When it comes to sitting down to write in your journal it’s easy to list the activities & events that fill your busy life. Yet, often the best reason to sit and write is to focus on how you are feeling. Your journal is not a passing acquaintance. When it comes to how you’re feeling your journal does not expect a short “okay” kind of reply. Your journal has pages and pages waiting to be filled with the long, detailed, perhaps boring answer. It’s ok to be all these things in your journal. That’s the point of writing in there …read more

While writing in my journal today in one of my favourite cafes, one of the waitresses made a comment how I am always writing. She told me I needed a laptop computer. Of course, I would love one, but not for my journal writing. I’d simply love to be more mobile about the house and my day with my work writing. I didn’t get a chance to explain all this to her, though. She was far too busy working.
When it comes to keeping a journal I’m a big fan of encouraging people to do whatever works for them. If …read more

Continuing on yesterday’s topic about making Real Resolutions I read a great article on resolutions that backs up everything I said and more. Read Expert urges commitment and setting realistic goals to succeed to gain a fuller picture of how you can make resolutions for this year that will work for you. I suggest setting up a specific goal or project journal as a great way to measure your success with your goals for 2009. Please leave any comments in the section below.
Heather
Image used with permission from stock.xchng

It’s that time of year when people start thinking about naming resolutions to make for the coming new year. I know what usually happens around our place when it comes to resolutions, most likely the same thing that happens to your resolutions; they go nowhere. Good intentions are a great place to start, but this is where most resolutions end. So, how do we get ourselves over that obstacle of intent & turn it into action?
I believe your journal holds the key. The end of the year is a perfect time to spend rereading your journal, in particular this past …read more

Reflective journal writing isn’t very difficult to start. Use any of the journal writing prompts supplied in this blog, a quote, a photo or famous painting. It could be something you overheard or a comment made on the news or by your pastor. Anything you find stays with you is usually worth sitting and working through in your journal.
But how do you do this? Simply write about the way the comment, prompt, quote, photo or painting makes you feel. Does it remind you of something? Do you feel upset, happy, annoyed, uplifted when you think about the topic? Do …read more

Some of the journal writing techniques I’ve suggested in this blog have included the unsent letter. Sometimes life gets overwhelming for anyone. If you’re feeling a bit that way, especially at this time of the year, perhaps you need to write a letter to God. Apparently this time of year many such letters arrive at the post office in Jerusalem. So, I suppose if you write a letter to God and post it, maybe it might end up there and someone will read it. It’s a strange thought to me, but writing an unsent letter is always a good way …read more

Yesterday I mentioned how I was throwing out some morning pages and night journals. Just in case anyone wanted to know what exactly makes up a night journal, I thought I’d write an entry about the topic. I’m pretty sure I got the idea from another of Julia Cameron’s books, but I can’t recall which one now. The idea was to spend a short time, perhaps only writing one page, to recap the day. I tend to list achievements and any significant event. I also jot down ideas for visual journal pages, jewellery I’m designing or anything else creative. Often …read more

The issue of what to do with your journals when you die came up in a group discussion online recently. I was interested in the comments about what to do with those entries you felt might hurt someone needlessly, or reveal something about yourself you didn’t feel happy leaving with your family. I’ve often heard people discussing burning their journals, or asking a good friend to do so for them when they were gone. Some of the group revealed how they routinely covered these entries with paint or collage. I thought the suggestion to create art over the entry …read more

While searching online, as I do, for more inspiration for journal writers I came across an interesting lady today. Lori J. Batcheller is a Certified Journal Instructor, Journaling Coach, Author And Physical Therapist. In the article I read, Journal-Keeping: A Place For Healing, Self-Discovery, & Creative Flow, I really liked this journal writing technique:
“Capturing moments. Write a description of an experience that was truly intense and memorable. Immerse yourself in the past moment and fill the page with physical and emotional detail. Doing this recreates your body’s physiological response to a pleasant event and promotes the healing effects of being …read more

This afternoon I sat and wrote in my journal, but I’ll admit to you it was hard work. For some reason I felt uninspired, out of touch with what was happening in my head, yet unable to get any of it down on the page. It was then I remembered free writing or what might otherwise be known as stream of consciousness. Dedicating a page to this exercise I wrote without stopping until I’d filled it. Yes, the stuff I wrote didn’t make any sense, even to me, and I wrote it. I didn’t use capital letters, punctuation or any …read more