Oh, absolutely, I agree. My bedside journal used to serve that purpose for me, giving me a place to organize my thoughts by having to express them. For me it’s easier to do that in writing than in speech, mostly because you have more time to choose and review your own words when you’re writing them. I’ve been writing less in my journal since I started blogging because now I use that forum to express myself.

Just the act of choosing words to speak or write makes us mindful of what we’re trying to say. Is there a word or words for what we’re thinking? If not, can we invent something? One thing about blogging, you anticipate having an audience for your words. Even if you don’t ;-), you’ll probably take a little more time when writing about particularly sensitive topics, or when you really want to get your point across.