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 each day, or as often as you can.

So how are you feeling today? This list of emotions might help to get you going. Don’t focus solely on your psyche, though a lot of your energy should be on this. Write about how you feel physically, and even describe how you feel where you are, or your surroundings. Try to make this a habit every time you sit to write in your journal, as if this will locate you on the page. When it comes to rereading at a later point the entire entry will hold more meaning and come back crisply to you.

Once you have done this, go on and write about what’s been happening today. This will also make rereading a better experience for you, because it will give you a better perspective on the events, to read your emotional state beforehand.

I hope you enjoy this entry today. Please leave any comments in the section below.

Heather
Photo used with permission from Morguefile

Post from: Blisstree

Your Feelings, Today

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 you feel better about typing your journal entries on a computer keyboard, great news. If the feel of pen and paper does it for you, well go for it.

I do prefer to write on paper with a rich deep smooth rolling pen. For me the tactile sense of the paper beneath my hand, the action of letting words flow from my mind to my fingers to the pen to the page, is what works for me. There’s a flow of thought and ideas that not only excites me, but I feel closer to my real mind when I am writing out my hand.

I know I think differently when I write on a keyboard. I’m more business like and that personal part of my emotion and true self are safely locked away. It takes a lot more work to access those parts of myself while writing my tapping these keys.

Some authors write entire novels by hand, but they feel better connected to their characters and the story that way. Some would never write any other way than by keyboard. What about you? Do you feel journal writing is better by hand than on a computer keyboard? Why do you feel this way? If you aren’t sure, give each method a try for a week or longer. Reread your entries and see if you notice a different kind of voice or a more open expression in either method. Write in your journal about what you learn.

Perhaps you will find something useful by doing this exercise. Maybe writing about certain topics is better by hand than by typing. Be willing to try this exercise, because you might learn something new about yourself.

Heather
Photo used with permission from stockx.chang

Post from: Blisstree

The Write or Type Debate

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

Post from: Blisstree

The Experts Say…

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 year. Read with purpose. Look for the issues you return to over & over again. Note these in your current journal, or notepaper, so you can journal about it afterwards. Spend time writing reflectively on these topics. How ready are you for change in these areas? Are you willing to make some slight alteration in your habits? If you are ready, weigh up what the change would bring to your life. Perhaps you only need to change one thing.

If you are ready plan a course of action. Taking the example of losing weight, instead of making your resolution as vague and broad as simply losing weight, make a much more specific and achievable statement in your journal. Perhaps how much weight you plan to lose for the year, but even that can be off-putting. We all want to achieve such a goal instantly and can lose motivation when it comes to actually reaching this goal. So, perhaps your resolution could be to stop snacking after a certain time of night, to eliminate/moderate a certain unhealthy food from your diet, or to add to or begin a regular exercise programme.

Whatever resolution/s you create for the coming year, aim at making them achievable, something you really want, & something you have found is an important issue for you from rereading your journal. Weight loss is only an example. Some of you might want to change negative behaviour, habits or create more positive attitudes in your life.

Please leave any comments in the section below.

Heather
Photo used with permission from stock.xchng

Post from: Blisstree

Real Resolutions

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 you agree or disagree with whatever the person said? Hold a debate with yourself if you can’t put your finger on what it is about the prompt that you respond to.

The point of reflective writing is to help you develop reasoning, debating and critiquing skills. This journal writing technique is often used in schools as a valuable tool for learning. You can apply it to your regular journal writing and reap the same benefits.

I hope you find something you can write reflectively about today. Please leave any comments in the section below.

Heather
Image used with permission from Morguefile

Post from: Blisstree

Reflective Journal Writing

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 to get things off your mind.

I hope you enjoy this journal writing prompt. Please leave any comments in the section below.

Heather
Photo used with permission from Newscom

Post from: Blisstree

A Letter to God

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 some of my best ideas occur to me right at that moment of settling down for the night. Sometimes I’m way too tired for writing anything much. Some entries end with the scrawl of my pen down the page.

I do enjoy writing before going to sleep, too. Something about that act helps me take those last thoughts for the day and put them somewhere away from my mind. It’s also a signal to my partner that I am about to go to snuggle up for the night. Read into that whatever you like. It’s also a good way for me to see that I have done something, no matter how small. As a busy wife and mother it can feel too much like you’re busy but not really achieving anything. Listing what happened is one way to prove that untrue.

I hope you find some use for a night journal. If you already keep one please leave a comment in the section below, or on any other journal writing related topic.

Heather
Photo used with permission from Morguefile by Kevin Rosseel, Washington, DC.

Post from: Blisstree

Keeping a Night Journal

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 was a fantastic solution.

The act of writing out that entry was obviously necessary. It would be a shame to lose that entry entirely. For me, the reminder would be there in the images I’d used to cover the written entry. I think this is a good solution for people concerned with journal privacy, too. After writing your entry you could paint over it and no one would ever need to know what you’d written. Anyone coming across your diary would only see your visual entries and come to their own conclusions about that.

What solutions do you have to this problem? Would you rather burn these sensitive entries or create something else from them? Please leave any comments in the section below.

Heather
Photo used with permission from Newscom

Post from: Blisstree

Another Solution for Journal Privacy

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 happy. Most people report they feel refreshed and energized after writing out their favorite moments.”

I intend using this one myself soon. I hope you do, too. Please share any thoughts on this journal writing prompt in the comments section below.

Heather

Post from: Blisstree

Capturing a Moment

Heather

Post from: Blisstree

Free Writing or Stream of Consciousness