Journaling is about ourselves and the things that affect us. Because of this, it’s logical that we can use our journals as our quiet time to just be with ourselves. It’s a chance to get away from it all and meditate. If we have stress or any other issues in our lives, journaling helps to centre us.
Finding our centre is important because it’s a chance to gather ourselves and our heads and to get to that place where we can reflect on where we need to be. What is keeping us from where we need to be? How can we get there? These are questions that our journals can help us to answer. And the answers that we find can take us to a different place – hopefully to a place that is a little more peaceful and tranquil.
Journaling in itself requires that we move away from the hustle, bustle and noise so that we can hear ourselves think. This is both a literal and figurative move. We need to make the shift in our minds but we need to physically find a quiet place where our thinking is not impeded by distractions. When we put pen to paper, we are in fact already in reflection mode. We can enhance this experience by being in the right place – a quiet place.
Today let’s get away with our journals, find a quiet place and calm our minds and write.
Remember there is nothing like words in black and white to help you see where you are and where you are going.
Sheryl A. Keen
Author “Journal According to John.”
http://www.sherylkeen.com
https://personaljournaling.wordpress.com
http://authors.aalbc.com/sheryl.htm
August 3, 2009
Posted by Sheryl Keen |
Uncategorized | bustle, calm, centre, distractions, enhance, experience, figurative, hustle, issues, journal writing, journaling, literal, lives, meditate, minds, noise, paper, peaceful, pen, personal journaling, physically, quiet, reflection, shift, stress, tranquil, write |
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Writers write and the more we do it the better we become at it. It’s like they say practice makes perfect. When we write in our journals we may not be doing our official writing but the act of writing constantly can sharpen our minds and our thought processes. So when we come to the writing that we do for publishing, we will have unconsciously honed our skills a little.
We can also consciously use our journals to develop our skills as writers. We can try out different writing methods and see which one is best for us. This is where we can try a writing technique that is not usually our style. Who knows, we may find something that could possibly enhance our writing and make our stories that more exciting and meaningful. The great thing about our journals is that we can try these things with ourselves before we allow anyone to see our finished products.
Our journals may also have great story ideas in them and so we can use our own past experiences as research. Think of all the places we have been, our thoughts and impressions on events close to us and far from us, stories told to us by strangers and family members and just the events of our everyday lives. We have some of this written down in our journals and this record can be used as fodder for interesting stories. Rereading our journals can take us back to a particular memory and all the feelings that surround that memory and make for powerful fiction or nonfiction.
Let us look at our journals as more than just static records and see them as tools to sharpen our skills and as a library where research can be done.
Remember there is nothing like words in black and white to help you see where you are and where you are going.
Sheryl A. Keen
Author “Journal According to John.”
http://www.sherylkeen.com
https://personaljournaling.wordpress.com
http://authors.aalbc.com/sheryl.htm
June 22, 2009
Posted by Sheryl Keen |
Uncategorized | black, close, consciously, constantly, enhance, events, everyday lives, exciting, family members, far, feelings, fiction, finished products, fodder, honed, impressions, interesting stories, journal writing, journaling, journals, library, meaningful, memory, methods, minds, nonfiction, official, past experiences, perfect, personal journaling, places, powerful, practice, publishing, record, rereading, research, sharpen, skills, static records, stories, story ideas, strangers, style, think, thought processes, thoughts, tools, unconsciously, white, write, writers, writing technique, written |
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