Developing the Journaling Process

Write in your journal regularly, depending on what your focus is.  After all, what is a habit, unless it is “habitual?”  If your journal is tied to the seasons, such as gardening or bird watching, it may have more entries during certain parts of the year, the busy season, so to speak.  However, in the “off” season, there is a lot of time to give to learning more about irises or ibises, Virginia creeper or red-headed coots.  Read catalogues, make notes and lists, clip pictures of Dutch bulbs or a great pair of binoculars or a new camera to record your discoveries.  It doesn’t hurt to put those in your journal because it is an ideal way to keep the information at your fingertips when you need it.

So here are some thoughts to help you in your journaling:

• Build a regular habit (daily if that is appropriate)
• Sometimes take a walk before writing
• Write in a different place twice a week (new surroundings can be inspiring)
• Mornings are for dreams
• Afternoons are for ideas
• Evenings are for memories
• Write fast – don’t let that pen get “stuck”
• Be alert to positive opportunities and perspectives; practice optimism
• Write about what you are thinking and feeling
• Supplement your insights with articles and books
• Give ideas time to grow and “bubble”
• Keep asking yourself “What is this?”  “What does this mean?”
• Don’t linger on one thing so long that it becomes stale
• Recognize that going somewhere can be as interesting as arriving; that is, the process in itself can be as fascinating as a goal, and sometimes even more so
• Be prepared to change your mind sometimes
• Fall in love with the doing, not the having
• Let your own intuition give you your own feedback
• Enjoy your successes; forget the losses.

Some Words of Encouragement:

#    “Perhaps the worth of any lifetime is measured more in kindness than in competency.”  [“Kitchen Table Wisdom,” Rachel Remen, p. 42]

#    “Wholeness comes from inside ourselves,” [Ibid., p. 106]

#    Heritage and lineage can be viewed as a chain of connectivity.  [CR]

#    Read a book you loved as a child.  [CR}

#    Read a book written in the year of your birth.  [CR]

#    “When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.”  [Melvin Lukenbach]

#    “When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.”  [“The 
             Art  Linkletter Show,” a child Guest]