What Are The Benefits of Journaling?:
Journaling allows people to clarify their thoughts and feelings,
thereby gaining valuable self-knowledge. It’s also a good
problem-solving tool; oftentimes, one can hash out a problem and
come up with solutions more easily on paper. Journaling about
traumatic events helps one process them by fully exploring and
releasing the emotions involved, and by engaging both hemispheres
of the brain in the process, allowing the experience to become
fully integrated in one’s mind.
The type of journal you use is a reflection of your personality,
and can affect your process. Here are some journaling options:
Beautiful Books:
Some people do well buying the most beautiful blank book they can
find, which inspires them to fill it with beautiful things, and
have a nice keepsake to boot. However, some people find that a
beautiful book puts on too much pressure; they don’t write as
freely or as deeply because perfectionism takes over and they
become afraid to make ‘mistakes’, focusing more on grammar and
penmanship than content, and end up unable to put anything on
paper.
Plain Books:
A plain notebook or cheap-looking blank book can ‘give permission’
to fill its pages with bad drawings, scrawled rants, and other
forms of expression that can be cathartic. Also, a more
mundane-looking book can be left in plain view or taken with you to
the office or a coffee shop, and it won’t scream “Hey, I’m a diary!
Read me!”
•The Computer: The computer is another great option for recording
your thoughts. For one thing, many people find that they can type
faster than they can write. Also, some may find it distracting to
worry about penmanship, and typing at a keyboard ensures that their
entries will be easily readable. There’s the added benefit of never
needing to buy or store new journals.
Pens:
Some people really enjoy the act of writing with a pen, and like to
see how their handwriting reflects their moods and internal world.
If you’re one of these people, you may want to invest in a really
nice pen that writes smoothly and beautifully. Think about if you
prefer a fine or medium tip, a ball-point or other kind of pen. You
can even experiment with different colors. Very creative types even
like to include pictures in their journals.
There are many options for creating your journal. Think about
what’s important to you, and what will make you most comfortable.
www.intensivejournal.org
Writing Process
The process of writing is necessary to make your feelings and
experiences tangible for further development. As you read back what
you have written, you may be surprised but there it is before you.
The fact that you wrote the content can be significant; you own it
- it is you.
The process of writing in the Intensive Journal workbook stimulates
movement within yourself. You are no longer carrying around these
thoughts in your head. You have taken the next step by recording
them for further development.
You do not have to like to write or be a good writer. No one is
reading what you write except you. You are not writing your life
story but rather engaging in the unfolding process of working with
your unique set of experiences and emotions that embody you.
Begin Writing Don’t think about what to say; just begin writing,
and the words should come. If really need some help getting
started, here are some topics to begin the process:
•Your dreams
•Your possible purpose in life
•Your childhood memories and surrounding feelings
•Where you’d like to be in two years
•The best and worst days of your life
•If you could have three wishes…
•What was important to you five years ago, and what’s important to
you now
•What are you grateful for?
Write About Thoughts and Feelings
As you write, don’t just vent negative emotions or catalog events; write about your feelings, but also your thoughts surrounding emotional events. (Research shows much greater benefits from journaling when participants write about emotional issues from a mental and emotional framework.) Relive events emotionally, and try to construct solutions and ‘find the lesson’. Using both aspects of yourself helps you process the event and find solutions to problems.
Keep Your Journal Private
If you’re worried that someone else may read your journal, you’re much more likely to self-censor, and you won’t achieve the same benefits from writing. To prevent the worry and maximize journaling effectiveness, you can either get a book that locks or keep your book in a locked or very hidden place. If using a computer, you can password-protect your journal so you’ll feel safe when you write.
Tips:
1.Try to write each day.
2.Writing for at least 20 minutes is ideal, but if you only have 5 minutes, write for 5.
3.If you skip a day or 3, just keep writing when you can.
4.Don’t worry about neatness or even grammar. Just getting your thoughts and feelings on paper is more important than perfection.
5.Try not to self-censor; let go of ‘shoulds’, and just write what comes.
What You Need:
•A journal and pen or a computer
•A few minutes of quiet privacy each day
•That’s it!
