💜

It’s been a journey through the most complex year of my life. It got me thinking about other journeys I’ve been on over the years.

A year ago my wife and I were in Bruges and soon to be Amsterdam.
2 years ago we were in Croatia.
4 years ago we were looking forward to New York.
10 years ago I went on my first trip to Europe as a grown up.
10 years ago I got a Leica M6. Camera for life.
10 years ago I completed a 365 photo a day journal.

Journeys. That’s life right? Sometimes you don’t know you’re on a big one till you’re right in the middle of it. If you’d started a journal either picture or writing based at the start of this year it’s going to be an interesting record to look back on in 10 years time. My 365 photo journal started on my 31st birthday and accidentally documented the journey my wife and I took from friends to becoming a couple. I would never have started a journal to document that.

This newsletter started as a fun idea to share some thoughts and photos. Over the weeks it became clear that it was important to me to discuss mental health and autism. I throw in some photos to lighten the mood and make it a nice thing to look at even if the topic of conversation isn’t helpful that week. At the start I had no idea what a journey of discovery it would be. I’ve learnt a lot and hopefully through that process I’ve helped one or two people. Some standout issues are;

There was a real turning point one week where I overheard the phrase “Rubber duck debugging” on Limmy’s Twitch stream. It occurred to me that it is what I had been doing for the past few months with the newsletter. The idea of exploring a thought or problem with someone else, something else, to help process the issue. Programmers use it when they get stuck coding. They walk the issue through with a rubber duck and by having to explain it to a third party often bump into the solution because they are thinking about it differently. This newsletter became that for me.

On a Discord server someone wrote about how they were having family issues and that they deleted the replies they typed out to send instead of sending them. They found it cathartic. Users pointed out that that was basically journaling. Get the thoughts out your head. Explore them. Delete or save them somewhere for a later date. Don’t bottle them up inside you.

That inspired me to journal more in DayOne. The app has a widget that poses a question each day. You can also select from a template to get you thinking. There are many ways you can journal from venting about something that made you angry to writing a single sentence each day. I think it is important to journal in some way that is different and removed from social media.

The past year has been an interesting one and I’m glad I’ve been journaling more and making this newsletter. It’s helped me fall in love with writing. I enjoy being inspired by an idea and the journey that takes me on. It is very different to the immediate nature of photography. More importantly it has helped with my mental health. I’ve learnt so much because I’m taking the time to listen to what my brain is telling me it needs, research it and better understand mental health and autism.