Journals: Write to Forget, Write to Remember

Most journal keepers write entries to remember events or people. You had a wonderful evening. You write it down so you’ll never forget. And when you need to know, it’s there. You keep track of books and movies you love, make lists of MP3s you want to buy, and the list is there to work with when you need it.

There is another side to journal-keeping: Writing to Forget

Journal-keeping is wonderfully healing. You write down your anger, and your anger stays on the page. You write down the detailed background of how you got hurt, and the hurt is eased. Journal writing helps you forget, move on, forgive, ease up. On others, on yourself.

How can writing help you both remember and forget? Writing is a creative activity, and the act of forming words carefully, with a pen, creates a reaction between your brain and hand that lets you think through the emotional impact and deal with it. I’m not sure it works the same way on a keyboard, it may.

Writing helps you forget, because you can vent on the page, have an emotional reaction, examine your (and the other person’s) motives, and move on. You decide what to take with you as you move on.

When you write down to remember, something similar happens. (List making is different, it records items.) You vent in a different manner, and take a different set of memories with you.

Journal prompt: What can you let go of that you no longer need to remember?
–(c) Quinn McDonald, 2008. All rights reserved. Image: Japanese Netsuke, ca. 1890.