Journal writing is a powerful tool for self-expression, personal growth, and healing. So it makes sense to introduce the art of journaling (including art journaling) to young children. In addition to the incredible emotional benefits it offers, journaling is effective in the classroom as a tool to help students learn writing, analysis, and reflective skills.

A recent Education World article talks about the many benefits of daily journaling for students, including polishing writing skills, using freewriting to liberate students from their inner critics, enhancing expression of emotions, and building confidence in emerging writers. Especially for young writers, journaling provides a safe environment for building self-expression and critical thinking skills, because the students can bring forth opinions and ask questions they would not feel comfortable expressing in the classroom.

Going a step beyond journal writing for self-reflection and awareness, Education Quarterly says that, in academic environments, E-Journaling enhances interactivity, while fostering intellectual exchange and successful learning. In this context, specific-use journals, such as a writing journal, can be used to reflect on process. Reading journals provide a place to express reactions and questions to reading, as well as analysis of what is being read. The article discuss the pros and cons of using online journaling vs. the traditional handwritten journal for educational purposes. A good read, if you want to stretch your ideas about the ways journaling can be used.

Here is one teacher’s moving account what happened when she used journaling writing in her classroom: The Power of Journaling.

This homeschooling mom uses “notebooking,” a kind of scrapbook style journal, to help her young students process and hold on to what they are learning. She writes, “It is ideal for covering broad topics or literature units, as information can be disseminated into smaller parcels.  The emphasis is on collecting and organizing information, and documenting student learning.”

In this rather technical ERIC digest on Journal Writing in Experiential Education, the authors provide a comprehensive list of recommendations for teachers who want to use journals in the classroom. Before you introduce journaling to your students or your children, check this out.

Have you introduced journaling to your children or used journaling in the classroom? I invite you to share your stories and thoughts by leaving a comment below.
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Image by Black Vanilla
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The end of 2011 is approaching so quickly and inevitably, I feel almost as if I’m standing in the path of a freight train, the previous year flashing before my eyes. It must be time for the yearly ritual of taking stock of the previous year and looking forward to the new. As part of this yearly ritual, I present here the top eleven posts (based on number of page views) on WritingThroughLife.com in 2011.

Without further ado, the 2011 countdown:

11.    Why Write: Emotional Healing

It’s no surprise that this post would make the top eleven. Every one of us has been wounded in one way or another in the process of living, and there is a plethora of evidence that  “Writing about difficult or hurtful experiences — describing the events, recreating the conversations, the pain, the emotion, and acknowledging the emotion that still exists in you while you’re writing — can help you to heal.”

10.    Five Ways to Build Healthy Boundaries

This article encourages you to explore how you construct healthy boundaries between yourself and others. In what ways do you define your boundaries? Do you have strong healthy boundaries or weak ones? Read the post for ways to create and maintain healthy personal boundaries.

9.      Journaling the Sensory Details: Touch

A short excerpt says it all: “If we are to record the events of our lives and write about them, we need to include this sense in all its beauty and sometimes inconvenience. I know that I, for one, often struggle with a lack of awareness of touch and a deficient vocabulary to adequately describe how something feels.” This article contains exercises to assist in the development of sensory awareness and touch vocabulary.

8.      A Week’s Worth of Journaling Prompts: Happiness

The drive to be happy is basic to human nature. The week’s journaling prompts about happiness help you explore your feelings, values, and thoughts around the concept of happiness, as well as guide you to ways to make yourself even happier.

7.      Journal Writing Prompts for New Love

Maybe you’re ending the new year with a new love, or a renewal of an old one. If so, you might enjoy revisiting this article to explore ways to enhance and enjoy that love while managing to stay on your feet.

6.      Journaling to Achieve Your Goals

There are many wonderful reasons to journal—especially at the end of one year and the beginning of a new one. Use your journal like a personal coach to take stock of the old year and set realistic goals for the new one.

5.      Blogtalk: Using Music, Memories, and Writing

Number five in our countdown is a fun roundup of other blog posts about using music to set the writing mood, using sensory details to help us remember important life events, and learning about others’ writing processes.

4.      The Benefits of Freewriting

If you’re new to journaling or want a refresher on the freewriting method, check out this article about how and why freewriting is an essential journaling tool.

3.      Journal Themes

This article is all about different journals for different purposes: art, dream, reading, goals, and healing, to name a few. Read this post for inspiration on new and different ways to use your journal.

