Magic Writing: Why I keep coming back to my Journal.

Written by Emily Hohnke - Clinical Psychologist & Writer

I’ve been journalling before I could write. ‘Magic writing’ is what my dad called it. I would squiggle and squiggle across the page, feelings of admiration and awe at my own handiwork. Satisfied, I’d leave the page and purple gel pen, rubbing my hands together after the hard day’s work. 

I still think journalling is magic writing. Brewing your dreams, your aspirations, your fears, your insecurities onto pages that will always keep your secrets. There is no better wing woman than a journal. 

I read an article on Substack earlier this year that stated the most charismatic people are those that don’t demand anything from you. In this case, a journal is the most charismatic person you can ever be in relationship with. It allows us to write “fuck you!” in the midst of a fight with our partner, and then deeply express our love for them in the next entry. It lets us change our mind, change ourselves - the witness to our constant evolution and regression. 

There is a psychological framework called Narrative Therapy. It is the idea of rewriting your story in a way that empowers and strengthens the core of who you are. Instead of only seeing the bad parts of ourselves, we can ask – what does it say about a person who has been through that and is still here? What does it say about a person who can sit in the shit and still have hope? In our journals, we get to be the narrator and the main character. The author and the mystery. 

Sometimes my journal gets forgotten in the midst of my main character moments. But she is always there, ever loyal, to help me make sense of it all. She reminds me of who I’ve been and who I can be. She reminds me that I’ve felt this way before, and I’ve survived it. 

So go to your beloved journal, and spill out who you are in this moment, knowing that nothing can ever remain the same (so why not capture yourself now?) And some day, you will have a stack of journals of past lives. Past versions of yourself, asking the same questions to the universe, with the ultimate wing woman by their side.