How I Use My Journal
How do you use your journal? I made this video for Liz and thought I'd share it with you, too.
All the parts and pieces of the new Iconic Self Home Retreat Kit are arriving or en route. I have some behind-the-scenes stories about each component, so I'll introduce them to you one by one. Look for a series of posts called Iconic in the Making starting on Monday.
In other news, I'm working on our travel plans for Steady Burn in California this March. I'm doing very few live workshops this year and I'm anxious to see all of you face-to-face. I'm so honored to have two of my mentors, Phyllis Mathis and Caren Gazley, coming in to teach with me, and even more of my friends will be in the house attending. There's nothing like the goodness we cook up when we are together, and having you join us would make it even better. (I think we've even got a few spots left.)
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 5:55PM | Share Article 9 Comments | Email Article Print Article | Permalink | in videos
Reader Comments (9)
I love this video Jen! Of all your videos, this one made me feel the most like I could have been sitting across the table from you with a cup of coffee. The journal advice is also very relevant to me right now, thanks! Miss you. xoxo
Love this. Made me smile to hear that my address is in your journal. I'm partial to a 5x8 hardback, lined Moleskine. I've tried different ones but I keep coming back to this one. I probably have a dozen of them. I find things chronologically, too, and often find myself referring back to my old ones.
Earlier this year, during a time of job transition, I used the XL lined soft-cover Moleskine, but just bought a new hardback to coincide with going back to full-time work..easier to toss in my purse, and easier to write in my lap with the hardback.
Also, I always leave the first page blank, and I have some specific quotes that I always write on the second page. Every time.
I was just reading on Liz's blog about her Smash Journal and she mentioned how you journal.....and then here it is! I really like this.....I have notebooks like this but I always either would tear pages out....like the grocery list......or end up losing it because I stopped using it because so many pages had been torn out or seemed unimportant or I would use different notebooks for different things and would lose them.....I never considered them journals! I will no longer tear out pages or throw anything away! Thanks!
Amy C.....I love the idea of having quotes on the second page.....I think I will use that too!
I bought a 5 year journal for Christmas. You just write a couple of lines each day, and then it has space for subsequent years on the same page. I thought it would be less daunting because it's only a couple of lines, but so far I've hardly written anything in it. Feel like nothing that happened that day is important enough to hold that space. how would you approach a journal that's set up like this?
I love this video, I think I'll try it
Sheryl,
I think the thing that's helped me is getting rid of the idea that things have to be important to hold the space. If I had a journal like the one you mentioned, I wouldn't hesitate to write things like, "Raining outside. Feeling kinda blue." Or, "Lunch with Bella. Best soy hot cocoa ever. Talked about big dreams and letting some things come to you."
I think the best thing about a 5 yr set up like that is getting to look back and see what you were doing or not doing the same day in previous years. Even what seems mundane in the moment takes on a certain endearing quality when you're looking back. Even things like the price of milk are interesting when enough time passes.
I've also done stuff like 'tomorrow I look forward to...' when things felt really mundane to me.
I seem to keep many journals although not with any consistency. I decorated a composition notebook with some photos on the cover and inside some inspirational words and images. This book I call my "To Remember" book. Like you, I keep everything in there ... lists, ideas, notes for a piece of writing or an image list for a video ... I tend to leave the front 1/3 blank and on one page put a big project (I.e. a book of photos of my girl) and then keep an ongoing list of steps to do to make this item a reality. (So I have pages of potential "projects" which I may or may not get to.)
I have a moleskine for "regular" journaling - which I rarely do! When I am in an ecourse that has journaling prompts, I go there and write.
I was also given a 5 year journal Sheryl! It did seem daunting at first ... and now I find i don't have enough space to write! I approach it like this: each day i ask myself "In This Moment I am aware of ..." or "What I want to remember about this day ..." One day all it was simply "I feel cranky and frustrated. Couldn't get to anything I had wanted to do. Had to grocery shop - ugh!" For me, part of it is recognizing the attitude with which I approach my day ... already I am thinking about how I could find some aspect of playfulness in that day of grocery store drudgery. Like, I bought my girl Rice Crispie Treats and she was thrilled!
My journaling began as morning pages. It has developed and now includes a To Do List for the day ahead, that I create that the night before. HIghlighting words in the To Do List because they catch my eye & I then tend to remember them. I now use my journal through out the day, to think my way through things, like I use Morning Pages. I also write phone numbers, do math, doodle, to question,consult and record my rune readings, etc in my journal. I've recently started a second journal specifically for a new project that I'm developing.
Just found my way over from Dandelion Seeds and Dreams, and love the way you journal. I've been thinking I need to get something like this going and it's nice to see how you do things. Thanks for sharing!