Each week, I read many blogs on journaling, memoir, and nonfiction writing. I find, as you probably do, that bloggers often recycle the same ideas over and over, so I like to highlight blogs with fresh content. That’s why this week’s Blogtalk features the wonderfully named Bucket List Society’s post, […]
I sat at my patio table, deep in philosophical conversation with a young man. He was referring to a man we’d seen earlier in the day riding a bicycle on the sidewalk in the wrong direction. The man had long, stringy, graying hair, a scruffy beard, and his clothes were […]
Everyone is born creative — it’s human nature. As we grow and become socialized, we learn that “creative” is generally a word used to describe artists and musicians and craftspersons. People with “talent.” Probably not us. At some point during our lives, though, we discover that creativity is a much […]
Ever wondered whether journaling by hand was better than journaling on the computer? In November, I challenged readers to participate with me in a journaling experiment that would begin after the new year. Eleven people volunteered. Read the results here …
Our journaling prompts this week are about a kind of fear we all share — the one that can stop us before we even begin learning a new skill or starting a new venture, the one that seethes beneath the surface of every creative act, the one that began in […]
WHETHER or not to start a family has never been a simple decision, but it’s more complicated today that it has ever been. If you’re facing this decision, journaling about it can help you gain clarity by sorting out the emotional and practical aspects of what it means for you […]
AS JOURNAL KEEPERS, it’s important to think about what will happen to our journals when we are gone. Or even — and of course we hope this never happens — an accident befall us. This may seem like a morbid topic and something we’d rather avoid thinking about, but our […]
Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true. ~ Demosthenes ONE of the most challenging aspects about journal writing for the purpose of self-knowledge and growth is learning to tell the truth to yourself. After all, we don’t really want to […]
TODAY I stumbled upon a blog titled “Extraordinarily Ordinary: Finding happiness and inspiration in everyday things,” and I thought, “Here is a writer after my own heart. That first impression was confirmed when I read Shannon’s recent post, “Writing.” The post was about Shannon’s current struggle with time to write […]
GIVEN my preference for journaling and writing on the computer rather than writing by hand, I thought a recent Wall Street Journal article, “How Handwriting Trains the Brain” (10/5/2010), was interesting. The gist of the article was that the practice of handwriting improves the ability to develop and express ideas. […]
JOURNAL WRITING has many purposes, but it is probably best known for its ability to help us process emotions — especially emotions that we consider negative or painful. I believe that when we resist our emotions, avoid, suppress, or ignore them because they are negative or painful, they don’t go away but lodge in our bodies. On the other hand, writing through emotions allows us to fully feel them, process them, and move (or express) them through and out of our bodies, resulting in healthier emotional and physical states of being.
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.
