My LOVE - Journal Writing

Every morning I start my day off with one of my favorite self-care practices and that is writing in my journal. Journals come in various shapes and sizes. Some are elegantly designed, some are cute and pocket-sized. Some are known as “secret diaries”. I remember being about twelve years old and having one that had a lock with a special key on it so no one could read what was written inside. Heaven forbid anyone would read about my first kiss with my cute “first love”, Jon, where I ran all the way home because I was SO in love (and by the way, we never kissed again – I think we were both too embarrassed by the whole experience).

Okay, so I digress…. Back to my favorite self-care practice. My journals are very simple. I just use 3-ring spiral notebooks, the kind that you can get four for a dollar at the back-to-school sales (That’s when I stock up!) I used to do all of my journal writing on the computer, but there is just something about letting the pen move across the pages, that is so relaxing and makes me feel like I’m in a whole different space, a different world. It’s a feeling you have to experience. Just try it out!

I so look forward to this time that I have to spend with myself. As most of you know, and those of you who don’t know can read my story here, after I lost my memory, it took me several months to dive into my journals, as sporadic as they were. It was a very traumatic thing for me.

  

What I learned about the old Cathleen (this is who I refer to pre-brain injury), is that the only time I spent writing in my journals was when I was upset, angry, or was just having a bad day. So when I read the journals, all it did was help me to remember bad times. Not a fun experience. I decided from that time on that I wasn’t going to use my journal writing that way and that I was going to become an every day journal writer.

About that same time I was involved in ARTbundance Certification and Training with Marney Makridakis of Artellaland and was introduced to Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’sWay”. What a blessing. I went to her website and learned that she had a practice called “Morning Pages” What Julia says is “In order to retrieve your creativity, you need to find it. I ask you to do this by an apparently pointless process I call the morning pages.” On the website it also says this:

“Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in the morning. There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages– they are not high art. They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they are for your eyes only. Occasionally colorful, more often than not Morning Pages are negative, fragmented, repetitive or bland. Good!  Worrying about your job, the laundry, the weird look your friend gave you – all that stuff distracts you from your creativity. It eddies through your subconsciousness and muddies your day. Get it on the page first thing in the morning and move on with your day with a freer spirit.”

Julia does say “negative”, however I didn’t want to have to read NEGATIVE again if I ever lost my memory, and I still have trouble with my short term memory, so as I try to live JOY every day of my life, I do try to keep it more on the JOYful side. I am human, so there are times, when I do have to let off steam, and so this is a great outlet.

But then I changed this up a bit. There has been so much talk about how important it is to have a gratitude journal and how when you write and talk about gratitude, it grows. So I take the last page, the third page and write about those things that I’m grateful for. There are days, when I have so much to say that I spend 3 pages writing about other things, but then I spend the next page writing about those things that I’m grateful for. When I first started this practice, I had to think real hard about the things I was grateful for, but as I did this every day, those things grew, and grew and grew and I look forward every day to writing about all those things that make me happy, the things that bring me JOY and the things that make my life what it is today!

So what about you? Do you have some experiences with writing in journals? I’d love to hear about your experiences and what has transpired for you! Leave your comments below! And if you’ve come from the newsletter, Brain Be Happy Notables, don’t forget to go back and read the rest of the exciting info!

Many hugs,

Cathleen