JOURNAL:
A personal record of occurrences, experiences, observations and reflections kept on a regular basis.
I love searching for and finding a new book to journal in. Find a journal that you are drawn to, looks good and feels good in your hands. Do you work best with lined or unlined; colored or white pages? I prefer a good sized spiral binding so the book can open up flat and fold over. I suggest buying the same style and size journal to simplify stacking and storing. Even finding a good pen you enjoy using makes the process easier.
Tabs
Sometimes tabs in your journal will help organize it for easy review. You can find colorful tabs that are removable, and peel and stick. The list below contains some suggested tab titles to choose from.
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During a journaling session
1. Date each entry
2. Honesty is imperative
3. Use as many of your 5 senses as you can in the details
4. Turn negative venting into a positive thought before you close
Try to answer these 4 questions
in each journaling session
What am I feeling?
Why am I feeling this way?
What will it take to make me happy?
What’s the most effective way to get what I want?
Actually putting pen to paper
Before I start I sit, get comfortable and begin my preparation. I take a deep breath, relax my mind and see what comes before my minds eye. I watch the thoughts as they pass by and I begin to take notice of the prominent one, draw it closer, then I start expanding the thought and begin writing. The thought might have been something pleasant or not, a reaction to something, a strong feeling, an experience, something beautiful, or a memory that just popped up and flows past your minds eye.
In a typical journaling session you might be trying to work out a problem or listing the pros and cons of a decision that needs to be made. Each journaling session is as different as the next.
If the pages have been filled with detailed recordings of things done, places visited, and people met you have an accurate account of how you have chosen to spend your time, and the direction of your path. The real learning and moving forward occurs when you get an enhanced perspective by reading your journal at a later date.
As you journal, thoughts begin and flow, page after page, day after week after month until the last page has been written. As the pages fill you have a recorded narrative of your life, dreams, goals, thoughts, wishes, and past problems turned into opportunities and solutions through your own internal process.