Tag Archives: journal

Faithful Journaling, Inspirations

Thankful Journal

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pumpkins-1004417_1920This seems an appropriate time of year to be thinking about blessings and things that you are grateful for. And a lot of us do! Let’s try an experiment this year, though. Let’s keep it up all year long!

This year, start making a daily entry in your journal describing something for which you are thankful. Being mindful of your blessings and gifts accomplishes several goals, all of which are probably on your list of things to do.

  1. Being thankful will get your day off to a great start or close it down on a positive note. Simply being mindful of your blessings will help you focus on the good in life.
  2. Writing down your gifts will help you appreciate what you have. Too often, the saying goes, “You don’t know what you have until it’s gone.” Don’t be one of those people. Know what you have by taking regular inventory.
  3. Thankfulness can lift you out of depression.  Yes, you read that right. Being thankful and positive in your journal can actually change the balance of chemicals in your brain that control your mood. Now, it may not be a cure-all for the clinically depressed. You still need to stay in touch with your medical provider. But keeping a thankful journal is quite likely to lift the occasional blue mood for most people.
  4. Mindfulness will help you express gratitude. Often, you will find yourself being grateful for people in your life or for something that someone has done for you. Your journal can prompt you to say something. Consider how you feel when you learn that you’ve had a positive impact on someone’s life. Now go and share that feeling with someone in your life by telling them how they’ve affected you.
  5. Your entries in your thankfulness journal are great to look back upon. When things aren’t going well, they will give you an opportunity to put things into perspective. Most of our problems aren’t as bad as they seem at the time, and even the insurmountable difficulties will eventually settle down. Rereading your thankfulness journal is a great way to keep that in  mind as you go through life’s ups and downs.
Making Money with Journaling

Want to Write a Memoir?

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Journals can be great source material for a memoir, which is a genre that can sell in the right markets. Is your journal destined to become a memoir? Maybe. It’s one more way to make money from your writing, too.

Here are some great articles about how to go from journal to memoir:

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Need some prompts to get you started? Sign up for the list and get 6 weeks’s worth!


 

Tips and Tricks

Five Reasons to Try Free Writing

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abstract-895395_1920Sometimes we lose sight of the many ways we can write. We get so caught up in trying to make our writing perfect and edited (sometimes even on the first try!) that we forget other purposes. Not all writing needs to be perfected. It doesn’t even all have to make sense!

There is a technique called “free writing” that can be a huge help in improving fluency and breaking out of writer’s block. Here’s how it works: Set a timer for a relatively short period, say five minutes. Put your pen to the paper (or fingers to keyboard) and start writing. Write about anything you want, but keep the pen or fingers moving for the entire time you have set. Do not stop for anything! The result will be a stream of consciousness sort of work that can give you some surprising insights. The key is to keep writing without pausing.  It’s even ok to write “I don’t know what to write, I don’t know what to write, I don’t know what to write…”

Want to improve your overall fluency (the ease with which the words come out)? Just gradually increase the time you spend on free writing each day. Move from five minutes to seven, from ten to twenty, and so forth. Move at your own pace. Stay with one time as long as you wish. Stay with one time until you feel comfortable there.

What can free writing do for you? Here are just a few benefits:

  1. Free Writing will improve your fluency. If you stick with it, you will be able to write more efficiently. Ideas will flow more quickly and you will be able to think of just the right words more smoothly.
  2. Free Writing will build the habit of writing. Set aside time each and every day for free writing, and you will also be building the habit of writing in your journal or working on other writing projects.
  3. Free Writing is a great way to warm up. If you find yourself having trouble getting started with your writing, free writing can limber up the brain so that you can move on with your writing tasks for the day, including journaling or working on other projects.
  4. Free Writing will free ideas to fly. When you dis-inhibit your brain, you will find that your ideas flow like a faucet. Look back on your free writing over time, and I promise there will be seeds for more considered writing later.
  5. Free Writing will provide practice with skills. Need to sharpen your editing and proofreading skills? Go back and proofread your free writing. Take those ideas and polish them. Correct the grammar, fix the spelling, and combine sentences. Spiff up the word choices and clarify things. Just wait until AFTER your free writing time to do so.
Journaling Motivation

Topic Ideas: Week of 11-9-15

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Looking for something to write about? Here are some thoughts.

