The Clear Ink

The clear ink is intimate.

It's what's implied in your journal, the implicit, the "there but unwritten".

It can be considered the body language of journaling.

It's the reason why you can look at an entry and empathize with your past self.

It's noticed in things like:

• Handwriting: Does it look focused? Rushed? Artful?

• Depth: Why did you choose to include (or exclude) so much detail?

• Tense: Did the entry focus on what happened or was it written in a present tense? (As if you were actively sitting with the feeling as you journaled).

• Divergence: How do you usually journal? How is this different from your norm? 

• Tone: What emotion is present?

• Length: Short and exhausted? Short and definitive? Long and venting? Long and discovering? What does the length suggest to you

• Frequency: How common does this type of entry appear?

• Pattern: What recurring themes do you see?

• Organization: If you have multiple journals what journal did you put it in?

• Negation: Are you declaring what is or are you noting what isn't? Does anything about that stand out to you?

The clear ink serves as a clue into who you were at the time that entry was written.

The clear ink might be in an entire journaling venture.

For example, I spent a few years journaling about emotions. On top of that, I had dedicated journals that centered specific emotional themes such as gratitude, self-compassion, or general positivity.

Today,

my journals center actions, strategy, and organizing my life's priorities.

The clear ink here is that I had deep emotional and spiritual needs a few years ago and spent quite a lot of time cultivating self love and healing. Today, that work is externalizing.