THIS WEEK’S BLOGTALK is the first of monthly posts that will highlight journaling news, research, and other blog posts about journaling. For today’s Journaling News, we’re taking a look at journal writing for children — the benefits, ways to get them writing, and tips for continued practice.

This week’s National Writing Center for Children’s blog article is all about creating a nature journal. A great idea for children of all ages.

How about creating a Family Journal Night? What a unique (and excellent) idea! Now why didn’t I do this with my kids when they were young?

Courtney has some writing prompts for children at her blog, Women Living Well.

Kim Henry is a high school teacher who writes about the benefits of getting kids to write down their thoughts, from better understanding of what they read to improving their thinking skills.

And finally, though this article by Neil Rosenthal isn’t specifically about journaling for children, Angry Adults Given Specific Messages as Children is about some of the childhood causes of anger and depression in adults. One of these is not having constructive outlets for self expression, such as art and journaling.

I invite your feedback about Blogtalk: Journaling News, as well as comments about any of the articles. If you have news to share on Blogtalk, contact me via my web form.

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Photo art: Amber Starfire

Original Photo: Sunandita

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SO, YOU THINK you’ve just met the perfect boy, girl, man, or woman. Journaling through all the ups and downs at the beginning of a new relationship can help you understand your emotions and keep your head in the process. Journal writing gives you the opportunity to express and clarify your feelings in a safe and private way, as well as celebrate the newness of the connection.

You are probably aware that romantic love usually begins with infatuation and also know its symptoms: You are carried away by love for the other person and can’t stop thinking about him or her. Just thinking about her makes your heart beat more quickly and your face flush. He’s handsome, you share common interests, and sure, you know he has some faults — you just can’t see them yet. You are excited to see her but become unbearably awkward and shy in her presence. When you are away from him, you are miserable and have no appetite.

Bundled together, these feelings are also known as New Relationship Energy (NRE) or the Honeymoon Phase. Falling in love is a wonderful feeling and, if you’re in that phase of a relationship, enjoy it! But it’s also good to enter into any new relationship with intention and understanding.

Here are some journal writing prompts to help you keep your balance:

1.    Write a love poem. It’s okay, make it sappy, silly, fun — whatever you want! The point is to express yourself.

2.    Write down every feeling you have when you think about this person. When have you experienced those feelings before? What memories are attached to those feelings?

3.    In the past, when you had an argument with someone you loved, how did you feel and behave? Is there anything about that behavior that you would like to change for the future? Write about it.

4.    Make a list of all the things you like and admire about the new person in your life. Now, for each of those things, write down its opposite. Pick one or more of the opposite traits and write about how and when that trait is good to have. For example, let’s say you wrote that you like his or her sense of humor. The opposite of that might be seriousness. Write about when it’s beneficial to be serious and when having a sense of humor might be inappropriate or irritating.

5.    Write about how you like to show your love to others, what kinds of things others do that make you feel loved, and how you know when someone cares about you.

6.    Finish the following sentence: In the eyes of my ideal lover, I am …

7.    What does it mean to love yourself and to accept yourself as you are? Are these the same things or different? How? And how does loving and accepting yourself affect your ability to love and accept others?

8.    List the qualities of good communication. Which of these is most important to you and why?

9.    Write a list of all the people in your life you trust (you can include people from your past). What qualities do these people have that makes (or made) you able to trust them?

10.    What is the most important thing you can do to nurture a loving relationship? Think about people you know who are in good relationships. How do they demonstrate this quality/action/trait?

You can also use these writing prompts as conversation starters to get to know each other better.

I invite you to join the conversation. Leave a comment about these prompts or share your own prompts. I look forward to hearing from you!

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Image Credit: Newport Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau

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Adrienne Crezo, in her blog post “On Being Submissive,” beautifully articulates writers’ (and artists’) dilemma: we possess a need to create through our art, second only to our physical needs to breath, eat, and sleep, yet — human that we are — feel inadequate to the task. Our minds imagine great works of sculpture, words of light, transformative creations that will shake the world. (Even when our art is journaling, we hope that we will leave something worthy of future generations.) But our fingers create something much smaller and, we think, less significant.

