How to Protect Your Privacy in Your Journal

Your journal is meant to be a safe place to vent; to say whatever you want to say with NO filter.

But fear of someone reading what we write can stop us from being completely honest and transparent with ourselves.

Protecting our privacy is SO important. You deserve a space where you feel safe to be vulnerable and process your thoughts and emotions without fear or shame

Here are a few ways you can protect your privacy:

1. Use a spiral notebook

   You can have a separate spiral notebook for times when you want to share something that feels a little more personal that you would like to keep private. When you're finished writing, simply rip out the page and tear it up (or burn it in a safe environment). For an added bonus, you can place different shreds of paper in different garbage bins to ensure no one will read it.

   
   

2. Cover your writing with cardstock/decorative paper or stickers

   If there's a small sentence or paragraph, or, if you want to keep the page inside your journal to avoid ruining the notebook, you can use sticker paper, cardstock, or stickers to decorate the page and cover up your writing. For this, I highly recommend using things that are sticky enough that if someone were to peel it off, it would ruin the writing underneath and make it illegible for added assurance that no one will be able to read what you wrote even if they tried.

3. Use a confidential stamp

   If it's a large area inside a notebook you can use a confidential stamp like this one: https://a.co/d/961i6Gr to cover up the writing. This will make the writing so that people can't read it. Of course, depending on your notebook, you can also use a black marker or sharpie pen to cross things out!

   

   
   

4. Use a digital app like notes or Goodnotes that can have your documents password protected.

   The main issue with the solutions above is that it makes it so that you can't reread your entries. Of course, some of these entries may be something you might not care to reread, but if being able to reread your journal entries later on in life is important to you, you can store your entries digitally in an app that allows you to password protect your journal!

   
   

5. Use a Cashbox/Lockbox/Safe

   You can also get some sort of lock box where you can lock your journal inside and keep the keys hidden so people will not be able to get into the box to read your journal. You can hide the box in your closet or under your bed and keep the keys on your person. This is another good option if it's important to you to be able to reread your entries.

Leave a comment below if you have any other tips!