2.      Writing a Letter to Yourself

This journal writing tip is one of my personal favorites, so I was pleased to see it near the top of the list for 2011. It’s an especially appropriate exercise for the beginning of a new year. Set aside some time on New Year’s Day for this one, and let me know how you like it.

And the Number 1 article (drumroll, please)…
1.      Why I Use Journal Writing Software Instead of a Pen

In 2011, as technology became an increasingly integrated part of our lives, how we choose to write became a hot controversy. Maybe in 2012, we’ll all figure out which we prefer and get down to the actual business of writing. Then again, it’s so much easier to discuss when, where, and how we like to write …

Top journaling category for 2011

The Weekly Journaling Prompts Category was the most popular. If you enjoy writing prompts, be sure to pick up or download a copy of my new book, Week by Week: A Year’s Worth of Journaling Prompts and Meditations, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, CreateSpace, Copperfield’s, and this website. Click HERE for more information and/or to buy the book.

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Image Credit: Caroline
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As we travel together through the holidays towards the next year,
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May you have
Walls for the wind
And a roof for the rain,
And drinks bedside the fire
Laughter to cheer you
And those you love near you,
And all that your heart may desire

~ Celtic Blessing

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I would also like to share this poem, inspired by the ornaments hanging on my tree, with you.

Christmas Present

The past dangles from my tree
The ribbon of Time curling in reverse
While Memory holds my face
Between the desolate, bittersweet joy
Of her palms.

There—that shimmering silken globe
Yellowed and tattered with age, was
Ezra’s First Christmas. 1976.
It hangs low on the bough, with pictures of
Bunnies and bluebirds and baby rattles.

And here—the gingham vested gingerbread men
Except for them
No ornaments, adornments, or gifts that year
But one soft teddy surrenders
to a baby’s abusive love.

Over there—near the top,
that soft gray Santa rat,
The one Evan loved to hang each year
Sways by the tip of his jolly red hat
Tail between his legs.

And Jenny’s glass angel
Still hides a bell beneath her skirt.
Opalescent pearl skin
Eyes open to innocence
The dreams of a young girl.

There is the trillium—three felt flutists
Fashioned by a friend so long ago.
Handmade, embroidered ornaments,
Made dingy by time
Old by years.

And on the rocking horse—there
The porcelain bear,
Aidan’s First Christmas. 1994.
He rides in a flattened world,
Jolly Ho! onto this year and the next!

Thank you for being a part of my life and writing community. I wish each and every one of you a special holiday season, filled with friendship, love, peace, and hope.

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Image Credit: Denis Collette

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I love Sharon Lippincott’s method for mapping the stages of her life: it’s so un-linear. Linearity is something I excel in, and I know I would benefit from the organic, round, mind-mapping quality of her approach. I’ve included a small thumbnail of her sketch here, but go read her blog post, The Tree of Me, to find out about the process.

Stephen Smith’s November 30th post on the In Context Blog, 3 Ways to Increase Personal Awareness Through Journaling, was filed under “Productivity,” and though Stephen’s suggested journaling ideas and methods may certainly help you to be more productive—or at least more aware of ways in which you waste time—I particularly liked his 3rd method, “Close Your Day with Journal Entry Based on Values and Energy,” as a way of becoming away of where you’re spending in your time in relationship to your goals and set priorities. Take a look when you have a chance and let me know what you think. There are so many wonderful ways to use our journals!

Mari McCarthy’s focus is on journal writing for healing, and her post, Grief Journaling Without Words, resonated with me. There are times in our lives when emotions run too deep to be articulated, when words are just not enough. In this post, Mari outlines ways to begin to express your grief—really, any strong emotion—using art.

Finally, have you seen the Writing and Poetry Therapy section of All Things Healing? The site is devoted to … well … all things related to healing and includes sections for spiritual and healing practices, healthy lifestyles, community, and arts (this is where the writing and poetry pages are). Click the link and scroll down the page to find a collection of articles, gathered from all over the web, about journaling and writing for emotional and physical healing.

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Image Credits: Sharon Lippincott & aptmetaphor

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Do you regret wrong decisions you’ve made? What does it really mean to feel regret? And is life better without it?

In the following TED talk, Kathryn Schulz makes a strong case for accepting regret as a positive and reasonable emotional response to bad decisions and mistakes. “We should feel pain when things go wrong,” she says.

