Keeping a journal is one the best ways for you to get to know yourself and to recognize your growth and change. Your journal is a personal record and a tool; treat it as such, and you will be surprised at how much enjoyment you may find in it along the way. Since the hardest part of journaling is getting started, the Journal Joggers are useful ways to get yourself going. Feel free to take off from there.

If you have never journaled, here are some helpful hints to get you started.

1. Try to set aside some time each day for your journal writing. The time of day will be important to you for two reasons: If you select an evening hour, you may find that you put emphasis on what you did or didn't do that day, you may analyze your actions more, and you can set goals for the next day. A morning journal session might let you identify stronger, short term goals which you can reach in the next twelve hours, and then record the next day, after some time for evaluation.

2. In the beginning, you may want to set a specific minimum time to write. Ten or fifteen minutes might seem like an eternity if you have never written before, but even if you put two words on the paper, spend the time you have set thinking about your question for the day. In a few days, you will be surprised at how quickly the time passes. And you can always have a longer session, or pick up the journal later in the day.

3. Write every day, if possible. One journal entry a week may not give you enough momentum to keep you going. Growth may come slowly, in increments that are difficult to see in one entry. However, if you note changes over a period of time, you may get a stronger sense of discovery. But again, don't treat your entries or lack of them, as something you 'failed' to do. This is a learning process, from the inside out, by yourself.

4. Don't worry about how you write or record your thoughts. Even if you only jot down key words, they are key for you and will remind you of your progress later on. No one else will ever see these notes unless you want them to, so treat your journal as your ideas made real. There will be some days you write a page or more; other days when ten words will seem impossible. There is no such thing as writer's block; the second you have put one word on paper, you have ended the block.

5. Don't worry if your journal appears as a list of words or ideas, rather than as an essay. Lists are the best way to throw out the excess thoughts and find out what it is you really want to think about, record or say. This journal is a tool, not a test, and you are learning that growth, whether it is emotional, spiritual or intellectual, will leave its mark on your writing.