Our greatest desire, greater even than the desire for happiness, is that our lives mean something. This desire for meaning is the originating impulse of story. ~ Daniel Taylor, from introduction To tell me a story. I believe that the search for meaning is what drives writers to write, painters to […]
While researching my mother’s letters and journals for my upcoming memoir, A Mother Like Mine, I came upon the following entry, revealing one of the reasons for her incessant letter writing: Another fear had to do with my defective memory, fear of the darkness in the cave where my own […]
When I want to write memoir, the first places I go for research (other than my memory) are my journals. They are my memory-keepers, containing more details of events and my responses to them than my feeble mind could ever hold. In addition to my perception of the facts (what […]
IN addition to many other reasons for journaling, your journal can function as a kind of personal coach — essentially, someone who helps you identify and achieve goals. Modeled after sports coaching, a personal coach holds you accountable, pushes you a little harder than you might push yourself, and cheers […]
I attribute my increased perceptual powers to my journal writing practice. Why? Journaling helps me to:
* Think about physical descriptions — how things look, feel, taste, and sound.
* Be more aware of my emotional responses as they occur.
* Think about things in new ways (looking at things from different perspectives).
* Be more curious and interested in what is going on around me. …
Inside each of us is a deep well of creative energy, and writing is one way to pump this creativity to the surface. For example, we can use writing prompts to give our imagination a workout, for fun, or as exercises to warm up to our intended writing tasks. Once […]
Journal writing helps you explore how your responses to events in the past affect your life in the present. Reflecting on how you have reacted to past experiences and the subsequent results can help you understand what is and is not working in your life. This understanding brings with it the opportunity to take future actions that are healthy rather than harmful, helping you to grow as an individual. To be who you want to be.
SOMETIMES life just doesn’t seem to make sense. Bad things happen to good people and good things happen to people who don’t seem to deserve them. Creative acts, such as journal writing and art, can help us uncover the personal value of every experience.
Sometimes, getting started with a new challenge can seem like the hardest thing in the world. Human beings don’t mind hard work or long journeys; we’re just terrified of getting started! We procrastinate, and make excuses, and stick our heads in the sand. We pretend that if we just wait […]
EVERY day, or at least every other day, I make sure to take a few minutes to write in my journal. It is precious time, just for me. I have a tendency to get so involved in all my other commitments — work, family, taking care of the house and […]
WRITING THROUGH TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY clarifies perspective and strengthens decision-making skills. We all have times of change in our lives, times when we don’t know what’s going to happen next, when the future seems to be engulfed by a vague, gray fog, inaccessible and maddeningly disconcerting. When confusion seems to […]
A HEALTHY PHYSICAL PROCESS means that we take in food and water from our environment, process it for nutrients, then expel the wastes. In the same way, a healthy emotional process means that we take in our life experiences, process them for nutrients, find what we need to grow and […]
