While it is relatively easy these days to record and post the daily wonderful goings-on of your fun-filled life through social media, some may find it difficult to note the negative.  Not that there aren’t plenty of folks spewing negativity on the internet; this type of negative posting is, often times, just as exaggerated as the positive events.

As soon as you begin having difficulty in your marriage, or, if you are already divorced, difficulty with your ex over visitation, support, and the like, write it down.  A contemporaneously kept journal or diary is one of the most effective tools to help you put events into perspective and/or refresh your memory when/if you find yourself under oath, giving testimony.

Keeping a journal can help with counseling and therapy as well as litigation.  By journaling, you increase the chances that the professionals you hire to help you through these difficulties will be able to get you where you want to go.  Over time, we all modify our memories of events.  We create and delete details.  It’s part of being human and having a brain.  However, if you write down what happened as soon as possible thereafter, it is more likely that you will have an accurate depiction of the events in question when it really counts.

Journaling helps you keep the proper perspective.  If you don’t keep a record, your mind is free to bend, shape and mold the facts, as you remember them in a way that supports whatever narrative you’ve chosen as most desired.  The stories that we tell ourselves sound really good in our minds.  It has been my experience, however, that those same stories sound markedly different when we have to tell them out-loud and under oath.

Write it down, take pictures, keep documents.  When it’s your turn to take the stand, you’ll know that your words are the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

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