Focuses for a new journal:

  • Your pet
  • Your pregnancy
  • Your favorite holiday recipes

Journal prompts:

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  • Try these on for size:
  • What memories surface when you hear clock chimes?
  • What is your favorite radio station? Why?
  • Where can you go to reduce stress in your life?
  • Create a stress-relief alphabet: write down one strategy for each letter
  • How will you prepare your heart for the next holiday?
  • Describe your most recent “date” with a loved one.
  • What can you hear in the silence? What does it mean to you?

Remember you can get a daily prompt for six weeks by signing up below:

Journaling Motivation, Resources

Benefits of Journaling

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There are probably as many reasons to journal as there are people writing.  If you need some motivation to journal, though, I’ve found some interesting articles that outline some of the many benefits. Check these out!

Five Benefits of Keeping a Journal

The Health Benefits of Journaling

And the granddaddy of them all: 100 Benefits of Journaling

Is your reason on there somewhere??

Inspirations, Tips and Tricks

Journaling In the Square

Here’s an idea: why not start a journal on a pad of quadrille paper? You know the stuff I mean-draftsmen and other people with a technical bent use it to help them create drawings and sketches with proportion.  You can buy pads of the stuff at an office supply store, or even at your favorite big-box department store. You can even print it out for free at http://www.printfreegraphpaper.com.

Now that you’ve got it, what can you do with it?

Graph paper is wonderful for doodling. You can create some remarkably symmetrical images with very little effort. Just let your pen roam freely, then fill in the missing pieces to please your artistic eye.

You can sketch accurately with graph paper, too. If you are trying to capture a visual idea, you can use the guide of the graph paper to draw things in proportion.

It’s fun to put shadows onto drawings. Try shading where a shadow would go.

Take your best shot at creating decorative, graphic lettering to match your current topic and mood. No reason not to break out the markers, crayons or colored pencils to give your letters just the right touch.

Want to get really creative? How about making your own journal in a binder and adding lots of different kinds of paper to suit your mood?

Resources

10 Free iOS Apps for Journaling

Who doesn’t like a freebie?  Now you can journal wherever you may be with your iPhone or iPad. Check out these ten choices that are currently (Nov. 4, 2015) free on the App Store:

