JOURNALING TASK
I would like to ask you to start writing a diary of you inner world, your awarenesses, you struggles, your gratefulnesses, all that involves you, that is about you. Write your journal for at least 30 days and see how it affects your life.
Below I listed a few different ways of going about journaling. Choose the one that attracts you the most.
Have fun with it!
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MORNING PAGES
I ask you to do this apparently pointless process Julia Cameron (author of The Artist’s Way and Vein of Gold) calls the Morning Pages. You will do the pages daily through the week and, I hope, much longer. I have been doing them for decades now.
What are morning pages? Put simply, the morning pages are three pages of longhand writing, strictly stream-of-consciousness. They might also, more ingloriously, be called brain drain, since that is one of their main functions.
E.g.: “Oh, god, another morning. I have NOTHING to say. I need to wash the curtains. Did I get my laundry yesterday? Blah, blah, blah … “
There is no wrong way to do morning pages. Nothing is too petty, too silly, too stupid, or too weird to be included. Just write three pages . . . and write three more pages the next day.
The morning pages are often negative, frequently fragmented, often self-pitying, repetitive, stilted or babyish, angry or bland-even silly sounding. Good!
All that angry, whiny, petty stuff that you write down in the morning stands between you and your ESSENCE. Worrying about the job, the laundry, the funny knock in the car, the weird look in your lover’s eye–this stuff eddies through our subconscious and muddies our days. Get it on the page!
The morning pages are the primary tool of recovery. It is impossible to write morning pages for any extended period of time without coming into contact with an unexpected inner power.
“A mind too active is no mind at all.” THEODORE ROETHKE
“Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.” PABLO PICASSO
Any kind of Journaling helps you become aware of your own thoughts, feelings, patterns and the influence of others on their life.
If you dread the thought of writing your morning thoughts, you can chose a THEME DIARY from below.
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THEME DIARIES
Anger diary – Anger is a secondary emotion which means that there is a primary emotion hiding under the anger. This diary helps to uncover the emotions buried under anger. Record the events that triggers your anger and how you respond to it. See if you can notice other emotions present in the situation. Journal about it.
Dream diary – Our dreams can provide us with formation on what lies in our unconscious&subconscious mind. It is often that our best ideas and insights are communicated to us in our dreams. When you can record your dreams.
Judgement diary – Try and notice when you are judgemental of yourself and others. When you catch these thoughts, make a note of them so you can see what events, type of people and behaviours, etc. trigger your judgement (criticism).
If you don’t like writing you can chose from the ‘ART-JOURNALING TECHNIQUES’ below.
Audio journal – open your tape-recorder app on your phone and record your thoughts – any thoughts – for 15 minutes without stopping recording.
Video journal – There are many ways of doing this. The easiest way probably is to just make a video of yourself using your phone video function, date it and save it.
Picture journal – This is my favourite kind of journaling. You can create a picture of a montage of whatever it is you want to journal on. It is the combinations of morning pages, anger or dream diary, and just journaling about what my day was like. It is a bit similar to GRATITUDE CLOVER making but the theme of the pic is totally up to you.
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Picture Diary
I started creating picture diaries about 10 years ago. I got tired of scribbling the lines on a paper. I felt that I could express my feelings more accurately through visual art then words. Each picture tells a story and reminds me a time in my life with ease.
