With summer now in full swing, paintings to be made, journals to be bound, a toddler to chase outside, and blog posts to write I have been finding less time to do my own journaling. For these reasons I am going to be posting journaling tips every other Tuesday. I am working on one about journaling with your Inner Critic. Should be interesting…but just need to find the time!

But I didn’t want to post this week without a prompt at least. With the absence of my own journaling these past few weeks, I have asked myself- Why do I journal anyway? I have missed it. The absence of it is very real for me. I have kept a journal since I was a little girl in various ways and forms. But it was only really, the past 7 years that it became a conscious and consistent habit. But why?

…It is testimony, evidence of a life. My life. It is a learning tool. It is Me.

So here is your journal prompt: Why do you journal?

…writing a journal implies that one has ceased to think of the future and has decided to live in the present. It is an announcement to fate that you expect nothing more. It is assertion that you take each day as it comes and make no connection between to-day and other days. Writing a journal means facing your ocean you are afraid to swim across it, so you attempt to drink it drop by drop. It means that you count the last leaves of a tree whose trunk has lost its sap. ~ George Sand

Who are you? A simple question for a complex answer. Answering this question in your journal could lead to some interesting writing. For a quick and simple way to start, make a list of roles you lead in your life- I am a… mother, father, sister, daughter, friend, scientist, teacher, etc. Move on to characteristics and attributes- athletic, creative, messy, tall, quiet, funny, dreamer, etc. As your list grows, get creative in naming the different facets of yourself.

Tackling this question in list format is the easiest way to start answering this fundamental question.

visual journal entry, 2004

For the visually inclined:
For the above spread, I simply printed out a self-portrait I painted years ago and blew it up to just show the eyes. I doodled with ink around the image and then journaled my list.

+ Print out a photo of yourself and attach to your journal. Journal around your image.
+ Challenge yourself to draw your portrait in your journal before writing your list. If sketching your whole face is daunting, focus on just your eyes. Eyes are the mirrors into the soul, after all…
+ Write your list out. Print a photo or drawing of yourself onto transparency. Attach the transparency on top of your writing.
+ If you are new to altering your own photographs, I highly recommend Karen Michel’s book The Complete Guide to Altered Imagery : Mixed-Media Techniques for Collage, Altered Books, Artist Journals, and More for great ideas on how to use your photosgraphs in your artwork.

The simplest questions are the most profound. Where were you born? Where is your home? Where are you going? What are you doing? Think about these once in a while and watch your answers change. ~Richard Bach

Looking at yourself with honest eyes can be a courageous thing to do. Growth requires self-examination. Using your journal to explore themes of “you” is a safe place to do so. Journaling has not been called a form of “cheap therapy” for nothing!

Writing in a journal allows us to stop and reflect. Use your journal as a place to reflect on the things you are grateful for. Often we are overwhelmed by all the obligations we have in our daily lives or what we lack that it is easy to forget what we have. Gratitude for what is in our lives allows us to be present and really savor the good things. Being able to reframe circumstances that we find ourselves in also opens us up to allowing even more positive possibilities. This is not about being unrealistically happy 24 hours a day, it is about fostering a more positive perspective on things.

+ Write a Gratitude List as an entry in your journal. From the big things like a recovery from an illness or getting a new job. To the smallest things such as a genuine smile from a stanger or the extra whip cream in your mocha. When we remember what we have, our lives become more abundant. If this is difficult, start small. You’ll be amazed by all that you have to be grateful for.

+Make writing a Gratitude List a habit. Every time you sit at your journal, begin an entry with a short list of 5 things you are grateful for for that day.

Pink Poppy print available
in the amanobooks art section