(♥)
The post below was written by Mari L. McCarthy, The Journaling Therapy Specialist, founder of Journaling for the Health of It™. To learn more about Mari, check out her journaling blog at http://www.createwritenow.com/journal-writing-blog/.
One of the best benefits of journaling is its uncanny ability to keep you awake, creatively. Moreover, Journal Writing Therapy can be a powerful tool for dislodging creative "blocks." Creativity is your birthright. Absolutely everyone is creative, whether they know it or not. When you think about the fact that you are constantly making choices, deciding between options, and favoring personal preferences, you can see that you are unique, and that you naturally create that uniqueness.
Certainly it's true that some individuals take more time to develop their natural creativity than others. Some develop their muscles, or work to stretch their intelligence, or spend a lot of time cultivating their sexual allure, or their beauty. Which parts of our selves we decide to emphasize is our personal choice.
But there's special reward in cultivating our inner creativity, because a strong and confident creativity will make your progress faster and smoother in all other areas of concentration, as well. This is because when you access your creative self, you access unlimited possibilities. You are no longer constricted by fear and self-doubt. You can see for endless miles into the wellspring of inspiration.
Many people think creative blocks are simply professional hazards, something that happens to us, over which we have no control. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are never ever empty of ideas. If we feel separated from our creativity, if we feel uninspired and dull, it is because we lack the will to access imagination. We're tired or sick or afraid. For some reason, we're choosing to block ourselves.
If we can manage to re-locate the will to unblock, our personal creativity leaps up happily to meet the effort. When we willfully ignore all objections and wait with an open heart for the inspirational responses to our small efforts, the floodgates easily lift. How do you use journaling to help open those gates? Here are a few ideas.
How to Use Journaling to Unleash Creativity
1. Open your journal to a fresh page and write the date. Now write at the top of the page “I am aware that...” and just write, write, write until you feel it’s right for you to stop.
2. Invite your inner kid over to play in your journal with you. Close your eyes and picture your inner kid. He or she may be your actual child self, or the imaginary friend you used to have. Then open your eyes. In your journal, ask questions of your inner kid. What makes her happiest in the world? What’s his advice on a challenge you’re facing now? What’s the greatest lesson she’s learned in life so far? Take notes on the replies you get. Doodle. Use colorful crayons or markers if you have them. Have FUN!
3. Focus on your dreams. Use a few tricks to help you remember your dreams and keep a journal chronicling these nighttime adventures. Don't forget to go back and re-read your entries every so often.
4. Take the title of a song and use that as an opening for a journal entry. What represents how you feel at the moment? “Don’t Worry Be Happy,” “Wild Thing,” or “Un-Break my Heart”?
5. Make a Fun List. We make lists all the time – to-do lists, grocery shopping lists, packing lists -- but they aren’t always fun or imaginative. Try making a “just for fun” list to get your creativity flowing.
- Favorite books, movies, TV shows or songs
- Things you want to do before you turn (insert age here)
- Inventions you couldn’t live without
- Celebrities you would like to interview
- Books you want to read
- Characteristics or traits that you like about yourself
These prompts are just a few from my book, 27 Days of Journaling to Health and Happiness. I hope you will enjoy and profitably put to use all 27 practices. Once I began to know and trust my own creativity through journaling, ideas and possibilities began to flow unchecked, and I'm still in awe every day at the infinity of inspiration. And my confidence in the bounty of the universe never wavers!
Today's post was written by Mari L. McCarthy, The Journaling Therapy Specialist, founder of Journaling for the Health of It™. Please visit Mari's blog at http://www.createwritenow.com/journal-writing-blog/. In 27 Days of Journaling to Health and Happiness, Mari walks you through an easy process for accessing your natural inner strengths. Mari's latest publication is titled Who Are You? How to Use Journaling Therapy to Know and Grow Your Life.
I so needed this!
I have been trying for months to keep a journal and I just couldn't. I would write in it, and then weeks would go by without a pen coming anywhere remotely near the surface of the remaining blank pages.
But I love your tips, so much so, that I am, for the first time, looking forward to writing in it. I think I would take it too seriously. I would want it to be perfectly written and make sense. But that's not the point at all. I'm starting to see that now. = )
Cheers!
Posted by: Chris Barba | May 26, 2011 at 12:09 PM
I love your blog so much!
So beautiful and inspiring (:
Thank you xx
Posted by: Lana | May 26, 2011 at 02:21 PM
Chris - Awesome! I'm so glad this post spoke to you today. It was great to have Mari as a guest post here today and I'm thrilled that you enjoyed her article on journaling.
Lana - Thank you!! Your comment put a big smile on my face. Thanks for reading!
Posted by: positively present | May 26, 2011 at 04:31 PM
Great article! I do the same as Chris, and I have this crazy obsession with journals. I'll buy them if I see a really cool one, and be inspired to write in it, but then I'll either start and stop or won't start at all. Funny, late at night sometimes just sitting with myself all this thoughts and things come at me so easily (and it's easier to say them out loud to myself - not ashamed to admit that) versus stopping and writing them down, but sometimes I then forget what I wanted to say b/c I'm trying to be so perfect in the writing or thought, or my hand can't keep up with my thoughts (it's usually that one more so). Definitely going to try out these tips as I'm really wanting to continue to embrace this change and new appreciation of how far I've come. Thanks!
Posted by: Saggleo | May 26, 2011 at 05:38 PM
Saggleo - I'm glad you enjoyed this guest post. I also am pretty into journals. I'm always buying new ones -- but I need to work on filling one up!
Posted by: positively present | May 26, 2011 at 07:38 PM
I pick a song of the day that moves me and I usually journal around that theme...Creatively, it's fun.
Your blog is so beautiful and inspiring. I love the soft colors, and the inspirational pictures...
:)Thanks!
Posted by: j jump jennifer | May 30, 2011 at 08:37 AM
Jennifer - That's a great idea! I'm very into music and always have a song that's currently inspiring me. I think I'm going to take that suggestion and start using it. Thanks for sharing it! And thank you so much for the compliments about the site. :)
Posted by: positively present | May 30, 2011 at 09:43 AM