Journaling is a way to keep a record of memories and events, vent your frustrations, or improve writing skills. Some people journal about trips and others keep a diary of their garden's progress. Today, many people have moved their journals online, to a format known as a blog. No matter how or why you journal, sometimes it seems that you just can't think of a way to fill that blank page. Many times, the problem is simply that you are recording events as they happen and it is hard to be inspired by the fact that you got up, went to work, came home, ate dinner and watched a television show before you went to bed. Try a few of these journal writing ideas for inspiration:
· Write about a childhood memory that has to do with food.
· Tell a story about something silly or cute your pet has done.
· Describe a dream you've had more than once. It can be a nonsense dream or a terrifying one.
· Talk about something you're terrified of and why you developed your phobia.
Blogging your life on an online journal can be very motivational,
inspiring and a great way to vent. Most of us had journals or
diaries as children so we could have our own private place to write
down our secrets, thoughts, events, and feelings. However, if you
want your blog online to stay private make sure you fix the
settings of your blog to private. You can still keep your thoughts,
feelings and secrets all to yourself.
However, if you want to blog about your life and share it with
others all over the world, you can do that too. Just be a little
careful about what you write. One time, I had been asked to write
in one of my blogs 5 things that someone reading my blog might not
know about me. I thought, all right, that sounds cool. So, I wrote
5 things people may not know about me. One of those things was that
my then fiance and I were going to elope on New Year's Day 2007.
Well, my sister had found my post and decided to tell our whole
family! It was a secret, hence the word "elope". So, just remember,
if you do not want anyone to know, you might not want to blog it!
Anyway, a great place to start a blog journal online is
LiveJournal, where there is a strong community and nearly everyone
blogs about their thought, feelings, lives, and events. LiveJournal
can be a great place to begin your online journal.
Just don't announce that you are going to elope. ; ) Even though
everyone knew, we are happily married now. = )
Happy Blogging!
Nicky
http://www.suite101.comNicole Allard
Writer
Hello!
Information is my thing. I love to learn. When technology entered
my life, it became a second love - next to information. Then, along
came information technology. What a wonderful thing! Ever since, I
have been hooked. My love grew with the show on G4TV, ScreenSavers,
which is now known as The Attack of the Show. It's still a great
show, so go check it out if you can! Other than that, stay here,
offer me feedback on my articles and blogs. Let me know your
thoughts, and keep me in check. = )
I have been a freelance writer for seven years now. I have written
articles, essays, blogs, Ebooks, Eguides, Business Plans, and more.
However, I enjoy writing blogs the most.
On a personal note, I am also a mother of two daughers, ages 5 and
7. I have an incredibly wonderful husband who supports me in my
writing career.
I am happy to be a part of Suite101, and excited to bring you the
information and news on blogging and podcasting. It's an exciting
and innovative technology!
Happy Blogging!
Nicky
Why Journaling Works
"The positive thing about writing is that you connect with yourself in the deepest way, and that's heaven. You get a chance to know who you are, to know what you think. You begin to have a relationship with your mind." -- Natalie Goldberg
Many well-known speakers and authors consider journaling to be ‘the best hidden secret to success.’ Why? Here are some insights as to how journaling so powerfully meets our needs.
•Slow your mind down so you can see how you think.
Journaling quickly captures our flighty thoughts (about 60,000 per day!) on paper. Once we can see what we’re thinking, we can learn how we think. And then we can use different journaling exercises to learn to think in different ways.
Our minds work at about 1000 words per minute. When we write, the mind slows down to about 100 words a minute. This allows thoughts to be recorded more deeply. It also creates space for deeper and higher thoughts to emerge. A new level of awareness awakens, and this supports a more focused, creative thinking process.
•Quadruple your learning by stimulating the senses.
Want to quadruple your memory? Write down what you’re learning so you activate more of your senses. If we only hear information, within a day or two we typically recall 10% to 20% of what we heard. If we write it down, we can double our recall from 20% to 40% because we can now see it. Writing is also kinesthetic so we absorb more through motion. And some of us sub-vocalize what we write, so we hear the information again. Then if we review what we’ve written, we can double our memory again from 40% to 80% because we anchor the material from different perspectives at another time. Remember the three key steps to learning: recall, write, review.
•Work with thoughts on paper.
Journaling draws information out of our heads and onto paper. When we can visually see the information, we can do more with it. We can group it, synthesize it, add to it and change it. As we work with the information on paper, we bring it back into our minds – this is how most of us learn. Most creative people doodle and make lots of notes and lists.
