Keeping a journal

To be surprised, to wonder, is to begin to understand...

 When I was eight I had a diary, a very special book with a key, that I kept hidden under my bed. All my wishes and dreams went into that little red book and I wrote in that diary with words of endearment punctuated by exclamation points, underlies and a variety of colors from by big box of colored pencils. My little diary became my best friend. I kept a diary for many years.

 About five years ago I read a book by Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way. In that book Ms. Cameron suggested that the reader do Morning Pages. This entailed taking pen to page and without stopping, writing three pages about whatever came to mind. At first I wrote a lot of "I don't have anything to say", "it is hot today", "this is not going to work". It took a few days to get into the habit and in the groove of free-association writing. I loved it and I still do. Morning pages are where I find my creativity and break out of my logical brain. With morning pages I get to use my creative brain that is associative and has no perceivable patterns. I write in fragments, I cluster and I almost feel that I am meditating. Clustering is taking a word-like mother and writing it in the center of a page. Then I circle the word and draw out radiating lines and as words come to mind I place then and circle them. The lines become connections of memories of multiple senses such as - home when I came home from school - chocolate chip cookies- love-feeling safe. Another line became Alzheimer's -memories gone-loss-sadness.

 Morning pages help to center me and when I am centered, I feel at peace. If you are interested in keeping a journal here are some things that I discovered. The most important action you can take is to show up on the page - just write. Leave your journal by your bed and write when you first wake up - do three pages.

  Many of my clients find that keeping a journal is a great place to record their journey to balance and purpose. Starting with the thoughts in your head is a good place to begin. At the top of a page you can note what you want to think about as you journal. Questions such as:

What is the one thing I could begin today that would most improve my life? What is my greatest talent? How do I define Success? What is the legacy I want to leave?

  All you really need is a desire to know yourself better, pens and paper and the time to write. Let me know how it works for you.