on May 26, 2015in Blog, Journaling Exercises, Living A Creative Life, Spirituality, Uncategorized
I’ve settled into a new habit of journaling every morning, and it’s been amazing.
I used to journal in the mornings, first thing, then I started journaling at night, then in mid-day, and now I’m back to the mornings, first thing when I wake up.
I don’t even get out of bed! It’s great. 🙂
I learned how to journal from a book called The Artist’s Way, and it’s one of the two key things that absolutely changed my life- the other being my spiritual devotion/meditation.
Journaling helps me to:
- Unlock my deeper potential.
- Open up my artistic aspirations.
- Opens my heart.
- I see myself more clearly.
- I write things.
- I get ideas about things to write.
- I outline my ideas
- I make goals.
- I explore my heart’s desires, and outline ways to get to them.
- I plan my days.
- I find out things about my deeper self that were completely hidden.
- I resolve old ego issues that I wasn’t aware of.
- I feel better!
- and more.
Through journaling, I found the wisdom, strength, planning, and follow through to:
- Go back to school to study music.
- Go to school to study comedy and acting in Los Angeles.
- Pursue my heart’s desire to act, including taking the real steps necessary to do so.
- Write this blog!
- Make videos, and now turning those videos into more entertaining (funny) teaching tools.
- Figure out ways to bring spirituality to my kids, in a real way.
- etc, etc.
It’s one of those things that is so hard to explain if you haven’t done it yourself.
I recommend everyone journal! It’s a key foundational practice for being happy, and for finding and cultivating your “sacred art,” which we all need.
So how do you journal? You just write!
Julia Cameron recommends 3 pages per day. If that sounds like a lot, start with one sentence per day. But do it consistently! It’ll grow naturally.
FAQ’s:
Q. What do I write about?
A. It doesn’t matter. Just write! Let it flow. Whatever you want, whatever comes out. It might be complaining about things, it might be gratitude, it might be goals, visions, dreams, it might be outlines or stories or hopes. Just write.
Q. What if someone reads it?
A. Throw it away after you write it, if you want. I throw a lot of my stuff away so I don’t have to worry about it.
Q. What if it’s negative?
A. That’s ok. Let it be negative at first to get it off your chest. Then, turn it positive! Do the gratitude exercise, or other journaling exercises. Most of the time, it will turn positive on it’s own.
Q. I don’t have time.
A. You have time to write one sentence! So write it! Do it at the same time everyday, if not in the morning, maybe after lunch, maybe on your 10 minute morning break, maybe before bed. Maybe after dinner. Pick a time, and try and stick with it to create a habit or pattern that will become easy to do daily.
Q. How much do I have to write?
A. I write until I’m finished. That ends up being about 2-6 pages per day. If you are excited, shoot for 3 pages per day. If you’re worried about it, start with 1 sentence per day, and let it grow naturally. Of course, if you write one sentence and you want to keep going, then keep going!
Other questions? Let me know so I can help!
Love,
Dr. Moses.  🙂
