I know, I know, everyone and their therapist is telling us to journal these days. When it comes to mental health hygiene, journaling is the next big thing, the secret to everything, the One Twue Way!

Truth to tell, it’s handy sometimes, and sometimes it’s a burden. One thing at QueerCoven that you must remember: we will speak the truth, even when it’s not popular, or when it violates the social contract (but I promise, we will not be cruel).

If your therapist wants you to journal, then please follow their advice. You went to them for help, so do the work, and get the help, so you can get better. This essay is more for those of us who are on a maintenance plan (or who are getting yelled at by our peers and by social media to "Journal Already!!"

Me saying that journaling is a burden does violate social manners. Saying something that is supposed to be the Very Best Thing Evah is ridiculous, but when it comes to managing our mental health care, journaling is usually treated as something that needs to be on your top five daily to do list:

1. Take your Meds,

2. Meditate

3. Journal

4. Yoga

5. Profit??

Admitting that meditation and yoga and journaling aren’t saving your life is hard to do. Especially when you’re the sort of person that your HeadWitch appears to be (you know, a White woman)* All that “wellness” stuff is supposed to work when you’re a White woman, especially if you’re not obviously poor… right? Otherwise, what’s wrong with me that it doesn’t work?

Of course, nothing is wrong with me, or you, if journaling isn’t the best thing to ever happen to you. YOu have to figure out the best thing for your mental hygiene. You have to figure out what you have to do to be the best you, the best Witch, the Best Person you can be.

I do journal, and I do recommend it. I like to scribble in a little notebook with a tree on it that I bought from Peter Pauper Press (https://www.peterpauper.com/)** I even chose a random list of “Journaling Prompts” as a way to give me something to think about before I spend 5 minutes writing.

But, I don’t do it every day. I might not journal for a month at a time, then scribble for a week or two in a row, then nothing. I do it when I feel that I need that extra reflection time. I do it when I want to, not because I’m supposed to. There is the difference.

For many Witches, we have a Book of Shadows (note, your HeadWitch does not have a BoS, she’s not organized enough to write it all down in one place but hopes this website will help). Traditionally (queue spooky music and shouts of “Actually!!”) the BoS was handwritten by the witch who used it, copied from their mentor’s book, and added to as the witch saw fit. It was part spell book, part herbalist, part bestiary, part dream journal, part shopping list. Basically, it was a catch-all for all things witchy.

I can definitely see why there’s so much pressure to keep a journal of your witchery. I can see why journaling would be helpful for most of us as we manage our everyday mental drain. I think that’s why bullet journals are so popular now. They’re lists and lists and notes and stuff. THey seem super complicated to me, and so I don’t have one. But maybe in the future.

The idea that writing out our thoughts every day and noting our mental state, or trying to use journaling as a way to meditate and “heal ourselves holistically”, or whatever new woo thing makes a little bit of sense, right? Eat good, exercise, be mindful of yourself and your place in the Universe, write down good and bad things to process them, feed your cat, go to bed, get up and repeat.

Too bad it’s not that easy, and for many mental illnesses (like depression, anxiety, and OCD) being forced to journal every day for “Good Reasons” can be crippling! For those of us with depression, it’s too big, it’s this weight, one more thing we have to check off our list of Impossible Things. For those of us with anxiety, it’s a panic-inducing show-stopper in a literal sense, and the “I cannot physically do that thing” without panic attacks. For those of us with OCD, or the like, the need for ritual and perfection can be overwhelming, to the point of paralysis.

So, if you can manage to scribble, scribble. If you can’t, that’s cool too!

Because the QueerCoven is not Traditional, we believe that your journal is your business. You probably could have a notebook or something like it for working through things. Your Witchery To Do lists, the symbols that recur in your dreams, fun little poems or “spells'' or whatever. But you don’t have to write it out. You can use your phone’s note app, or write it on your doc program.

Don’t think of journaling as a Thing You Must Do. It’s something that can be a tool or can be an anchor-- in the QueerCoven, we remove anchors that keep us from growing, and reach only for tools. Also, please remember: Don’t do something because a website says you must, especially a wellness website. You’re a grown-ass adult (or getting there) and you can figure out your best path. QueerCoven is hoping to be a resource, a repository of ideas and things. It is not a guru, a Buddha, a Leader. We’re still working to figure it out ourselves, and hopefully, we can all figure it out together.

* The HeadWitch is a White, liberal, tattooed and pierced woman. However you can’t see that I’m genderqueer by looking at me. I looks a little femme and a little masc, depending on the day. I do have it easier than my trans and enby siblings, and I know it. Perception though, says I’m a middle-class White woman.

**As of 26 May 2022, they are temporarily stopping online ordering while updating their fulfillment process. I’ll check back and update when I see that it’s back to normal.