Task 2a: Initial thoughts...

Journal writing. Any excuse to go to tkmaxx and browse rows upon rows of pretty diaries and pen sets (mild obsession with stationery!) But what to write? where do I begin?

When I was in my first year at college I suffered with depression quite badly and one of the techniques that helped me get my head around my emotions and everything I was feeling was keeping a diary. I read it back recently after graduating and although I couldn't bring myself to bin it, it will be a very long time before I read it again. Not only was a journal a massive help to me by clearing my head and allowing me to make sense of my thoughts, I could also use it to keep a note of good days and bad days. As I began 'treatment', I could clearly see my mood changes and any dips I had through what I had written down. As a reflective tool, my diary allowed me to see how far I had come and my progression on the road to feeling myself again, and whenever I had a 'down day' I would look back and remember what I had already got through as encouragement. 

To begin this section of the module I read extracts of  'new directions for adult and continuing education' by David Boud, in which chapter one is entitled 'Using journal writing to enhance reflective practice' I found the whole chapter extremely enlightening and was comforted as I read, as his words backed up my initial ideas on the subject of journal writing.

'Journal writing can be viewed through many different lenses: as a form of self expression, a record of events, or a form of therapy.' This quote instantly hit me as being highly significant in  my current understanding of the benefits of keeping a diary.

'This perspective views the various forms of journal writing as ways of making sense of the world and how we operate within it. Journal writing can be used to enhance what we do and how we do it.'  Reading this cleared a lot of confusion I had in regards to the purpose of writing a diary in regards to professional practice. By writing out my days events, for example an audition, I can look back on what I did and critique myself in order to do better next time, allowing me to develop as a practitioner though reflection.

Being able to reflect is a very powerful tool no matter what you are trying to achieve and having read other peoples blogs in which they talk about reading their teenage diary for this task and being mortified by their 16 year old thoughts, it is clear that journals are a great format to explore reflective practise, no matter what the end goal. I look forward to reading other peoples initial thoughts on diary writing, and as always and feedback is welcome!

LL x