Friday, April 6, 2012

Journal Tip #29

Because of copyright laws, etc., I don't want to post the quotes and actual journal tips in my blog. Instead, you can find 100+ free journaling tips from Mari here, and you can buy the same journal I am using here.

"When you think you are done writing, keep going. This is where you will discover what you are looking for. The pearls are beyond what is visible to us. Shoot for the unknown. Feel fragile & be brave."
-Nan (@Inspiredjournal) 

Hmm, this one's a bit difficult to write for a blog considering if I write pages on my blog, my readers will probably get bored and stop reading. So, how about I just write about times when I've felt like I'm done writing and then kept going?

Recently, I've joined one of Mari's challenges. For 27 days, we read her book Peace of Mind and Body: 27 Days of Journaling to Health and Happiness. There's one prompt in the book for each of 27 days. Today, we're on day 5. You can buy the spiral-bound book at the link above, or you can buy the Kindle eBook like I did. If you don't have a Kindle, that's okay. You can download the free app for your computer, smartphone, or tablet. Or you can buy a Kindle. I have one, and it's amazing! Anyway, so for each of the prompts, I've come across a moment where I think I'm done writing. I put down my pen, prepare to close my journal, and then I realize there's one more thought lurking inside my head. And suddenly I write pages more! Just yesterday, I wrote three pages regarding this challenge's prompt only! Which brings me to my next challenge...

Not only have I been working with this 27-day challenge, but I have also finished and begun another challenge: 30 Days of Morning Pages. The concept of this challenge is actually based off a book that I am also reading while doing all the rest of this awesome journaling stuff. Julia Cameron, author of The Artist's Way, The Prosperous Heart, and Walking in this World has several tools that she gives to artists to help them rebuild their creativity. I am currently reading Walking in this World, and one of the tools that's in all three of those books is known as Morning Pages. What are Morning Pages? Let's just have Julia Cameron explain that one:
Three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing done before the day "begins," Morning Pages serve to prioritize, clarify, and ground the day's activities. Frequently fragmented, petty, even whining, Morning Pages were once called "brain drain" because they so clearly siphoned off negativity. Anything and everything is fuel for Morning Pages. They hold worries about a lover's tone of voice, the car's peculiar knocking, the source of this month's rent money. They hold reservations about a friendship, speculation about a job possibility, a reminder to buy Kitty Litter. They mention, sometimes repeatedly, overeating, undersleeping, overdrinking, and overthinking, that favorite procrastinator's poison artists are fond of.
In a nutshell, that basically explains the 30-Day challenge too. Basically, what you do is you write 3 Morning Pages, check in on the forum to say hello to everyone and see how everyone's doing, and Mari guides us along the way. Because I'm reading Walking in this World, writing 3 pages every morning is something I will be doing at least for another 8 weeks. This book has twelve weeks of reading, and I'm on Week 4.

So back to the quote. This is what I always try to keep in mind: three pages is the minimum, but you can always write more. Thank you, Nan, for this little gem, and thank you, Mari, for collecting it into your book of 85 journaling tips.

Also, if anyone has the link for @Inspiredjournal, I would love to post it up on this blog entry. Thanks for reading!