Journal Writing
For me, to journal is to have paid attention to my life... to have listened to it and given it a voice.
As we take time to see the happenings that pass through our days and to record them, life begins to take on a whole new way of being.
One day I noticed the autumn breezes chasing dried, curled brown leaves
down the street ahead of me.
The leaves looked like
they were running for their lives.
I had never seen this before!
I have seen it since.
My love of the amazing transformational powers of Journal Writing has only grown as I have watched it heal my life and bring life to my days.
It has allowed me to find my way to places I could never have dreamt in my wildest imagination. It has saved me when times were not what I could understand, when I was at the edge of someplace I did not know.
Pages and pages of blank journals have invited me to write my joys… and my sorrows, my laughter… and my tears… for all of these walk hand in hand in our lives. Journal Writing has helped me to find the path of life I am to live…. And to step onto it with courage and trust, gifts that are given only as we step towards life.
Ponderings from my journal pages...
I know that for me to have awakened and not journaled is to have lost a part of my life. Writing shows me parts of my life I might otherwise not have seen. Writing helps me to make peace with my life… and to live a peaceful life. In journaling, I sort through the layers of feelings and they become ‘unstuck’, laid out before me on paper.
Life does have choices… creative choices. Journaling shows me the things I do know and the choices I have. Feelings flow out onto paper and I can see them from a different view. This time allows me to take the broken threads of my life, the challenges, the questions, the things that don’t always make sense and I begin to see their meaning and value to my life. The richness of life…my life…. comes alive when I journal.
And sometimes I just journal about the good things I see…and a smile comes across my face… and I know that to have written is to have honored the day!
Happy Journaling!
Journal Writing … Getting Started …
These are some ways of using the blank pages of your Journal.
Find a quiet space and ask that your family give you this time undisturbed to be alone.
Journal Writing is not another “to-do”. You do not need to write every day for this to be meaningful…. Do it when you are prompted and set aside time at bedtime or maybe in the morning in your back garden with a cup of tea. Ten to 20 minutes will work to start.
Write whatever comes, don’t judge. Spelling and grammar don’t matter. What matters is getting your thoughts onto paper and seeing where they go or what you learn from them.
Free flow write, writing whatever comes into your mind without going back to read it until at least a month. This allows you to see how far you have come and where you’ve been.
Go into nature and choose something on which to concentrate with gratitude in your heart. It might be an interesting stone, a piece of driftwood, maybe an animal that’s scurrying around you or the clouds forming in the sky. Write about what you see and how it makes you feel. What in your life does it resembles? Explore the symbolism.
Write...
... a letter to yourself about what you want to have happen and your fears around it. Then in the same letter write of the strengths you have acquired over your life and end with some encouraging words for yourself. Sign it with love.
... about something for which you feel gratitude in your life. Why is it so important to you… ramble on from there.
... a story about something that happened in your life that changed how you view things.
...of the birds outside, the rain falling, the thunderstorms, the knee-deep snow and the sunshine that only peaks from behind the clouds some days.
... but write!
The Gifts of Journal Writing for:Self
Life's Work & Career
Spiritual
