Journals and Papers

I realized how important writing was to me when I could not do it anymore. In April I had an accident (no fault of my own) and broke my right forearm, both bones, one in two places and had to have surgery. this put an immediate halt to any writing projects I had on the go, to any journaling I wanted to do and to general typing, as I am right-handed. The typing is coming along, caps still pose a problem - seems no matter how hard I push the key, the cap just won’t work - but it’s getting better (*smile*).

Have you ever thought what writing means to you. If you are a constant writer like I am, you will certainly understand. I am the type that always has a journal in close proximity. They (journals) are everywhere in my house. You never know when I might get the urge. The worst part with my injury was that I couldn’t write even a simple note. As I undergo physio therapy, the writing is getting better. Sometimes I have to hold my forearm while writing. Seems to ease some of the pain.

While I was ‘incapacitated’, I was able to meditate on my love of journal writing and I realized it is a part of me that will never go away, and I am really happy to have this forum to talk about journal writing and share my thoughts with you. So I am back and sorry for the delay in blog posts. Hopefully I can do better as I heal more each day.

Sometimes it is nice to be able to find journal entries that were written in the past, but if you haven’t created a way of finding specific entries, you will be searching through many pages for a long time. There is an easy method to catalogue journal entries into a table of contents (TOC) without too much effort.

1. When starting a new journal, leave anywhere from 2 to 3 pages at the beginning of your journal for a table of contents (TOC). (If you have a journal with more than a hundred pages, you may want to leave more pages open.)

2. Excluding the TOC pages, number the rest of your journal pages, at the top or bottom of each page. You can center the page numbers or put them in the corners. Be creative with this. Use a colored pen and write the numbers in calligraphy if you want to.

4. When creating a new journal entry; date it (left or right hand side) and give it a title (centered).

5. In your TOC, on the left hand side, write the page number of the entry you are working on, followed by the title and date (see example).

6. You can even take it a step further and add a one line description below your TOC entry, if you feel you’d like more of a reference about your journal entry.

7. If you have a journal with sections, and you write in your journal in different sections based on a particular subject, you can also split up your TOC into the sections pertaining to your journal topic area.

8. When you have finished filling up a journal (a rare event at my desk), you can place from and to dates on the front cover and spine (if applicable) and a general title (e.g. nature journal, or traveling Europe).

The unique thing about this way of cataloguing entries, is that you have a means of finding entries, and you also have a date reference. You’d be surprised how many years go by and how many journal volumes you can go through. It is cool to wade through old entries and see what types of subjects you were working on. If you are journaling for future generations, they too will have a point of reference for when the piece was written.

One thing I have wondered is: when sticking to a lined journal, am I limiting my creativity? I am a writer and have very little artist flair inside of me, so I prefer a lined journal. I write - period. I only doodle when I am on the phone. I very seldom draw, add to or trace anything into a journal, unless I am specifically doing scrapbooking.

Should I expand my journal experience and buy an unlined or blank journal? Would I feel compelled to doodle or draw in it? I know if I write poetry I might feel more inclined to add a flower or something to the page. If you are like me and are looking for more creativity with your journal writing experiences, and want to expand your entries, try adding some visual effects and details. Artwork added to journal pages help to define your story in more detail.

With a blank journal, you can add photographs, sketches, make a collage or do calligraphy. What about using color? Perhaps describing a vibrant sunset with splashes of reds and oranges across the page. An angry entry might be embedded within a dark shadowy cloud. There are many different types of colored pens, and acid free archival pens that could be used to color words, sentences or drawing on a blank journal page. Play around with calligraphy and different writing styles.

If your inner artist wants to come out, by all means, draw, paint or sketch around a paragraph. Use inner imagery to show your feelings. Test your journal page first to make sure that the medium you use won’t destroy pages below it. You can protect the rest of your journal by inserting a piece of waxed paper with a blank sheet of paper on it and place it underneath the page you are working on.

I’ve seen some journals, where people use ribbon to create an attractive border. There are many scrapbooking tools that are available, such as stamps, decals and specialty paper for cutouts. If you are describing a favorite walk, what about picking up a special leaf or small flat-sized pebble to attach to the page.

