Why I share my journals and my Hobonichi planners

I have been thinking a lot about why I share my journals and planners on Instagram regularly. What compels the sharing?

Early stage 2 journaling

Part of it has to do with my own journey into journaling and memory keeping. I looked everywhere to find someone using their paper in real life rather than staged or just art. I love art journals, I love stickers, I love the beautiful sketches and drawings that some people have the ability to complete. I wanted to see an example of something real that helped to run a life. While I love to look at the journal pages that are specifically done to showcase planner materials and pretty writing, there is a place for this in the gallery that is Instagram and I can get lost in looking at them, this is not my love. I love to see the daily journals, travel journals, hiking journals and the journals where one goes to dump all of the day-to-day stuff and to get clear and current on jobs and to help the journalist to get to their own best space, in the head and in the heart.



I found Brandice Schnable. She had her simple Moleskine weekly planner filled out and posted. It showed a bit of who she was as a person, that she struggled with weight, her Weight Watchers meetings were mentioned, her food was tracked, that she struggled with her work and loved it, too, that she loved her husband and spending time with him. She didn't mention any names or break confidentiality, but she talked about her work and maligned the same things I struggled with at that time, She was a counselor and I am a Nurse Practitioner. We have similar struggles in our work and even in our lives. I identified with her and she helped me find my journal. It did not have to be complete paragraphs of what I did that day, but could be a simple record and still be very compelling to me years later, as hers was to me when I read through it.


It was a perfect storm. I was reading a book by Tristine Rainer called The New Diary, which discusses the ways to use journaling to help us find our center, The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, and Artist's Journal Workshop by Cathy Johnson, which is when I found Brandice, a current journalist who used her journal in many of the ways Tristine discussed. I won't share any of Brandice's content as she has moved past the stage in her life where she shares these things (she found her best life, I like to think I was able to witness part of that process in her journals). I want to do the same thing Brandice did for me for others looking to journal a life. Tracking, setting intention, finding the best path to follow, all of it. Including art if it is what I need that day.

So began a new journey for me. I began with simple daily records, a blank journal and gave myself permission to write, draw, paint, dump all the clutter in my brain on the page, learn to write well in a compelling voice that I could read later and remember fondly as part of my daily life. I don't know if I got there, I still don't know if I am there, but I do know my journal is a slice of my everyday and I hope that someone else can be inspired by it to keep a little bit of their daily life in reserve. To own the day, to figure out where they want to go and to find their own voice.

Current journaling in my A5 Hobonichi Cousin

IG is @bejennie2