•Create a bigger picture.
Ever tried to burn just one log or twig? It doesn’t work very well. But pile up many logs or twigs and you’ll get a roaring blaze. Synergy happens. The whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts. The spaces between twigs are as important as the twigs themselves.
The same principle applies to our thoughts. If we have one fact on a piece of paper, it’s hard to draw many conclusions about it. But if we write down a few more facts, we can start to see relationships, trends and movement. We are able to see and sense between the written words. The more we review the information, the more we see new dimensions. Individual events can be connected and we can draw on our intuition to find more meaning. The information comes alive.
•Change your perspective.
Have you ever been lost in a dense, dark forest? Literally, you can’t see the forest for the trees. In overwhelm, we get confused. Well, imagine flying over that forest, being able to see it in its entirety, in the context of its surroundings. The higher perspective brings new clarity and understanding.
When you have lots of facts or concepts and you reduce them to a few main points, you synthesize. You change your perspective to draw out what’s most important from a myriad of details.
Reviews and summaries are invaluable! We bring together lots of information through our journal writing. Reading and reflecting on what we write helps us step back and see the information from a larger perspective. Summarizing it all into a few sentences brings new insights and anchors conclusions more deeply. It’s like magic.
•Begin to think with all of your brain.
Let’s review the functions of the two hemispheres of the brain. The left brain is logical, rational and linear, while the right brain is more creative, spontaneous, intuitive and fun. The left brain handles facts, events, things and quantity. The right brain works better with relationships of things, wholeness, concepts, spirituality, feelings, qualities, meaning and essence. The left brain is very direct while the right brain is more indirect, metaphoric and symbolic. The left brain relates more to individual words, while the right brain relates more to language, prose and poetry, music, images, beauty and pictures.
Most of us have a dominant brain hemisphere. Males are predominantly left-brained or analytical, linear thinkers. Females are more likely to be right brained or intuitive and emotional thinkers. Obviously, we are most effective if we can draw equally from both hemispheres so we can use the full range of mental processes.
Research has found that the left brain will remember only 7 or less items when presented with a list. As the list becomes larger, the left brain has a hard time comprehending it. This situation invites the right brain to engage and use its big picture, intuitive approach. The right brain will see the list from new perspectives. When you stand back from your journaling and take a bird’s eye view, this allows the integrating right brain to do its processing.
•Stay objective in subjective worlds.
In life, we tend to perceive that we are our thoughts, emotions, feelings and dreams. Journaling allows us to detach from our thoughts and feelings so we can experience them more objectively. This helps keep us present, grounded and in right relationship to subjective realities.
•Know yourself better.
We get a deeper sense of who we are when we can study our thoughts and feelings on paper. In our written thoughts, we can explore different sides of our nature. We can unlock our unconscious and reveal hidden aspects. We can identify beliefs that hold us back. We can get in touch with our innate talents and gifts and then see ourselves share them. We can discover our own wealth of insights, imagination, creativity and wisdom.
We saved the best till the last.
•Connect with your subconscious mind.
It’s not hard to change our conscious minds but changing our subconscious minds is a different story. And it’s our subconscious that controls much of what happens in our lives. A vast storehouse, our subconscious holds limiting beliefs, reactive emotions, old ineffective patterning and self centred programming. On the positive side, it also enables our intuitive and divine connections. Unfortunately, though, the baggage we carry from our past both filters and distorts our higher guidance.
With journaling, we can work with the vast resources of our subconscious minds, indirectly retrieving information that is not normally available to us. It also helps us intentionally anchor new ideas into the subconscious.
It takes work to both retrieve and permanently change the information that lies there, so we can get rid of an old habit or go to a new level in performance or growth. From my experience we must do 4 to 6 different things around one focus to create enough tension in our subconscious to shift its programming in that area.
We can use 4 to 6 different journaling tools to address the same topic. This creates more perspectives, dimensions, tension and intensity to bring change.
Are you starting to grasp the control, momentum, synergy and big picture thinking that’s possible when we get things out of our minds and onto paper?
Journaling with intention and purpose has more uses and benefits than any other tools I know. It can truly help us make sense of our world.
So take a leap of faith. Commit to explore the wide variety of journaling tools. Find the ones that work best for you, so you can uncover your own inner wisdom.
Create A Journal Book!
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