Journaling
Writing is therapeutic. It connects the self to the self. And yet there is so much resistance to the process of taking 30 minutes each day to slow down, reflect on the day and on our part in it and how we are feeling. In this paper, I am hoping to put down some arguments for writing and journaling, and to help people with the process of journaling. Hopefully giving some ideas as to how to get started.
My Personal Experience
I feel so passionate about this because I have been there. I have been resistant to the process of journaling. This is surprising because I know, on a cognitive level, how useful writing is as a therapeutic tool.
When something was really “hot” I would write an unmailed letter, which was a wonderful anger management tool. But keeping a regular journal was difficult. I would start; keep it up for a few weeks, and then stop. There were always a million excuses, all very real and serviceable. The main one was that I was too busy. And I was always busy. With my counseling practice, meetings, home and family. Just like everyone else in the world!
I remembered that I had bought a copy of Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way some years ago and I had read it and had made a cursory attempt to work through it. Part of the process was writing three foolscap pages of longhand each day. Ouch! Well I gave it a shot, and struggled, and fought, resisted and complained and finally gave up. This time, I decided that I would make a commitment to myself, to undertake this process. I would just give myself over to the process, taking one day at a time and just do it.
What has endured from that experience has been the daily habit of journaling. As a result of this daily habit, I have been able to make the changes to my life that I have needed to achieve a better balance. I could work out what I was feeling, what was making me feel like that and work out what I had to do to change it.
Journaling has provided me with a way to connect me to me. I am able through the page to bring my life into consciousness. I remember the things that I spend time recording. I take time to identify my feelings about events. Some days I just play. Jotting down a poem or telling a story that I think my grandchild will enjoy.
I am hooked on journaling. I look forward to each day, to the quiet time that precedes my writing, and to the writing itself. Yes, I have bad days, when I am “too busy”. Usually I am avoiding sitting still and spending time with myself, but I always catch up. I have to. I know I will feel disconnected and fragmented, if I don’t.
Julia Cameron says that:
“Writing is a shoulder we can cry on. Writing is a confidant who listens and lets us sort things out. Writing is a comrade, marching with us through the steep days of sorrow and despair. Writing is our weather, and also how we change the weather. Writing is our landscape, and how we view the landscape that we have.”
“When we use writing to do the work of integration, writing is not only the river, but often the bridge across the river. Writing is not only the chasm where we enter in terror to deal with frightening feelings but also the rope we throw across the chasm, the rope we use to pull ourselves to safety. The daily-ness of writing allows us not only to walk into change and through it but also to record change in tiny, manageable increments, to find grounding when our lives feel unhorsed.”
How To Get Started....
Space
You need to have somewhere to write, a small corner in your home which is your space, and it needs to be private.
The Journal
It is generally recommended that you use A4 size paper. Anything smaller can feel restrictive. A hard-covered foolscap exercise book does the job. You can personalise it by covering it. Fancy journals made out of hand-made paper can be restrictive...you may not want to 'ruin' the book with your meanderings.
Find a pen that is easy to write with. Writing in long hand aids the creative process. The physical act of writing seems to spark the neural pathways.
But if typing on your computer does it for you. Do that.
Time
In the beginning, make 30 minutes available. Mornings are better. Write as soon as you have woken up. This way you are able to tap into your true self, before the demands of the day take over. Try and do it every day. In the beginning this is very important. It takes 21 days to develop a new habit.
Content
I use my journal for everything. Any photos, sketches, newspaper articles, dried flowers and leaves. At the back I have a contemplative prayer journal and pages for quotes, book recommendations and for creative ideas. And all notes and thoughts go into it.
What to write about? Anything at all. Events, feelings, conflicts, dreams, unmailed angry letters, poems, questions, affirmations, Sometimes I write a prayer, I list the things I’m grateful for , sketches and doodles, literally anything at all.
Some suggestions are:
- Write down how you are feeling. Have a list of feelings that you can refer to, if you like. Identify one or two. “Drop down the well” as Julia Cameron puts it. Stay with the feeling. What does it feel like, where in your body do you feel it. Is it pleasant or unpleasant?
- What has left you feeling that way. Write down the event, the people involved. Write down exactly what happened. Put in as much detail as possible. Everything is important. “God is in the details”.
- What questions do you have in your life? What issues do you have that need resolving?
- Write down all the things you have to be grateful for.
- Write down a wish list. I wish I……
- Write as though you are talking to someone. In the wonderful film Shirley Valentine, the main character talked to her wall. Starved of any other meaningful connection, this connection helped her work out the issues in her life. You can do the same thing. Talk to the pages. Some people talk to God.
- What are your obsessions. What are the thoughts, issues, people who won’t leave your mind. Write about it.
- Write down your dreams as soon as you wake up. before you talk about or forget them.
Do NOT Edit Yourself
The important thing is to write. Just put it all down. Don’t worry about what people will think of your writing ability. This is about the process of writing and not the product.
Julia Cameron says “I will take care of the quantity; God takes care of the quality.”
Don’t read your journal for at least two weeks or more if you can stand it. Even if you’re blocked, write about being blocked. If you are really stuck, go for a walk or drive, and come back to it. It’s about creating a flow and getting used to this new habit.
We are co-authors of our lives. We need to be involved in the active process of authoring our lives. If we never stop to reflect, and listen, how will we achieve that?
I hope that I have made a good case for journaling. I hope that I have persuaded you to at least try it. I will leave you with a piece written by Julia Cameron.
WORDS FOR IT
I wish I could take language
And fold it like cool moist rags.
I would lay words on your forehead.
I would wrap words on your wrists.
“There, there,” my words would say-
Or something better.
I would ask them to murmur,
“Hush” and “Shh, shh, it’s alright.”
I would ask you to hold them all night.
I wish I could take language
And daub and soothe and cool
Where fever blisters and burns,
Where fever turns yourself against you.
I wish I could take language
And heal the words that were the wounds
You have no names for.
Further Reading:
Julia Cameron. The Artist’s Way and the Right to Write. Two amazing books that will get you writing and loving it.
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