Should You Consider Journaling?

By Susan “Honey” Good

I have a suggestion for you given to me approximately, five years ago. One day, I followed the advice of a talented author and writer who advised me, “Keep a journal for three months, and you will find your voice.” She suggested I take up journaling because I informed her I was looking for a new purpose. After all, I was bored with my activities. What I needed was a shift because I was bored, but I had no idea what to do. To this day I feel the experience was serendipity.

Her statement about, ‘finding my voice,’ hit me in such a positive manner. The words were so dramatic yet fanciful because after all who finds their voice by writing in a journal?

But, those words were the catalyst that began my new journey into the wonderful world of expressing one’s thoughts, not in sound, but in the silence of words.

Becoming dedicated to journaling was easier than I thought because I liked what I was doing. It was keeping a diary as an adult instead of a little girl. Oh, how I wish my mother had not thrown my diaries away after I left for college! Oh well, we rarely look back, darlings, right?

A tip: Try journaling

This writer has no idea —  unless she reads my musings and I suspect she might — that her advice gave me a powerful gift…I learned who Susan Honey Good, the woman with many subtitles, is. But, It did not take three months. It took almost five years. And, while I was writing, I had no idea that I was learning about myself. I never gave it any thought.

One glorious sunny morning, five years later, while in my rain shower in California with bougainvillea and orchids in view, I was suddenly struck with the realization of who Susan Honey Good was all about and a peacefulness that I have never known before flowed through my body. I felt so powerful knowing my strengths, my likes, my dislikes, my needs, my weaknesses, family member characters in depth, my fears, my realistic dreams, and my soul.

This happened because of a commitment to journaling that morphed into the website, HoneyGood.com. My site became an elaborate journal allowing me to continue writing my thoughts and you, my darling readers, became my reason to divulge them. I wanted to share because though we come from several different walks of life we, as women, have a commonality. We all bleed the same.

What journaling did for me

By doing this, without being aware, I exposed in personal details my life’s stories going back to my childhood days in Kankakee by the Sea. I was investigating my life history without realizing it.

There I would sit, at my computer, probing my mind, innocently, never realizing I was analyzing my relationship with my parents, grandparents, teachers, people I met who became teachers along life’s road, scary times, romantic times and bad times.

In these moments, I realized why my mom plays such an essential role in my life and how my father’s influence filled me with wisdom and how my grandfather, without a word, gave me the desire to be a curious adventurer.

With insight, I looked at what I learned through my harsh trials and major fears, mistakes along the way and disappointments, why I live on in a positive manner walking on the sunny side of the street. I always have seen the glass half full, and I think the reason might be because I believe there is an affirmative answer for every negative happening and when I am confronted with disappointment, I put on my thinking cap and…think, then do. I am a visible and viable woman, a bloomer, not a boomer.

How journaling helped make me fierce

A little over one year ago, I was chosen one of Chicago’s 50 Fierce Women over 50. With the award came an assignment. Nothing is easy, darlings. And very few of us gets something for nothing and for those that do, I hope they know the importance of gratitude.

I had to write why I am a Fierce Woman over 50. It took me hours to figure out how fierce I am. An entire weekend to be exact. I could not equate my womanhood with the word, fierce. I pondered and pondered for hours over what became the longest weekend.

It finally struck me, and when it did, the meaning of why I am so damn fierce, came to me in such a positive manner that I startled myself. I was so excited that I ran around my home yelling to my ultimate concierge, “I got it, I got it… I figured out why I am a fierce woman over 50.”

Within ten minutes I typed out, “Why I am Fierce!” To this day, I think it is one of the best of my musings. I know it has to do with my journaling.

We are all fierce women, darlings. In the last year, I have become more visible and powerful than I was a year ago. Why? Because I write my feelings down and Susan Honey Good, the woman, becomes clearer and clearer in my mind.

Is journaling for you?

I would love all of you to consider journaling. Your first entry should be why you are a fierce woman over 50. And take it from there.

There does not have to be any rhyme or reason, any pattern to your writing. I never new from day to day what I would write about.\

One day, you may write a story about an experience you had with a grand and the next day you might write about how you felt when you were the grand or why you love red lipstick and hate your thighs. It does not matter. Just write. Many of you will enjoy sharing your thoughts! Others won’t. Just remember, ‘if you do not try you will never know.’

My musings for Sunday’s story will be why I am a woman with MOXIE! I want to share my feelings because I know that every woman has a bit of MOXIE in her. Stay tuned. I am smiling.

Is journaling of interest to you? Please share your thoughts with me via Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram

Susan “Honey” Good is the founder of HoneyGood.com where this blog originally appeared. The site is a collection of lessons learned, life advice and insights from not only her, but from a fantastic group of contributing writers, each adding their own spice to the recipe. Honey Good.com representing “a family tree of women” — wives, mothers, daughters, granddaughters, mothers-in-law, daughters-in-law, sisters, aunts, cousins and girlfriends — coming together to talk about what makes them tick as well as what they have in common. Honey Good discusses life experiences with wisdom, humor and intellect, enabling all to attain a “Honey Good Style of Life.”