Journal creativity doesn’t have to exist with just words. Try embellishing your journal today. I am always envious of playschool children. They never seem constrained to the page they are working on. Color and words flow, things get added to the page, and they do it with such flare. Don’t be afraid to release the inner child and expand your journal entries.

Not all journal writing is the same. Some people keep journals just because they have to. It’s part of their makeup it’s ‘in their blood’ to quote a cliche. Their entries can be varied and many depending on the day, week, month or emotion they are feeling.

But, what if journal writing is not that way for some folks. What if they picked up the journal for another purpose, for a healing purpose. What if they are screaming inside and have no other outlet, except to write furiously that which they are compelled to write.

Sometimes we need a journal just to get us through those tough spots in life. Those dark periods where there is no respite from the pain, but to write about it. Are you coping with cancer? Fighting grief? Dealing with separation? Divorce? Climbing out of depression? Contemplating suicide? The tough stuff hits us when we least expect it. If you need to, seek professional help through your dark times. Many professionals do have journal writing as a part of therapeutic healing.

Journal writing is easy, it’s private and it’s soul searching. the blank pages and pen in hand seem to invite your thoughts. When you no longer need your journal, you can save it for a look back in reflection of those times that you had and managed to pull through. Or you can burn it. That is what makes it uniquely yours; the choice of how it is filled and what you choose to do with it in the end.

Have you ever gone back and looked through some of your old journal entries? Sometimes it can be a real eye opener. If you have, do you find at times that you really feel like you don’t know the person who wrote the entries? That happened to me recently. I looked through a creative journal I had started in 2001. I had crayoned throughout, clipped magazine photos and added quotations and put little creative sayings in to match my journey of thoughts at that time. I didn’t do very many pages, but for the ones I did, the writing is very profound.

I am really amazed at some of the quotations I wrote, and wonder where they came from. Was that really me? It’s my hand writing, I put my signature below each one (I do that when I’m writing so that I know they are my words). Your past journals are but pieces of your heart and soul at a given point in time. We are forever changing and can’t expect that the things we write about will be the same things that affect us a few years from now. Don’t be afraid to go through your old writing journals. Your entries can reveal some things about you that you may have forgotten.

Here’s an entry from my Discovery Journal I’d like to share with you:

“Waves leave behind ripples in the sand,
like the tides of life
forever changing, always rearranging.
Enjoy the beauty of the ripple changes.
Study not for too long,
for tomorrow another tide comes,
which will change the surface of the sand once again.”
(2005  by Patricia L. Atchison)

I just attended a workshop on Pilgrimage Journal Writing - very in depth - but one of the tools we used to start journal writing was Meditation Cards. First we did a deep breathing exercise for about 5 minutes to relax and concentrate on our breathing only, then we were instructed to go to a table and pick out a card from a set of 3 boxes. One set was Tarot cards, the other Mother Teresa meditation cards, and a third set of spiritual cards. When I went to the table, I looked at the Mother Theresa cards, as I love the work she did. My eyes fell upon the ‘Joy” card, and I knew that was what I could journal about.

The card was Mother Theresa on “JOY“

Joy is prayer
Joy is strength
Joy is love
She who gives with joy gives most.

The following is an excerpt of what I wrote for my journal entry:

Joy

Joy fulfills me. It gives me peace. It enlightens my day. It uplifts me. It carries me away to brighter heights to a life worth living, to that which gives me hope.

Joy is that element of life we should strive for, that which we should ultimately attain. With joy comes peace, strength, love. When you have joy you can give of yourself. You are also open to love. Your light of joy shines from within to comfort others, to invite them into your bright world.

With joy you cannot have darkness, there is no room for it. Light is all that prevails. Joy. A simple word, so much happiness with it, so much to strive for, so much to feel, so much to give, so much to be, so much to have. JOY!

Have you ever looked through an old photo album and stared at a photo wondering where it was taken and who the heck was in the photo? Sometimes when we’re on vacation or at an event we take snapshots of something that must have been important to us at the time. Maybe we met someone that day who was really funny and we made a connection so we took their photo. Maybe they are a distant relative from a family reunion. Whatever the story, if it is worth journaling about, then add the photo too.