Schulz lists the ways we commonly deal with the pain of regret—most of them, negative—including denial, bafflement, self-punishment, and obsession. I encourage you to watch her 16-minute video and then continue on to ideas for journaling about this sensitive topic.

If the video isn’t displaying correctly, use this link: Kathryn Schulz Talk

Based on her lecture, explore your unique ways of responding to regret by writing about it:

• What does regret feel like to you? Describe regret using images.
• When you feel regret, in what ways do you cope with it or try to make it go away?
• In what ways do you punish yourself for your perceived mistakes?
• In what ways do you obsess about the mistakes or wrong decisions you’ve made in life?

Schulz leave us with the following words: “The point isn’t to live without any regrets. The point is to not hate ourselves for having them. We need to learn to love the flawed, imperfect things we create and to forgive ourselves for creating them.”

• Do you agree with her? And if so, how might you incorporate her advice into your life?

I invite you to join the conversation—leave a comment.
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Today I’m excited and pleased to post my recent interview with Nicole Johns, author of Purge: Rehab Diaries.

Nicole Johns lives in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, where she teaches English. She earned her MFA from the University of Minnesota and a BA in English from Penn State University. The summer after starting the MFA program, Nicole went into treatment for her eating disorder. Her first book, Purge: Rehab Diaries, is about the time she spent in treatment after nine years of suffering from the disease. The book was nominated for ForeWord Magazine’s book of the Year Award in memoir. Nicole has also published poems in numerous literary magazines.

Watch the 2-part video of the interview, or scroll down to read the transcript.

AS: Purge: Rehab Diaries came out of the journaling you did while in rehab for eating disorders. I’m curious about how you used your journals to write your memoir. Would you talk a little about your journaling practice then and now? Do you write daily, or at a regular time? Do you have any journal writing rituals? And how has your journal writing practice changed, if at all, between 2000 and now?

NJ: To be honest, I used to write in a journal every day, multiple times a day, but now I write in my journal only if I’m traveling, or once every couple of months. I think I wrote in my journal so much when I was actively eating disordered, because it was an emotional outlet for me. In a way it was a written purge. When I write in my journal now, I like to sit on our balcony, and burn a candle. I used to like to write in my journal at my favorite coffee shop in Minneapolis, because I liked the atmosphere there. My journal writing really tapered off after my stint in treatment, and when I had a few months of recovery under my belt. I am trying to get back into journaling, because it keeps me in the practice of writing, and is also beneficial to my mental health.

AS: How did you use your journals as source material? Can you describe the process for us?

NJ: I kept very detailed journals during my time in treatment, but also for several years beforehand. I looked at them as a primary source for the story I was trying to tell. If I couldn’t remember something off the top of my head, I could always refer back to my journals. Reading them also sparked some memories that I had forgotten. When I first started writing Purge, I took segments from my journal, pasted them on a blank Word document, and just wrote from the segment. It served as a kind of epigraph. So, I started writing Purge by using journal entries, and even specific lines from my journal. They were the seeds for my memoir. Having all those journals was immensely helpful.

AS: I understand you’re in the process of writing a novel. Do you use journaling as part of your writing process? If so, how?

NJ: I am working on a novel (I have 20 pages as of this weekend, yay!) and I am using a type of journaling, but it is different in that I am using this journal to record memories I think might be helpful in writing my novel, and I’m also using it to keep stats and information on my characters, setting, etc. I’m using this journal more as an organizational tool, and as a place to jot down ideas, questions, etc. I do have a more traditional journal, too, that is composed of my thoughts, feelings, etc.

AS: In your guest blog for National Association of Memoir Writers, you wrote that the process of writing Purge gave you insight into your disorder and taught you how to have empathy for yourself—something all writers need, I think. Can you expand on this a little? How has the writing process contributed to your healing process?

NJ: Writing Purge forced me to confront exactly what I had been doing to myself with the eating disorder. I couldn’t gloss over the ugly details, and what I was doing to my body and to my life. But, by writing about my experience, at times I would see myself as a character in the book, and having that distance made me better able to empathize with myself. Writing Purge was cathartic. Writers are often ashamed to admit that writing is (or sometimes can be) cathartic, but I don’t think there’s any shame in admitting that. It doesn’t lessen the value or literary merit of your writing to have had a sense of catharsis when writing something.

