JOURNALING FOR THE HEALTH OF IT BY SHIFRA STEIN
Some people call it a diary. Others call it a journal. It doesn't matter what you call it. The only thing that should concern you is what you write in it. A journal is a safe and private place where we can speak truthfully to ourselves, without censure. It's a safe haven for expressing our deepest thoughts and feelings. When you're ready to begin this adventure, you'll need to gather together some items including:
Paper
Pen or Pens
Spiral bound notebook
Magic Markers or crayons
A journal can be used to express your frustrations and complaints. Yet, it can also be employed as a powerful tool for growth once you learn techniques that can unlock the writer within.
By transferring our emotions to paper, rather than bottling them up inside, we can actually "see" our feelings. We can step back--and become a "witness" to those feelings--rather than reacting to them.
Crisis writing
Many of us write when we have a personal crisis going on. If you are someone who, after undergoing intense emotions, has an almost uncontrollable urge to write--you are a crisis writer.
Try writing when you are completely relaxed and happy. Then compare how you write under stress and at leisure. Are the two ways of writing different? In what way?
Where to write
When you first start keeping a journal, it's easy to get distracted by noise. You need to find a safe place that offers you a personal level of comfort. Freedom is essential to the writing.
If you fear that someone is going to read your diary, then you are going to censor your work. Therefore it's wise to keep our journal in a safe place. You may need to set clear boundaries if you live with someone.
Keeping A schedule
One excuse for not keeping a journal is to tell yourself that you don't have time for it. The subtext here is that you simply aren't motivated enough to put pen to paper. If it's important enough to you, you'll find time to do it. One way to begin is to develop structure around your journaling. Taking a journaling class is a positive way to start, since it's a clear signal to your subconscious that you're serious about it.
It's not necessary to burden yourself with too heavy a load, promising to write every day. Journaling is like doing mental aerobics. You don't have to jog 10 miles a day to keep in shape. Twenty minutes a day, three to four days a week, will keep you fit.
What you write with
Part of the ritual of writing is the pen, itself, and the paper. If you continue to scribble on scraps of paper, you aren't taking journaling seriously. Once you've invested in a cloth-bound or spiral notebook, that's when you start to believe that what you have to say has meaning.
What you write with is also important. What does the pen feel like in your hand? I find it easier to use a felt tip pen like a Rolling Writer that offers rich, continuously free-flowing black ink.
For people who think faster than they write, I recommend a lap-top computer or a typewriter. However, once you're accustomed to writing down your thoughts, you can try switching to pen and paper and see how it goes.
What do you love to do? (A Brief Journaling Exercise)
What are some of the things that you enjoy doing? Things that make you feel good? Do you love to eat ice cream? Go to a movie in the middle of the afternoon? Take a sheet of paper and draw a vertical line down the middle of the page. On the left side write down all the things that you enjoy doing. Things that make you feel good. On the right hand side of the paper write down what you dislike doing. (Do you hate to clean house? Dislike going to dinner parties with boring people?) Write that down, too.
Circle at least two things on your "I love to do" list and do them this week. Be open to doing as many things as possible that make you happy. Circle at least two things on you "I don't like doing" list and eliminate them from your life this month. Add to and delete from both lists on a regular basis and keep a journal of the resulting changes in your life.
Excerpted from Shifra Stein's Unlocking The Power Within: Journaling For Personal and Professional Growth, available on www.amazon.com or contact the author at shifra@artforhealth.us about her book and onsite journaling workshops.
R Bartlett
01/20/2006 * 00:23:57
This is a process I've begun more times than I'd like to admit, but it's inarguably necessary to come to grips with the artist within you.
One of the dreadful pitfalls that can accompany the early trials at 'getting started' is reviewing your previous entries too early. I'd suggest at least a two week (if not two month) moratorium on looking back on anything you've written previously. Once you have allowed a generous amount of time to pass between readings, you'll often be surprised to find more wealth in the original than you might have imagined. On several occasions, I have even remarked - at my own writing - "I wish I could write like THAT!" It is, indeed, a stranger living within us that only needs the right environment within which to dwell and flourish, if but momentarily.