Free journal tips by Marama Warren
You can use your journal to
- clarify your thoughts and goals
- nourish your intuition and creativity
- relax and reduce stress
- express yourself freely
- help remember things
- find out what is true for you
- rehearse future behaviour
- organise and expand your time
- find creative solutions to problems
- record dreams
- tell stories
- record journeys, events and projects
- keep creative ideas and images for future use
- play!
Here are seven tips for starting and keeping a successful journal
1. Intention
What is your intention in keeping a journal? Your journal can be whatever you want or need it to be. Make your own rules and feel free to change them from time to time. Remember you are embarking on a process not a product.
2. Privacy
If you want your journal to be private, keep it in a box or bag and out of sight. Don’t leave it around inviting attention. If you are worried about prying eyes, write lists or draw your feelings. You can even invent your own code.
3. Regularity
Write when you can. If you set yourself a goal of writing every day, it’s easy to feel disheartened if you don’t. Find your own rhythm or just write when you can and date each entry to give yourself a sense of progress.
4. Play!
Give yourself permission to make mistakes. Don’t worry about spelling and grammar. Smudges and crossings out are definitely OK! Experiment with crayons, paints, collage etc. If you’re not confident about making ‘art’ in your journal, practise on loose sheets of paper and paste in what you want to keep.
5. Feeling stuck?
First of all, take a few deep breaths. Write or draw with your ‘other’ (non dominant) hand. This is an excellent way to overcome blocks as it connects you to different parts of your brain. Using crayons is particularly effective.
6. Make lists
… of things you love (or hate) to do; favourite places; the things you are grateful for; your earliest memories… Use any of all of the items on your lists as ideas for writing prompts.
7. Begin where you are now
Write about the present moment; the light around you; the way your body is feeling; what you had for breakfast. Once you start, you will find that your writing will lead you to where your awareness lies.
Marama Warren has been making and keeping journals for over 30 years. She runs workshops in journal making and journal keeping and is based in NSW, Australia.
marama@internode.on.net