I think writing Purge allowed me to move on from all things eating disorder. And I think I had to write it, before I could write a novel. I remember reading something about Alice Sebold and how she had to write Lucky, her memoir about having been raped, in order to be able to write The Lovely Bones. When I read that, it made perfect sense to me. Sometimes you just have to deal with a subject or event before you can move on both in life, and in writing. I think writing and publishing Purge has definitely helped me heal.

AS: Your memoir has the reputation of being “unflinching” and “brutally honest,” as well as incredibly personal. Can you talk to us a little about how did you manage to be both honest with yourself and with your readers? And what compelled you to publish your story instead of keeping it to yourself?

NJ: When I set out to write Purge, I knew that I wanted to be brutally honest about my experience, because I believe it is a disservice to readers to sugarcoat the truth. So my aim was to always be unflinching and brutally honest, because I thought my readers deserved that, the honest truth. That’s what I want as a reader.

I decided to publish Purge, because there weren’t any memoirs about EDNOS (eating disorder not otherwise specified) out there, and EDNOS often gets overlooked. Everyone knows about anorexia and bulimia, but no one really talks about EDNOS. I also wanted to publish my story, because I knew there would be other people that could relate to it, and I wanted to help other people with eating disorders, especially EDNOS, feel less alone, and to give them hope that they could recover. I also wanted to dispel some common myths about eating disorders, and eating disorder treatment.

AS: What kinds of research did you do while working on your memoir?

NJ: I researched other memoirs, self-help books, and scholarly articles about eating disorders. I also did another type of research in that I collected “evidence” by ordering my treatment records, looking at my journals, photos, emails I sent during that time, anything like that. I also talked to people that knew me when I was actively eating disordered and in treatment, and got their perspective.

AS: What would you say you gained most, as a writer, through the process of writing Purge? And how is that helping you as you go forward in your career?

NJ: I gained the experience of writing, publishing, and publicizing a book. Even though I had gone through an MFA program, I was pretty clueless about what happened when a publisher picked up your book. I also learned how to organize a book, and I think writing Purge taught me a lot about perseverance. A byproduct of publishing Purge is that I’ve gotten validation for myself as a writer, and I’ve also gotten the incredible opportunity to help people, and do some advocacy surrounding eating disorders and mental health. That has been tremendous, and I feel very blessed. Purge has been good for my career, in that I’m hoping that selling my second book will be easier because I had a successful first book. Writing and publishing Purge also made me realize that I’m very interested in mental health and psychology, and that I wanted to pursue a Masters in counseling. I don’t know that that is something I would’ve discovered in life had I not written and published Purge.

AS: What is your writing process like now?

NJ: To be honest, I have had a very long dry spell that I’m just now coming out of. I’ve been busy publicizing Purge, working crazy hours, going back to school, and getting married, all in the last two years. But, things have calmed down a bit, and I’m writing again.

I just got back from a self-designed weekend writing retreat on the North Shore of MN, and it really kick-started my novel. I wrote 20 pages and an outline in two days. I needed some solitude, no internet connection and no cell phone service, so that I could concentrate. November and December are crazy, so I’m hoping to establish a writing schedule come January, when I have more free time. I will probably write in the mornings when I’m not teaching or taking class. I like to write at my nice big desk, and have some candles burning, while drinking coffee. I also like to write at certain coffee shops in the Twin Cities. I used to be a late night writer, but since I’ve gotten older I prefer morning writing.

AS: Is there anything else you’d like to share that might interest readers of WritingThroughLife.com?

NJ: Well, I have a website, NicoleJJohns.com, and I’ve got something coming up with the National Association of Memoir Writers, I think in December, but I’d have to check on the date.

AS:Thank you, Nicole. We appreciate you taking time to join us here and share with us your journaling and writing processes.

Compassionate Criticism
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Sharon Lippincott just posted one of the best lists of constructive feedback rules for writers I’ve seen. It’s similar to the list of guidelines I give all my students, but I think Sharon’s is better articulated. (I think I’ll have to steal it. Okay with you, Sharon?)

I think one of my favorite rules on her list was to “limit comments about needed improvements to the two or thee most compelling ones.” It can be overwhelming, even when you’ve just been given positive feedback for your piece, to then receive ten points of negative criticism. And pairing the comments about things that aren’t working with ideas and suggestions (not prescriptions) for ways to improve the writing is the best way to make the feedback constructive. Check out Sharon’s article, then come back and join the discussion.

What’s the best writing feedback you ever received?