I empathize with much of what Adrienne has to say, having the same sorts of battles myself — except for one thing, and that is the concept of submitting to this drive. I am picking at the word itself, not the sentiment she communicates in her post. To me, the word submission is a negatively loaded term of compliance, yielding to some outside force or authority, acceptance, and resignation. It is a giving up and setting aside of self rather than a building up and expression of self, which is what I think art is ultimately.

I believe that what Ms. Crezo wants to convey is summed up best in her words: “My intention is to let the compulsion to write drive me, to hand my hands over to the Muse …” Rather than a process of submitting, I think the creative process is about learning to tune in to the Greater Self (after all, aren’t we each our own Muse?), to listen to our intuition, receive, and then use whatever talents and skills we have managed to accumulate to bring what we have heard into the world.

The creative process, whether writing or some other form of art, can be likened to giving birth: a seed of thought meets the divine breath of life and takes root; it must then be nurtured, fed, developed, and born. All of which takes awareness, focus, effort, and skill — at least if you want the child to be healthy and strong. Art is the same.

At times we may feel great and, at others, less than the lowest, and still possess that need to create. We can call it compulsion. We can say that we’re submitting to some invisible force. We can pretend it is not ourselves we are speaking about. But a rose is a rose; we have within us that [art, work, book, craft, word, thought, dream] which desires to come into the world and be made reality.

I encourage all of us writers and artists to change the way we think about ourselves and our art. Instead of submitting to it as though we are under some kind of threat of violence, let us honor it, love it, nurture it, and give it a place in our space and time. There are so many positive reasons to heed our creative call — and I think that by thinking of it as a call rather than an obligation, we will treat ourselves and our work with more compassion.

Now, I think I’ll put my soapbox away and get to work …

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Be sure to get your FREE Journal Writing Guide, Journaling Essentials: Everything You Need to Know to Start and Keep a Journal. Use the form on the right side of the page to receive yours now.
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Photo by: Amber Lea Starfire

Journaling
Journal Writing
Creative Process

If you’re like many of us, sometimes getting started with a new challenge can seem like the hardest thing in the world. Human beings don’t mind hard work or long journeys; we’re just terrified of getting started!

We procrastinate, and make excuses, and stick our heads in the sand. We pretend that if we just wait long enough, the need to change will go away. Except it usually doesn’t, and a day, a week, a year down the road you muster up the courage to re-assess and you have to admit you’ve gotten nowhere.

Eventually, you have to work through your issues; you have to face your challenges, if you’re to go on living with yourself. And journaling is how you can do it with relative ease.

The task ahead of you may indeed be tremendous and difficult, but by using your journal to plan, record, reflect, and revise you can gain indispensable objectivity and comfort throughout the process.

Certainly, getting started is the hardest part. So approach it with heaps of reassuring TLC. Don’t try to be productive. Open your journal and write, “Why do I want to _____________?” (naming your challenge, whatever it is). Then keep writing. Before you stop, set a time for when you will return, and make it a firm date.

With a slow and sensitive start, you’ll soon find that journaling comes easily to you. Not only will you look forward to your regular journaling sessions, but you’ll also continue to be prompted by your journaling thoughts between writings.

At this point, your journal has become your own personal therapist, to whom you can turn for feedback, advice, and guidance whenever you wish.

How exactly does it work? Here’s an example.

If you’re a morning journaler:

•    What are you excited about doing today?
•    What do you hope to accomplish?
•    What are potential challenges you might face, and how can you overcome them?
•    How will you feel at the end of the day?
•    Do you have any insights from yesterday?
•    Were your predictions close to the reality of the day?

Or if you prefer to journal in the evenings:

•    What were your victories?
•    What were your roadblocks?
•    How do you feel?
•    What do you hope for tomorrow?

