THE ART OF KEEPING A JOURNAL has evolved over the years. There was the simple daily diary we wrote in when we were children, capturing a few events or activities from our day. Later, we embraced Julia Cameron’s revolutionary Morning Pages (freewriting 3 pages a day). Then, we moved on […]
THOSE OF US WHO JOURNAL regularly believe in the power and benefits of journaling — how it helps us cope with life’s challenges, relieve stress, increase self-awareness, reach our goals, and analyze and improve just about every aspect of our lives. BUT — what do you do when it doesn’t? […]
I RECENTLY RE-WATCHED Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman’s 2010 TED talk on “The Riddle of Experience vs. Memory,” which is about the difference between what he calls the “experiencing self” (that part of us that experiences life moment by moment) and the “memory self” (that part of us that remembers our […]
Guest post by Mary Ann Cohen MANY PEOPLE BELIEVE that writing is only for writers. However, just as with any form of art, writing is for all of us. And while it may be true that not all of us are artistically inclined and born with a particular talent, we are […]
STRESS is an emotional, mental, and/or physical response to pressure. That pressure may be internally generated, such as when we place high expectations on ourselves and fail to live up to those expectations. Or it may come from external circumstances, such as a demanding job, ill health, or any situation […]
AT ITS CORE, writing is about finding meaning in the mundane. That’s why some of the most satisfying and universal personal essays and stories spring out of completely ordinary events. You don’t have to have climbed Mount Everest or overcome a deadly disease to have something interesting to write about. […]
NEXT TO YOUR EARLIEST childhood friend, the friends you hung out with when you were a teen probably had the greatest influence on your life. As you moved into your teen years, you likely began to spend less time with your family and more with your peers. You started to […]
WHETHER YOU’RE NEW to journaling or have been journaling for years, it’s helpful to know what works for others — what keeps them motivated to continue journaling on a regular basis, as well as what keeps their journaling experience fresh and enlightening. So I’ve decided to share the top 7 […]
WRITING REQUIRES WRITING TOOLS. Sure, those tools can be as simple as a notebook and a pen or pencil, but for many (if not most) of us, our writing tool belt also includes word processing, note-taking, and journaling applications, as well as programs that assist with other writing tasks from […]
IT MAY SEEM STRANGE in a journaling series on relationships to focus on oneself, but when you think about it, what other relationship in your life is more immediate, more impactful, more intimate, or more important? Our relationships with others truly begin with ourselves. Yet, for the most part, we […]
“My grandfather always said that living is like licking honey off a thorn.” ― Louis Adamic GRANDFATHERS — We don’t write much about them, or at least I don’t see much about them in the stories I read. Why is that? Do they not take up much space in our lives? […]
WELCOME TO A NEW WritingThroughLife SERIES about journaling into and through relationships! From the beginning of our lives, relationships form and inform us. From our parents or caregivers, to siblings, extended family, friends, teachers, and lovers, every interaction leaves its mark on our development as human beings. Whether we were […]