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Avoiding Distraction
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A common complaint of most writers I know is their seeming inability to stop distracting themselves from writing. The usual way of doing this used to be handling all those niggling little chores around the house. Like the laundry, or cleaning the kitchen. Maybe taking the dog for a walk. Now, the problem is the Internet.

Well, that’s easy, you might be thinking. Just close your email program. Close your browser. Refuse to do anything but write for your allotted time. Yes, it’s that simple, but that takes intention and (horrors!) discipline. Not something we all have in great supply.

So I was pleased to read in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal by Katherine Boehret, Focus! No Willpower Required, that there are some new programs on the market to help us override our natural desire to procrastinate. Among these, is a program called Freedom, which allows you to disable your computer’s networking ability for up to eight hours. And, to keep you from overriding the program before your time is up, you have to reboot your computer — an effective deterrent, if you ask me.

I downloaded the trial, which gives you five free uses. But the full program is only $10. I’ll let you know how how it goes. If you would rather disable only your social networks while you’re trying to write, they have a program called Anti-Social.

Do you use a program to help you manage Internet distraction, or are you among those who have learned to manage it on your own? What’s your method?

Update:

I’ve been using the Freedom app over the last few days, and I love it. Not only does it force me to focus (no quick diversions to check email), it serves as a work timer. For example, let’s say I’ve set it to block the Internet for 1 hour. At the end of the hour a little message pops up telling me I’m reconnected. Once I start writing, I don’t stop until the message tells me I’ve completed my session. Then I reward myself by getting up and stretching, checking my email, or whatever — before starting Freedom again for my next session. Too cool. And what a perfect tool for NaNoWriMo.

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Image Credits:

This weekend I attended The Sun magazine’s annual writers’ workshop, “Into the Fire” at Esalen in Big Sur. Having been to one of these workshops four years ago, I anticipated the weekend as eagerly as a child anticipates an Oreo cookie–imagining twisting it apart, licking out the luscious filling, then biting into the crisp chocolate biscuits before finally licking the crumbs from my lips.

If you have never been to Esalen, it’s an experience I highly recommend (see link to virtual tour of Esalen at the bottom of this post). Think spiritual center on a cliff at the ocean’s edge in Northern California: ocean waves and breezes and salty air; hot spring baths; yoga and dance; unbelievable meals made with love, fresh-farmed, and just-picked ingredients; and all the time you need to write, ponder, meditate. There’s more. Too much to write here, because that’s not the point. The point is that I want to share some of my workshop experience with you.

The workshop began on Friday night with a welcome orientation and readings by the workshop presenters: Chris Bursk, Frances Lefkowitz, Alison Luterman, and Cary Tennis (saving Sy Safransky’s for our final meeting on Sunday morning).

Saturday, we had our choice of three workshop sessions in three strands–Essays, Memoirs, & True Stories, Poetry, and Fiction–as well as a two hour writing session with prompts such as those used for the “Readers Write” section of the magazine.

Saturday morning arrived in style with a 6:30 a.m. soak in the outdoor hot springs baths, the sky and sea changing color as the sun rose over the tips of the eastern hills. Feeling loose of limb and spirit, I attended a Chakra Meditation session, followed by freestyle dance movement. All this before breakfast, which was a sensory delight all its own with choices of fresh baked breads, homemade jams and butters, grains and oatmeals, fruits, juices, soft and hardboiled eggs, yogurt, and coconut, coffees and teas, on and on ad infinitum. From there, I launched myself into the writing sessions, where instruction and writing time was balanced with story sharing and feedback. It was a full day, and yet there was time for connecting with other writers, watching the sunset, and breathing deeply of the fresh, salt air.

On Sunday morning, we were asked to freewrite about our weekend using the prompt, “What happened was…” Here is what I wrote:

What happened was… a mix of people touched one another’s minds and hearts through writing, conversation, and shared meals.

What happened was my usual way of being: shyness and reservation overruled by a voice that won’t shut up even when I think she doesn’t deserve to speak, even when I think everyone else’s writing is so much better. What happened was that I couldn’t go to sleep at night and so lay listening for long hours to the soothing white noise of the ocean and staring at the strange abundance of stars out my window; I pulled myself out of bed in the morning to let hot sulphur baths restore me to sanity.

What happened was that several times each day, groups of writers crowded into rooms and wrote, pens scratching, fingers tapping, energies reflective. We shared our deepest hopes and fears and longings. We shared our stories. And not just in the writing rooms, but also at the dining table, in the baths, and along the garden paths.