Keep it simple. Don’t try to write well, or be clever. Just observe and record and listen to your Inner Coach.

With faithful journaling, you find yourself bravely facing challenges in actionable ways and achieving success at unprecedented levels. Your journal is a tool to help you get better at this thing called life.

Author Bio
Mari L. McCarthy – Journal / Writing Therapist. Are you looking for more information on journaling and its therapeutic effects?  Visit Mari’s site at http://www.CreateWriteNow.com. Her trademarked program, Journaling for the Health of It! ™, helps her clients live healthier and happier lives. Recent publications include 53 Weekly Writing Retreats: How to Use Your Journal to Get Healthy Now and Mari’s Most Museful Journaling Tips.
You can also join Mari on Facebook and Twitter

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Image credit: Philo Nordland

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EVERY day, or at least every other day, I make sure to take a few minutes to write in my journal. It is precious time, just for me. I have a tendency to get so involved in all my other commitments — work, family, taking care of the house and others — that it’s easy to forget to take time for myself. Isn’t that the way it always is? Don’t we always think that everything and everyone else is more important than we are?

Journaling is something you can do to take care of yourself, like putting lotion on your skin after a bath or cutting your nails or styling your hair. Would you consider taking care of yourself in those basic ways luxurious and selfish? I don’t think so. And I believe it’s as important to take care of your emotional/spiritual self through quiet practices such as meditation and writing. Personally, I need to write just as much as I need to floss my teeth.

Actually, that’s not a bad analogy, because if I don’t write, the emotional plaque builds up until decay forms in the enamel of my wellbeing, causing pain. And just like flossing, practicing what I preach (writing regularly in my personal journal) takes discipline, commitment, and more importantly, a sense that I deserve this time for myself. (That’s where the analogy ends, though, because writing is way more enjoyable than flossing.)

Would-be journal writers often worry, “Where will I find the time to journal? I already have too much to do.” If you, like them, are concerned about making a time commitment to journal writing, think about the time you spend taking care of your body every day and remember that journal writing can be accomplished in only ten minutes. Don’t you deserve this small gift of time?

Maybe the question we should all be asking of ourselves is, “How can I not find the time to journal?”

ONE of the many, many benefits of journaling is that we get to write with a sense of play and exploration that, in other ways, we may have left behind with our mudpie-making days. Journaling can be as fun as splashing in a puddle with our galoshes on, only it’s all done with words, and we don’t even have to get wet!

Debra, at The Warm Milk Journal blog offers journaling tips and prompts for those of you who just can’t get enough, even after subscribing to my weekly Journaling Through Life E-zine. Debra’s latest article, Tea Time: a meditation and five questions for your journal writing, gives readers five writing prompts that allow you to play while exploring things you might like to do in the future.

Want to figure out where your passion lies? Try prompt #1: Writing a list of activities that you enjoy doing more than anything else in the world and then thinking about whether any of these activities could be a career. Take it a step farther, and try seeing what connects those activities together. For example, throughout my life I have loved to dance, bicycle, and ice skate. Besides the fact that these all involve physical movement (the obvious connection), they all involve feeling the wind in my face and moving through space. That idea opens up even more possibilities. (Parasailing, anyone?)

The second prompt involves making a list of your strengths. Let’s take this a step farther and ask yourself, if each strength was a superpower, what could you do with it?

I won’t share all of Debra’s prompts — you’ll need to read her blog for yourself. But I will say that you might want to add her blog to your list of journal writing websites. And remember, that journaling doesn’t have to be all serious. We can be light, curious, and experiment a little, all in the safety of our writing space.

Here’s to the future!

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Let’s keep the connections open! To participate in BlogTalk, write a post related to this topic and post it in your blog, with a link back to Writing Through Life. Or leave a comment below with a link to your blog. I’ll visit your blog for a future BlogTalk article.

A FUN AND EFFECTIVE journal writing activity is to write letters to yourself — letters that you can seal up and send, just save for a rainy day, or never read again. You can write to the future you, the past you, or the current you. You can write from one part of you (the child) to another part (the parent).

