This book isn’t new, but it’s wonderful. It found it’s way into my pile of books to review, and I moved it to te top. A man sent 1000 journals into the world for us to work in, and waited for their return. The book is the resulf of his leap-of-faith experiment and it’s amazing. I worked in one of the journals, but didn’t make it into the book.
Anyway, it’s a great book, very inspiring, real, and honest. It’s what I’m reading this week.
This is a youtube Trailer for a new book on journaling.
She does an awesome job of promoting journaling and even tells a story about her boyfriend reading her journal that is hilarious. Definitely sold her book to me!
Why Journal Writing On The Web? Blogs Are Journals Giving Anyone An Identity, And An Awesome Forum By Jesse S. Somer
Journal writing used to be a private, personal experience done late at night, scribbling hardly legible thoughts and daily occurrences down on paper amidst the haze of a barely lit room. When read over on a later date one could find connections and coincidences that sometimes brought deeper insights into the meaning of life. Also, old ideas could be rekindled that otherwise may have been forgotten forever.
In the 21st century a strange new type of journal writing is becoming prevalent in contemporary society. Called Blogs, these are journals used by the masses. Why are people sharing their thoughts instead of keeping them private like the days of old? These journals are found on the World Wide Web and can be used for a number of purposes. The Web is a public sphere and human souls are realizing that sharing their ideas and beliefs can have that same epiphany type of effect on others as the old type of journal had on the personal writer. People are also feeling that they have an identity, and putting it on the Web is a great way of expressing themselves. Anyone can do it, and besides words, visuals can also be integrated into the journal, often making the Blogs very appealing to readers/ viewers.
Blogs are becoming an excellent way of sharing information on any and every subject. Instead of searching Google for general sites about surfing, or 60’s music, one can go straight to a Blog on the subject in question and read daily thoughts and ideas by others with the same interest as well as expert points of view. If you own a business, you can see what entrepreneurs already based in your proposed field feel about the industry. As it’s a journal structure, the reader can see how certain individual’s beliefs have changed over time.
As the world around us is constantly in transition, humans have always looked for better ways of living and growing as a species. The Information Age has helped our society in innumerable ways. On-line journals are becoming the next step in giving voice to every person who has access to a computer and the Net. As well as putting one’s identity ‘out there’ with the masses, people are hearing the inner workings of minds with similar interests. Blogs are a phenomenon helping to create a more interconnected, socially aware global community.
About The Author
Jesse S. Somer is a human hoping to help integrate technology with the average person in society. And currently he is writing for M6.net
It Takes Courage to Love Your Self - Musings on Journal Writing and Going Public By Peri Coeurtney Enkin
Over the past few weeks I have given careful thought to the messages I deliver. Writing is something I take very seriously. And it is important to me that I focus my attention and my words on those things that really matter to me.
I have written profusely in a journal since the age of twelve. Most of my writings I have kept private. When I was in my early thirties I reread some of my early adolescent outpourings. At the time I did not understand fully that I could choose to be compassionate and caring to my earlier self. Instead I judged and condemned myself fully. Here are some examples of the thoughts that went through my mind as I reread what my younger self had written.
What a fool I am!
How pathetic!
I was so sad and lonely and miserable!
I don’t want to remember any of this!
How ridiculous that I wrote it all down.
And not in one journal but year after year, page after page.
Not only was I critical of my feelings. I also judged myself for writing about them. I could not bare to face how sad I had once been. Really, I was having trouble accepting that the sad teenager I had once been was still alive inside of me, still looking for acceptance, still hoping for understanding, still waiting to be accepted and loved. Instead of offering myself understanding and compassion I attempted to wipe my words and my feelings out. These judgments -directed toward myself -generated such shame in me that here is what I did. I took a big stack of journals from my teenage years and I burned them.
Now, many years later, you might wonder what has changed? Today I store my journals in a beautiful wooden chest. I feel warm and kind when I open the lid and gaze at the stacks of fabric and leather bound books. I treasure the physical representation of my own self-expression. The truth is I rarely review what I previously wrote. I have little desire to revisit the past but I still receive enormous pleasure from knowing they are there. Today, I am most excited about what I am writing right now. I know that it is today’s words and today’s thoughts that create my future. It is good to know how far I have come. My past journals are a demonstration of my passion for living life fully. I celebrate them and the many different parts of me that went into them.
Today, I am committed to self-cherishing. That means I choose to embrace all aspects of myself. I comfort the parts of me that get sad. I embrace the parts of me that get frustrated. I choose to honor the dreamer, the lover and the mystic parts of me. And I catch myself when I am being un-loving. I am committed to turning any lingering negative self-talk into genuine self-love.