  1. Happier: Here’s a fun little app that will keep you looking on theiphoneipad bright side. Happier is a gratitude journal. Not only will it encourage you to look for the blessings in life, it also offers several other bits of encouragement, including little classes to boost your overall satisfaction with your world.
  2. My Wonderful Days Lite: This freebie is a great way to try the app, which features passcode protection, the ability to add photos, and more. It uploads your entries to iCloud, and you can print them using AirPrint. The free version is limited to ten entries per month, though, so if you’re serious about journaling you might need something more robust.
  3. iWish Diary: Record all of your hopes, dreams and ideas with iWish Diary. This free app is packed with features, such as iCloud sync, passcode protection, photo support and more. Developers feel all these positive vibes will improve your outlook on life!
  4. Stream Journal-Easy Journaling: Simplicity is the name of the game with this app. It has few bells and whistles, but is very functional. One unique feature is that it offers “filters,” a way to easily find entries based on type and subject similar to tags.
  5. iDo Notepad (Diary/Journal): This app allows you to create short notes, reminders and more that you can sort, send to others, and even export via SMS to Facebook and Twitter. Send your entries to any other app that supports text files on your device.  Looks like this one would be a really good supplement to your calendar/appointment app.
  6. Grid Diary-Questionnaire Diary, Gratitude Journal, Private, Secret and Simple: Ever get stuck with your journaling? This app’s claim to fame is as a tool to circumvent writer’s block. It uses a grid system that contains prompt questions for you to answer. Fill in the blanks and voila! You have a journal entry!
  7. Mood Track Diary: Social Mood Tracker & Mood Tracking Journal: This one is intended to help you keep tabs on your emotional ups and downs. You can graph your mood swings and end up with a visual representation of your state of mind. If you wish, share with friends or counselors. Track as often as you like, and look for patterns in your graph. It’s not really a writing journal, but could be very, very enlightening.
  8. Penzu- Free Diary & Private Journal: Penzu takes your privacy very seriously-not only can you protect entries with a passcode, you can lock the app with a PIN number and even encrypt entries. The app also features a web counterpart that you can sync with so that your entries and journal are accessible to you and only you from any device in the world.
  9. Easy Journal: Here’s another app that takes your privacy very seriously.  In addition to the locking/entry protection capabilities, it has what the developer calls “Stealth Mode” which allows you to write in a low-contrast color that prevents prying eyes from watching what you are entering.
  10. InkFlow Visual Notebook: Oh my! If you are a visual thinker, this is the journaling app for you!  InkFlow Visual Notebook allows you to not only write your thoughts but draw them. You can sketch, design and doodle anywhere on the screen. It has the bases covered in terms of tools, with many of the same types of tools as art apps.

Have you found iOS apps that you love for journaling?  Leave your choice in the comments below!

 

Journaling Motivation, Tips and Tricks

10 Tips to Stick With It One More Day

Having trouble sticking with your plan to journal regularly? Here are some ideas that may help!

  1. Set up a routine. Choose a time of day that usually works, such as first thing in the morning, during coffee, or after the kids head to bed. Pick a time when you are least likely to be interrupted, and maybe develop a signal to help your family, friends, and partner understand that you are off-limits for 15-30 minutes.
  2. Make an appointment. That’s right, put it right in your calendar or your planner just as if you were meeting another person. Somehow things seem more official if they are “on the calendar.”
  3. Give yourself a reward for regularity. What would motivate you? For some, it’s a few moments of free time. For others it’s an extra bit of television or another round of a computer game. Whatever floats your boat is fine! Just promise it to yourself as a reward for journaling regularly, and then FOLLOW THROUGH!
  4. Choose your media carefully. While there are many, many ways to record your words and thoughts, there is likely to be a much more limited number of things that actually satisfy your soul as you write.  Experiment, and find out if it’s writing on computer, touch screen, or other device, or if it’s an old-fashioned pen put to quality paper, or just what.  You may find a favorite pen. It might be important to write in flowing cursive. Experiment a bit and discover how you can make the experience special each day.
  5. Pick a place. Where can you get away from it all and have a bit of privacy? Picking a consistent spot to journal is almost as important as a consistent time. Your special place should be comfortable and quiet, and as private as you can make it.
  6. Save your journals. It’s quite possible that they will include some ideas or thoughts that you will want to refer back to. It’s also possible that they can serve as reminders of how you solved problems, managed tough situations, or made it through emotionally rocky times in your life.  You never know when you’ll want further inspiration!
  7. Do some experiments. No one said that your journal always has to be written in the same style. What would happen if you tried some rhymed poetry or some haiku? You just may uncover a hidden talent.
  8. Go multimedia. Journals don’t have to be all written in words. Some people actually prefer journaling on blank paper or even graph paper so they can doodle and draw to their heart’s content. Try adding some pictures, sketches, diagrams or abstracts to your journal.
  9. Change your focus. If you’ve been writing a lot about your feelings, try including your observations. If you’ve been commenting on the world at large, shift to your inner self. It will liven up  your writing and motivate you to continue.
  10. Get inspired. Find some prompts that really speak to you. If convenience is part of your equation, try signing up for the Journaling Life email list. You’ll get a great free gift and 42 days of emailed prompts that land in your inbox just when you need them!