Writing in a journal every day can be a great way to get in touch with your feelings, confront your worries, and recall all those wonderful and not-so-wonderful moments of life with your special-needs child. But as if finding the time to journal each day wasn't hard enough, finding the inspiration to keep it going can be nearly impossible. Here are five variations that can make daily writing easier or more interesting.
1. Use prompts to inspire journal entries
If you have trouble thinking of what to write in your journal, sites like
this one offer questions to ask yourself each day. Repeat those questions over and over, or come up with some of your own.
2. Make entries in a datebook
Get a desk calendar or other agenda book that has weekly spreads with a small space for each day. Write just a few sentences in each daily space about what's going on with you and your family that day -- events, an interesting conversation, something funny that happened, what you're feeling or worrying about. You don't have to write a lot to create a powerful record of your family life.
3. Write a weblog
Services like
Blogger make it easy and free to put your thoughts in the Internet, where other people -- whether just your immediate family or the entire Net at large -- can read and comment on them. Knowing you're writing for an audience can sometimes be a good motivator to keep making entries. If you have a weblog or start one now, please mention it in the
forum for this topic so we can all stop by and visit!
4. Commit to write one message a day on our message boards.
The
Parenting Special Needs Forum may often seem to be just a place to post problems, but it's also open for venting, inspirational thoughts, and everyday musings. There are other message boards all over the
About network, on a variety of topics. Whether you're posting to help someone with a problem or just to share your day, writing regular messages can have the same benefits as journaling and be an empowering way to feel useful and nurturing.
5. Commit to write one short e-mail a day
You don't always have to send a huge missive to keep friends and family members up-to-date about your life. A short note about a specific event, conversation or mood is a fun way to keep in touch. Set up a special folder in your e-mail program to store just those particular sent items. And look at that -- an instant electronic journal!