At the beginning of this year I started a Self-Cherishing Journal. Each night before I sleep I reflect on the day. I ask myself how I cherished myself and I write it down. Writing in this journal is provides me with some of the most delicious moments of my day.
In offering my perspective publicly I take another leap. Some people enjoy and even crave full self-exposure. That has never been my comfort zone. I know you have judgmental thoughts just like I do. During my early years I cared what you thought about me so much that I felt paralyzed. Now I do not care nearly so much. I know you will find some of what I write interesting and beneficial. I also know some of what I write will be of no interest to you at all.
In order to go public with my ideas and feelings I needed to face my own fear of rejection and ridicule. I questioned my willingness to reveal my core values, to share my personal lessons, and to be open about my own insecurities and frailties. I needed to give up hungering your approval and I had to release my own perfectionism. In doing so I truly become the author of my own life. I will continue to do so. And while I intend to maintain my private journal-writing practice, I will continue sharing my perspective publicly as well.
Peri is an Adult Educator, Mentor and Creator of The Turnaround – A Curriculum for a Fulfilled Lifestyle. Pick up Peri’s 30 Day Set Your Compass Process ~ a free report for you. You can also listen to a free pre-recorded Tele-Class right now. The Turnaround Now! Six Essential Steps to move from Victim to Self-Empowerment at: http://www.theturnaroundnow.com
You’ve probably noticed a lot of the prompts I offer here come from my life experience and what goes on in my normal day. Usually when I offer a prompt like this, I’ve written about it in my journal, or I’m going to because it’s been on my mind that day. Today’s is no exception.
As you know if you read here regularly, we are moving into our own place(not a rental). To ease some of the tension on my kids, they are going to choose how their rooms are decorated. We’ve spend a lot of time looking at kids bedding for my son and stuff a little older and trendier for my teen daughter.
It has me remembering my childhood, and what my bedrooms looked like. We moved a lot, but always in the same town, so I didn’t deal with those type of changes.
What was your childhood bedroom like? What is the most vivid memory you have of it? Did you help decorate it? What does the phrase “childhood bedroom” immediately make you think of? Sometimes first impressions of a phrase can reveal a lot about your innermost feelings.
Take some time with this one. Journal writing can take you places you never would have though you’d end up, and reveal things to you that you never knew were inside you.
This would be a great visual journal or art journal prompt. Draw your bedroom. Or take magazine cut outs and collage what your inner child’s dream bedroom would look like.
My son has always been a handful, from conception. One of my big regrets is that I didn’t keep a journal for him, to record all the fun, crazy, and offbeat things he’s done since he was able to move around by himself.
He’ll be able to remember a lot of things that happen now himself, since he’s almost ten. But maybe I should still start now, and record his wordworking adventures, his model rocket experiments, the car he made with his dad from balsa wood with flames down the side that ran on it’s own with a c02 cartridge, or the funny little comments he makes. I know he’ll want to remember how he has always had his own style, and has never been afraid to be himself(a trait I hope he carries into adulthood).
But I wish I’d gotten it all down from the beginning. If you have a little one, journal for them. You won’t regret it.
I have a special bag for my “on the go” journaling supplies. I take it with me everywhere. Sometimes I don’t even get as far as taking it out of the car, but it always goes with. I never want to miss an opportunity for a good journal page.
My bag is stuffed as full as I can get it. My mom says I carry everything but the kitchen sink. Hah! I carry several kitchen sinks, just don’t tell her that.
I keep things like watercolor pencils, water brushes, a small spray bottle, twinkling h2o’s, scissors, a small container of gel medium, some acrylics and brushes, glazing medium, a glue stick, some bits of papers for collage, some gold leafing sheets, and my favorite pens.
I was cruising through the “Store that Shall Not be Named” this weekend looking in the kids bedding section for something new for my son. He’s at this hard age(almost 10) where he’s getting too big for Sponge Bob but still wants a cool theme for his room.
But I’ll bet you are wondering what his has to do with journaling or creativity, aren’t you? It bears saying again. Everything in life, every insignificant event, every piece of discarded trash, bits of conversations all spark creativity and journal writing.
Back to the topic. I started thinking about my bedroom as a child, and how it changed over the years to reflect where I was developentally. It’s an exciting progression from infant to childhood to expressing yourself as a teen.
Find old pictures of your room and paste copies of them in your journals. Write down everything you can remember about the stages your space went through. Describe it in words so a complete stranger can see it in their mind’s eye. Sketch it out in your book. What parts of your room do you see yourself now in? What parts of you/your childhood room have you left behind for new interest, outgrown, etc. This is an excellent self-exploration exercise.
Cut images out of magazines and take a page in your book to paste in the things you’d have in your dream room. What do your choices (your pasted images or your actual grown up space) say about you now? Does any of that childhood “you” still shine through?
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