As an example, I write a letter to myself on January 1st each year as a New Year’s ritual. In that letter, I take a predictive tone. Dear Amber, I say, and then I tell myself all the great things that are going to happen that year. I encourage myself to continue following my dreams, and I address things that I’m worried about. At end of the year, just before I write the next year’s letter, I read the previous one. It never fails to amaze me how much wisdom I have.

I also write letters to myself any time I need advice. After all, who can be better than your inner self at knowing what you need? You can use letters to remind yourself to do things, encourage yourself to continue learning and growing, and give yourself pep talks. You can tell yourself how wonderful and love-worthy you are.

Here are a few journal writing prompts to get you started:

1. Write a letter to yourself to be opened 6 months from today. In that letter, address all your current worries and concerns.
2. Pretend that you are in the future, old and wise. Now write a letter from that old, wise you to the present you. What advice does the wise you have for the you of today?
3. Write a letter to yourself about things — memorable and funny — that you want to remember in the future. Write that letter as if you are telling a friend about these things. Date it to be read 2-5 years in the future.

When you complete your letter, seal it in an envelope and give it a date to be opened and read. Write a reminder on your calendar to open the letter and, of course, make sure to keep it someplace you can access later.

If you want, address it, put a stamp on it, and mail it to yourself. You’ll be amazed at how wonderful it is to receive a letter from yourself in the mail.

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WHEN I started Blogtalk a little over a month ago, I thought it would be a great way to get to know other bloggers, share our mutual wisdom with one another, and increase our social networking presence, all at once. Well, it is accomplishing all these things and more. What I didn’t realize was how much fun it would be to read other blogs and then use those topics as writing prompts.

This morning, I read Sharon Lippincott’s short blog post about depending on her laptop to write. She wondered if she was addicted to a particular set of circumstances in order to write and, if true, that was a good thing or not. Which got me to thinking about writing habits in particular.

A good many people report that they do their best journaling and creative writing in public places, preferring to take their notebooks or laptops to coffeehouses and restaurants, where they can write while sipping their lattes. Personally, if I’m in a public place, I’m too busy people watching to write! Other people like to put on some music to bring their muse out of hiding. For me, parked in front of my desk, keyboard under my fingers is best — particularly when I have the house to myself and it’s quiet.

Stephen King in On Writing reported that he writes best in his “transmitting place” — that is the special place in the house where he always writes. He also has a special place to read. He believes that having these habitual places to read and write helps us focus and be more productive. I tend to agree.

Sure, we can write under any circumstances if we want and/or need to. But in our comfortable, habitual place — public or private, light or dark — we will probably be our most prolific and creative. That said, it’s also good to send ourselves “on assignment” now and then to shake things up. Go sit in a mall and write descriptions about the people who walk by and conversations you overhear. Or go to the beach and write about the smells and the feel of the wind on your skin.

So is it a good thing to depend on normal? I think so. It’s also good to shake ourselves (or be shaken) out of our routines once in a while, just so we can see things from a different perspective.

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Let’s keep the connections open! To participate in BlogTalk, write a post related to this topic and post it in your blog, with a link back to Writing Through Life. Or leave a comment below with a link to your blog. I’ll visit your blog for a future BlogTalk article.

THE SENSE OF SMELL has always been my weakest sense, and I have always envied writers whose sense of smell is strong and present in their storytelling. Writers who talk about the steamy, yeast-filled fragrance of a loaf of bread straight from the oven, who remember scents of lilacs and mown grass from their childhood, and who manage to fill their stories with fragrant, rather than visual, imagery.

You might ask why it matters. Studies have proven that some of our strongest memories are linked to smells (even in those of us for whom the sense of smell isn’t particularly prominent). That is why the scent of our mother’s perfume, lingering on her clothing long after she is gone, will bring back a flood of childhood memories, and why certain kinds of food aromas spell contentment.

