| It was Seneca, opening up his journals after his wife went to sleep. Or sitting down to write a letter to Lucillius from his country estate. It was Marcus Aurelius, in his army tent in the mornings, jotting down the words that would become Meditations. It was Anne Frank, clutching the little autograph book her parents had given her for her 13th birthday, losing herself in the pages, even as terrible danger lurked outside. The types of journals they used differed. So did their writing styles. So did their circumstances, ages, and feelings. But what they shared, what they agreed on was what the process of reflection did for them, what the practice brought out of them. Clarity. Peace. Insight. There are passages in Meditations that contradict each other. If Anne Frank had lived (and it's worth noting she'd only be 94 years old this year), she might cringe at some of the things she wrote as a teenager. "It helps to write it down," goes the song lyric, "Even when you then cross it out." That's the thing about journaling—done properly, it's a safe space. It's a place to work stuff out. To vent. To be wrong. To call yourself out. To just think out loud. It's the doing it, whatever it is, that matters. It's making time for it that matters. Being vulnerable enough to do it is what matters. You find your own way. You find your own style. You get your own benefits. But only if you do it.
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