Why you should start video-journaling

I started video journaling in 2020 or 2021 when I was just too down in the dumps to be bothered to write in my journal, everything felt so overwhelming that I did not even know where to start writing, and I just wanted someone to talk to. I had picked up writing in a journal just before my video-journaling. Handwriting in the journal itself was a bit cathartic for me. I liked to see my cursive pen in the book and I liked the feeling of having a pen that wrote smoothly over the notebook pages. I had thought to start keeping an electronic journal because the handwriting was definitely taking a toll on my poor hand, plus it was pretty time consuming, but never made the swap. I made the one video journal to myself when I was feeling super low and then did not make another for a long time – going back to my hand written journal. At some point I went back to watch the original video and my heart broke for the woman crying in the video.

I liked being able to see the person I was in that video and see those raw emotions. I decided to take up video journaling again as I was leaving my relationship and going through the bs experiences with lawyers, police, loss of my baby, the Army, my husband’s commander, my own family.

These most recent video-journals have been really eye-opening for me. It is a great benefit to be able to look back at a video-journal I made just a month earlier. Remember, “hindsight is 20/20” and being able to see what it is I was so upset about in that moment and how I let that one experience live in my future actions and beliefs was amazing and helpful. For example, I may have made a video where I talk about a difficult time I was having with my parents and felt they were toxic for me. I would then let that belief of them being “toxic” play a part in future interactions and discussions with them. Being able to come back and rewatch that video when time has lowered emotions and provided clarity – I can see that an action my parents made was not toxic or hateful and I can edit the narrative I was creating about them for future interactions. What a great way to be able to mature and grow.

On top of being able to review situations with the passing of time and without the in-the-moment emotions, it also allows me see an outside view of how I was experiencing those moments so much more clearly than if they were words on paper. The journey is just wild to look back on in video – those raw, RAW and REAL emotions!

Lastly, my video journals were my friend. In the beginning – I couldn’t talk to anyone because I knew that what was happening in my home was not okay, and that if I told anyone, they would tell me that and tell me I needed to leave. I loved my husband. I did not want to leave my husband. I wanted my husband to be better and I believed fully that he could be a decent, adult, human-being and that I was strong enough to weather the storm it took for him to get himself there. Later, I used them because this entire situation seemed absurd and was/is humiliating. The last thing I wanted (and still want) to do is let people know that I was in this situation; and, to try and explain what was going on sounded like a Jerry Springer episode. Making a video – I am talking to another person in the lens, and I am going back and listening to myself in those moments, and I am feeling sympathy for that woman, and love, and empathy, and desire for a better situation for her, and belief in her that there will be a better future and she will get there.

So, I recommend that you do begin video-journaling to have a confidant, to be able to re-evaluate situations, to get things off your chest, to be able to look at yourself from the outside and have compassion for yourself. I pay extra for the extra cloud storage in order to make these videos, but I would recommend you make a YouTube channel where you can store your videos. Videos on your channel can be made private, so that only you can see them. My written articles for this blog – I email them and any images used to myself via a yahoo account so that I don’t have to store those documents on my laptop – they are being stored for free by Yahoo.

Here is an article by Psychology Today on benefits of Video Journaling and some prompts to get you started and going. And if you are creative, you could edit your videos to include current clips of yourself reviewing your original entry, along with other visuals with advice. Your videos could go to help others.