Women I know who were raised by parents who spent a lot of time in the kitchen associate food with more than just dinner; it equates to family time, to discussion, to warmth, and to comfort. Women like me, whose childhood kitchen smells (except for holidays and canning season) included TV dinners and burnt brownies … well, I can only say that I have a certain fondness for the smell of burning cookies.

I notice that I don’t pay attention to scents, unless they are particularly strong. Therefore, smells and all their associations, negative and positive, don’t show up in my writing of their own accord. To reverse what I perceive as a flaw in myself — not only as a writer, but as an experiencer of life — I set myself a task. During the week, whenever it occurs to me, I try to notice the smells around me. I’ll bend down close and sniff a rose, bury my face in something soft and fragrant, or take note of the not-so-nice smells of burning rubber, diesel engines, or cigars. I inhale deeply of whatever the scent is, and then mentally attempt to describe it.

I ask myself, what does this smell taste like? Is it bitter? Sour? Sweet? Tangy? Does it make my mouth water? Nose wrinkle? When I breathe it in, is it thick or thin? Do I want more of it or less of it? Does it bring up any memories? And so on.

Then, during at least one journal writing session a week, I try to remember a smell that I took note of earlier and describe it. I close my eyes and, in my mind, put myself back in the place where the wonderful fragrance or nose-assaulting smell occurred. I write one paragraph. That’s all. If the memory happens to bring up memories of another kind, I allow myself to write about them, but I don’t force anything.

Here is why this little exercise is successful: I never judge myself (so what if I can’t remember something accurately?); I never judge my writing (hey, no one but me is ever going to read it anyway); and I remind myself that the practice will not only strengthen my writing in the long run, but will also strengthen my powers of perception and ability to stop and breathe in the moment.

If the sense and/or description of smell doesn’t come easily to you, try this little exercise. And let me know how it goes — or smells, as the case may be.

A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO, I wrote about ways to overrule your inner editor/critic, ways that apply to journal writers and creative writers alike. Today’s post is about how journaling can help you connect with your inner guide, or coach, and is inspired by Mari McCarthy’s blog post, in which she gives some great advice about how to connect with that inner part of you that encourages and believes in you.

A good coach will not only offer encouragement, but build on your strengths and push you beyond what you thought you could do to new levels of achievement. And guess what? We all have that well-qualified coach living within us, the only person who really knows all about us — our desires, our abilities, where we are now and where we could be in the future.

If you have a tendency to minimize your abilities or feel negative about your future, journaling conversations with your inner coach will raise self-confidence and help you have the courage to take steps to achieve the life you long for. Even if you don’t tend to be negative and are already confident, your inner coach can help you focus and achieve more.

So how do you have conversations with your inner coach? Just like conversations with another person in real life. I like to use a question and answer format when I journal.

For example, let’s say you’d like to take a class but you’re not sure you’re ready or have the time or the ability.

So you write down the question: Is this class for me? Will I succeed? And then you close your eyes, pen poised, and imagine that you are sitting across from the wisest, most accomplished coach in the world — yourself — and listen.

The coach might answer: You have all the drive and ability to succeed in this class. I think you should take it. If you’re nervous about it, I suggest that you email the teacher and find out more about it.

Or the coach might answer: You have the ability, but remember that you just took on that new responsibility at work and you promised your son that you would go with him to all his soccer practices, so I suggest you hold off until spring. In this example, the coach has given you good advice and encouraged about your abilities to achieve.

The practice of having conversations with your inner coach is fun, encouraging, a way to sort out issues and problems, and so effective it can be downright habit forming.

Next time you journal, try having a conversation with your inner coach. I invite you to leave a comment to let us know how this process works for you and whether you have any advice to offer other journal writers.

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Let’s keep the connections open! To participate in BlogTalk, write a post related to this topic and post it in your blog, with a link back to Writing Through Life. Or leave a comment below with a link to your blog. I’ll visit your blog for a future BlogTalk article.