Is this much different than scrapbooking? Not really. However scrapbooking usually takes into account a complete vacation or event worth recording. I’m talking more about individual incidents or memory journaling, where you can use one or two photos to compliment a journal entry and vice versa. 

If you have some ’snapshot moments or stories’ that you’d like to remember, consider printing your photos and putting them into an album that also acts as a journal. Try a larger format journal - 8″ or 9″x 11 3/4″ to 12″ with blank/unlined sheets. If it is acid free, that’s even better as you’ll be preserving the journals for years to come. Make use of an acid free pen too.

You can get artistic and make it ’scrapbook-like’, or simply write your journal entry around it. You can even consider a theme for your photo journals e.g. Where are my cousins now?  or Favorite tour guides and what made them so special.

I’ve often thought about starting a wildlife photo journal. Living in the country we have so many incidents relating to animals and we take photos. It might be cool to remember years down the road when and what happened when we took the photo. If I do, I’ll share it with you. 

Are you having trouble getting back into the rhythm of your journal writing? I find having during the holiday season, or actually going on holidays is the biggest disruption to my writing whether it be journal writing or fiction writing. It is so hard to get back into the groove and before you know it, a few weeks have gone by.

If you are sitting looking at your journal and wondering what to write, here are a few fun and simple exercises to get your muse out of the holiday spirit and into a creative one:

• 2009’s Weather seems to be starting out with a bang and hitting all areas with some severe stuff. Describe the weather in your area and how if affects your life.
• Free write about someone from your childhood. Free writing is a technique where you picture your subject and start writing. Continue writing with no interruption, no going back to edit and NO censorship as you write. Kinda like writing from the heart.
• Goals are always a hot topic. What are your goals, ambitions, hopes and dreams for 2009?
• Write a Letter to an editor or someone that you may have an issue with. Is there someone you need to forgive this New Year? You don’t have to send it, just leave it in your journal- for your eyes only.
• Writing Prompts are something you can use to jump-start your journal writing. Check out Journal and Paper’s web site for journal prompts

These few exercises should help. If you are writing everyday, congratulations and good for you!

I thought this would be appropriate seeing as I am off on a short vacation. Do you journal while away on vacation or traveling? There are many types of journals one can use for traveling. You want a sturdy journal, one that will hold up well, especially if you are back packing, or a soft leather cover type to mold into small luggage areas.

What things would you write about? I like to write about the sights and sounds of what I am seeing, the culture and how it affects me. When I was in Mexico, I sat for a few minutes and just listened to the ocean and tried to write down words that would describe what I was hearing. It was actually quite difficult especially without a thesaurus at hand. Even moreso, as my other senses of smell and touch (the wind on my arms) were also sensing, combining for an overall feel of what was going on around me. It is a great writer’s exercise. I just figured it might help me if I ever wanted to set up a beach scene in a story or novel.

I can’t seem to go anywhere without a journal in hand, and if I am travelling to inspirational places, that makes it all the more fun to be able to write when ever and where ever I want.

Come on, we know we have all felt it at one time or another. Road Rage. I believe the feelings road rage triggers are felt in all walks of life and not just on the road. So how do we take care of those feelings? What is the best way to address them?

Have you ever thought of keeping a journal for those times when life is just beating you over the head? You come home and grump at your wife or husband or kids. They don’t deserve it and can’t figure out what is wrong. Try taking a moment and sitting down with a journal. Write freestyle. Don’t think. Just write!

Don’t know where to start? Think about the  one key thing that happened to you that you just can’t get over and let go. Perhaps it was the guy who cut you off. May-be the gal who was going to slow and trying to put on makeup behind the wheel, or what about that jerk that was on the cell phone and tried to make a lane change right next to you.

If not on the road, were your bad feelings caused by an angry customer, someone who yelled at you, or a boss that demanded more than you could give.

You would be surprised as you let your writing flow, that the incident that caused road rage might not be what is really bugging you. As you write, more and more feelings will come out that you might not realize they even existed. The journal can take it. Pen everything you are feeling.

After a few pages, you will start to relax, the stress will leave you. You will feel extremely exhausted, but at the same time you will feel light, almost refreshed, somewhat like how you feel after freshening up in the washroom with a cold facecloth.

You can let it go and then go and face your family with a grin of apology for being so grumpy.