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Journaling to Solve Problems
You need two things to solve a problem through journaling. One is complete privacy. The second is the willingness, knowing no other soul will ever see your writing, to be totally honest with yourself.
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Only then can you be totally truthful with yourself, writing down your actual feelings, no matter what. Only then can you ramble on for pages and pages, contradicting yourself, spelling things wrong, repeating yourself, expressing anger at someone you love, being completely irrational, writing "bad" things, going over uncomfortable incidents, praising yourself, making up "weird" things like having a dialogue with your problem, or writing a script in which you give your problem a name and the two of you talk about everything that makes up your relationship.
Group Therapy Online - Anonymously!Here's an awesome idea: your personal online journal that can be read and commented on by site members - but your name is always anonymous. This means you can get feedback from other people. Almost like group therapy. (Just delete any comments you get that are not loving or helpful and don't think twice about them.) Most of your comments will be caring, many will offer solutions you might not have thought of on your own. The Experience Project is a wonderful site for anonymous journaling that others can read and offer solutions or encouragement. And you can read about others' situations to gain insight into yourself as well. (http://www.experienceproject.com/index.php)
Keeping Hand-Written Diaries PrivateIf you live alone, just keep your paper journals out of range when company comes over or if you're having a party. It can be as simple as keeping the notebooks in your clothes closet, or under your bed. I strongly advise you not to take your journal out of the house unless you're in full control of your faculties, and know that you won't leave it at Starbuck's. I usually keep a small notepad in my purse, and just put "keywords" in it as the day goes by. Then in the evening I open my real journal, which is at home under the mattress, and use the day's keywords to prompt my entries. 
If you live with others, you've got to be creative in order to find a private storage location for old journals, PLUS a safe place to keep your current journal-in-progress. You need to be able to complain about your significant other and know your pages will always be for your eyes only. Anais Nin kept past diaries in a bank vault. Yes, really! Her current diary she kept on her person, often in her handbag. Of course you may be in the wonderful position of asking your housemates to respect your privacy and knowing that they will. That's great. But you'll find that there will be a part of you that will be afraid to open up completely when you write. It's just human nature. We need to have a hiding place where no one, not even your soul-mate who wouldn't look at your stuff anyway, can find them. Idea seeds: Underneath a huge stack of sheets in the linen closet; in a file drawer labeled "Taxes from 1965 to 1975"; in hollowed out books; on that high shelf in the kitchen above the fridge that no one can reach, even with a footstool, and no one even remembers it's there; in the bottom of your boring flannel pajamas drawer; in a locked section of your personal desk. Yep, get creative. You'll find a spot. Just Write It - Whatever It Is!The second step to solving problems through journaling is to get so deep down into your feelings that you start discovering new things about yourself. Once you notice something like that, you realize that you haven't been writing about recipes at all. You've been sending messages to yourself that you want to write about certain issues you have with your mother. Ah, the mind is creative and baffling. Through journaling, we hope to break through what we're ashamed of, embarrassed about, shameful of, overly proud of, frightened of, irrational about. We'll find these if we keep writing. And then our problems can start solving themselves. Learn How to Make An Abundance Collage
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There's no such thing as writers' block in journaling. You just pick up that pen or open that computer file, and let your fingers fly. You can write stupid stuff, boring stuff, you can complain and whine, you can have temper tantrums, you can role-play, you can fantasize, you can record and analyze your dreams, you can talk to God. You can re-tell the same event 20 times in a row (it will change with each telling - very interesting to re-read); you can go on and on about the weather. Eventually, as you keep writing about anything at all, you'll find yourself honing in on what's going to affect your life and your decisions. It's a process. You may be journaling recipes for a month, and upon re-reading them you notice that all the recipes from your mom have comments on them, like "Dad hated this one," "I hated that one," "Guests came over and no one ate the hors'd'oeuvres Mom made." Hmmm.
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