Journal On

So, it's been a week .. do you have pen in hand and paper at the ready? Did you spend any time playing with the options and endless combinations? It really does make a difference in the flow of your writing when the pen feels good in your hand and the ink marries well with the page. An ease is created that fosters the flow of writing.

I will assume you are on board and perhaps even wrote this past week. If so how was it? Was it easy? Did you find yourself emptying things onto the page that surprised you? Did you write more than you thought you could or would? Or was it more difficult? Hard to get started? Did you think about what you "should" write about? Did you worry about getting it right?

Post comments about your experience and let me know how you are progressing.

Whatever your experience was it is okay! Journaling really has no rules. There is not a right way or wrong way to do it. There is not a right time or wrong time to do it. It really is a Nike .. "Just Do It" kind of thing.

Like with most new habits you attempt to establish in your life it may be helpful to carve out a time and place that has some stability about it to foster your new journaling practice. For me, it is generally early in the morning before my brain has engaged in the world. Before phone calls, before email, before conversations with my partner, before TV, etc. I have a favorite place in the family room, a favorite pen, and the spiral note book of the week and off I go. The dogs snore away near me and I journal stream of consciousness for at least three pages. Jouranling masters far wiser than I believe that there is magic in the three page system. That if you actually write for three pages you get past your internal editor to what is really going on in your head/heart/subconscious. This is when journaling becomes productive.

So in the coming week I hope you continue to dance with the practice of journaling. Find your tools (pen, paper), find your supportive structure (location, time of day), carve out your dedicated 15 minutes to write three pages at time and then "Just Do It". (I say that with a encouraging smile not a drill instructor's tone.)

In the coming weeks I will delve deeper into the specific therapeutic benefits of journaling as well as sharing some stories of: who journals, why they journal and how they foster their practice. As well as sharing some of the amazing successes that have been born on the pages of journals. I can and will address your questions if you submit them as comments. I can do this privately or as part of the next week's installment so please share your preferences when you comment.

For now I will leave you with a bit of inspiration to get you writing:

It always comes back to the same necessity: go deep enough and there is a bedrock of truth, however hard. - Mary Sarton

• Journal about what the quote means to you as you read it. What thoughts were provoked? What feelings were provoke? Did you exhale and think WOW? Were your confused by her meaning? Do you feel resistance to considering the quote? Journal .. pen to page and just write what comes.

Some additional journaling prompts:

• How does know your bedrock of truth make you a better* person?
  
• Have you ever considered your personal bedrock of truth? What is it?
  
• When has knowing your personal bedrock of truth sever you in making life choices/decisions?

*You define "better" for yourself. It could be stronger, more understanding, able to comprise, able to make hard choices, etc.

Until next Friday's installment .. Journal On!!

Wendy!

Visit my website to read about Deep, Deeper, Deeper Still: A guided journey for those who journal and those who wish they did. http://www.wendymwarden.me