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One of the deepest fears people have about keeping a journal is having their privacy violated.
And rightly so. For most of us, privacy ensures safety. And only in a space of complete safety can we allow ourselves to be vulnerably honest. Journal-writing is valuable only to the degree we are willing to honestly explore ourselves and our most precious desires.
Whether you’re hiding your notebook, or password-protecting your computer, how can you be sure that your journal is secret? Jayde Gilmore and I discuss our tips and tricks (while also revealing some embarrassing phases of of our own paranoia!) for maintaining privacy, on this episode of JournalTalk Q&A.
Your turn to answer: Do you ever worry someone is reading your journal? How do you keep your journal private? Or, are you okay with your journal being an “open book”? Post your responses at the bottom of this webpage, in the comments section.
You may email your own journaling question to be featured on a future episode of JournalTalk. Or, pick up the telephone and leave a voicemail with your question at 1-805-751-6280. When your question is featured, we will send you a thank-you gift for sharing your voice! (JournalTalk Q&A, Episode #35, November 24, 2015)
Credits:
Audio Editing: Netrix Marketing
Music: Pond5.com
Voiceover: Thomas Gerrard
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I feel secure enough with a digital journal, but when something is really weighing heavily on my heart, putting pen to paper is usually the only way I find relief. Unfortunately this kind of journaling is most vulnerable to prying eyes, so I use shorthand which I learned in high school.
Dear Pam, thanks for the tip about using “shorthand” or some kind of secret code. I also shared a few of my favorite in this episode: writing in RED means the “opposite” of what I wrote, or using keywords that indicate a person or emotion.
To keep my journal private, I created a locked file on my computer that is password protected. Of course this only applies to computer generated journal entries. I gave up writing by hand when I accidentally left one of my journals on an airplane many years ago.
Wow, Madeline. I can imagine the panic of leaving a journal on an airplane … and having it disappear to who-knows-where! Hopefully you were flying “friendly skies” and the person who found it had a way of keeping it safe for you! I can see how that would turn you toward keeping an electronic journal!
I would keep the journal private by making settings on my account that only myself and those I share my posts with would be able to read the content I have written in it. Only when someone chooses to follow my posts printed on my account user-page will get the privilege to read the comments I enter on the page. I use a screen name when I post the comments so that people who want to read what I am printing on the page don’t get to know the actual name of the person holding the account unless they follow me.