Thru Jim's Eyes 
Buying A Journal
If you have been to my website and watched my video blogs then you know my tag line, “I believe a life worth living is a life worth journaling. That’s why I am here.” When someone first proposed the idea of journaling to me I said, “That’s what little girls do.” They write in their diary all the little events of their day. They talk about how Little Billy looked at her or Susie pulled her hair today. Blah, blah, blah.
My eyes have been opened and the truth of knowledge and wisdom have illuminated the catacombs of my ignorance. I now understand why girls keep diaries, whether it was conscious training or not. Everyone knows females are more emotional creatures than males, at least in our species. When any of us form a thought, it goes into our brain from the base of our brain near our spinal cord. That thought travels to the limbic system, the emotional part of our brain. This is where it gets interesting. For females the thought tends to stick around in the limbic system. For males the thought, generally speaking, continues on to the frontal lobe, the logical part of our brain (paraphrased from the book Emotional Intelligence 2.0). This is why females tend to be more sensitive and be more connected to their emotions. Males, on the other hand, tend to be less emotional and more detached. It takes training for most men to feel their emotions, but sometimes we too get stuck in them. Especially the negative emotions. It doesn’t help that the American society tends to discourage men from feeling their feelings. As I was saying, it makes sense that girls were socialized to keep a diary, or journal. It has been proven that when we stay in our emotions, if the emotions are strong enough, we have difficulty getting out of that emotional state, because we see no logical way out. This is where fight or flight mentality becomes evident.
Remember a time when you had a very strong emotional state. It may have been anger, rage, envy, jealousy, resentment, obsession, etc. Yes, the negative emotions tend to sick around for a while. Remember how long that feeling stuck around. What did you do to dissipate that negative feeling? I mention fight or flight because it is a perfect example of being stuck in a negative emotion. We all know the saying, “paralyzed by fear.” When our thought patterns get stuck in our limbic system and we recognize it, I say journal it. When we journal our thoughts, especially our emotions, we can move those thoughts to the logical part of our brain, the frontal lobe, and find a way out of a negative non-empowering state.
I use journalling to deepen my connection to my positive emotions as well as move out of the negative emotions. Journalling allows me to elucidate others, to share my thoughts and feelings at a depth that my mind may not have been able to find on it’s own. These are some of the reasons I say, “buy a journal.” Years from now when you are looking back on your life you may decide you want to publish your memoirs or maybe your grandchildren will gain a better sense of identity by reading your life in your words not through the filter of their parents. This is the legacy that any of us can pass on. This also allows you to look back on your life and see if you have lived a life worth living. If you feel you have not, you still have the rest of your days to fix that problem. So get going and live and journal your life.
Aloha, James Christopher
ThruJimsEyes.com
Thru Jim's Eyes 
Very well said, James! As a man prone to dwelling on my negative thoughts far longer than is healthy, I have recently started journaling my thoughts. I have travelled extensively throughout my life and, while doing so, always kept notes of my experiences. This thing of logging my emotions and thoughts is new to me. However, I find it has helped me a great deal. aloha e ~