What happened was a renewal of spirit and of purpose, getting away from what is to slide between layers of time to what will be. And we’ve all been successful, one way or another, whether we know it yet or not.

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Now it’s your turn. Thinking about your weekend, freewrite for ten minutes, beginning with “What happened was…”

I invite you to leave a comment and share your response.

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Virtual Tour of Esalen

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With all the possibilities journaling offers, from simply writing on lined notebook paper to beautiful and complex art journals, I found Quinn Creative’s recent post, Journaling with Words, humorous and enjoyable. Plus, she offers a great journaling exercise to help you identify and acknowledge the creative aspects of your personality. When I saw the exercise, I thought it would also be an interesting way to select and highlight traits of characters you’re writing about in your journal, memoir, or fiction story.

As the leaves turn color and begin to fall from the trees, we turn inward, to our homes and our thoughts. There is no better time to write, and fast-approaching November is the month to take on the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge. I took part in NaNoWriMo three years ago, and it was one of the best things I ever did for my writing, forcing my inner editor to take a back seat to the flow of words. George Angus’s post, NaNoWriMo: The Right Rite of Passage for Writers is worth reading, if you want to get a better idea of what NaNoWriMo can do for you. And, though the the idea is all about writing fiction novels, I see no reason why you couldn’t apply your NaNoWriMo month to writing your memoir — you know, the one you keep saying you’re going to write. Sure, the first draft will be horrible. But it will be written. That’s the point.

Speaking of up and coming events, don’t miss the National Association of Memoir Writers’ free (yes, FREE!) daylong online writing conference on October 21st. The general topic is Truth or Lie–On the Cusp of Memoir and Fiction. Even if you can’t be there for the live conference, you can sign up and access recordings later.

For those of you like to visualize and play with paper and scissors and glue, creating your own Writer’s Inspiration Collage might be the way to go. Nicole Zimmerman over at paper-pencil-pen shows you how. Hmmm… sounds like fun…I know what I’m going to do this weekend.

If you know about blog posts that readers here would be interested to know about, send me the links via my contact form, and I’ll check ‘em out.

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Image Credit: **tWo pinK pOSsuMs**
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Everyone has habits. Some of these habits we think of as “good” and some as “bad.” If we’ve labeled a habit as bad, it’s probably because we consider it to be unhealthy in some way, such as smoking or drinking too much. Or perhaps you think it’s a bad habit because it annoys someone you love and they’ve told you it’s bad: you fall asleep in the recliner every night, leave the toothpaste on the counter, or forget to call home when you’re going to be late.

To make matters worse, habits we think of as bad create emotional baggage — guilt, emotional pain, and disappointment, for example — which makes any impact extend beyond the direct consequences of those habits. But habits, good and bad, develop for reasons; they don’t just appear one day in full bloom.

This week’s journal writing prompts will help you reflect on your “worst” habit: its source, its true impact on your life, whether you really consider it to be bad or have just accepted it as such, and what you might need to do to change it (if indeed, that’s what you want to do).

1. What do you consider your worst habit to be? Describe it in detail, including how and under what circumstances you engage in it.
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2. Perform a word association exercise with the name of your habit. Then, freewrite for ten minutes about all of the concepts and images associated with it.
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3. Why do you consider this habit “bad” or “worst”? What negative consequences come with it, for you and for those around you?
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4. When you do whatever this “worst” habit is, in what ways do you punish yourself? Or do you? How does having this habit affect your self-image and esteem?
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5. What essential inner need does your habit fulfill? In other words, in what ways does indulging in this habit work for you; what are its positive aspects? Think about when you first began this habit. What were it’s positive aspects then? What did you achieve for yourself by doing it?
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6. What is the opposite of your habit? For example, whether your habit is to procrastinate, to drink, or to bite your nails, what do you consider its opposite to be? Freewrite for ten minutes about this opposite quality or habit and what you think your life might be like. Do you feel resistance to your habit’s opposite? Write about the resistance. Who and/or what events does it remind you of?
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7. Write about what your life would be like without your habit. Would you prefer a life without it? If so, make a list of five things you’d need to do to change it. If not make a list of five things you’d need to do to find more acceptance from yourself and/or others.

I invite you to share your thoughts on this topic by leaving a comment below.
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Image Credit: Miguel M. Almeida
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