Prayer Prompt

7.5 Things to Know to Start Your Journal

How do I start writing a journal?

What do I do to keep it going?

Where do I go when I don't know what to write next?

Who can help me when I can't think of anything to write at all?

So with all those questions, it's easy to know why you haven't already begun writing your spiritual journal.

If I may, I'll offer you 7.5 tips that can make getting off the ground breeze-easy.

1. The journal you choose does matter. Pick a journal, a notebook, a pad, a binder, anything that you are not just comfortable with, but that you actually enjoy having, carrying, opening, looking at, using. The more pleasure you derive from the journal itself, the book that will contain your true journal, the easier it will be to become intimate with it. (In fact, the harder it will be not to!)

2. The pen or pencil, quill or crayon with which you write matters too. It should be comfortable in your hand. It should be easy to manipulate as it moves across the page in just the way you want it to. And the glide of your pen's point across the page should offer just the right amount of friction to keep you connected to the words flowing.

3. Time can affect your journal writing, especially at first. To build a routine and get comfortable with the process of opening the journal, taking out the pen, beginning to write, I suggest you set a regular time for writing. It may be best early in the morning or just before you retire. Perhaps shortly after lunch or late in the afternoon. Before long, you will either cherish that writing time or you will have become so comfortable you are writing any time, all the time.

4. Space can make a difference. If you know a set place will contribute to your comfort, provide you interruption-free focus, stimulate your imagination/memory/creative energy, that's the place to write. Chances are space, like time, will become secondary to the pure joy of writing in your journal.

5. Getting started. Don't sweat it. Don't imagine your first writing has to be any great shakes. Write your name. Write how you feel about starting a journal: nervous, excited, uncertain? Write a letter to the first grade teacher who taught you how to write in print. Write anything and be glad you've started. Write me if you wish ideas.

6. Getting started everyday. Or any day. Sometimes, even if you've written in your journal for weeks or months or years, you'll run into a wall. You won't be able to think of anything to write. Write about that. Write, "I can't think of anything to write. I can't think of anything to write. I can't think..." That's probably all it will take. Usually by the third rep, I've thought of something to write. You will too.

7. Banish your editor. Your journal is not a final copy. Ever. It is not even a rough draft to be perused, criticized, raked over the coals. The editor in your head cannot be allowed to sit on your shoulder and watch as you write. The writing is for you. Entirely for you. Not for anyone else unless you want them to see it...but then you probably don't want them to tell you how to make it better. It's fine just as it is.

7.5. Ignore all of the above suggestions (except #7) if they do not "fit" you. And your journal.

5.5 Ways Spiritual Journal Writing Can Turn You On

Three weeks ago I began my first run of JournalTrek: Your Guide to Spiritual Journal Writing. If the participants are having just 1/2 as much fun as I am, the workshop is a success.

I am loving it.

If you have any interest in

• knowing more about yourself, your spiritual awareness and curiosity,
• finding out more about you in relation to your world, your universe, your cosmos, your spirit/God/source,
• asking and answering questions that otherwise would just skip across your mind,

then writing a spiritual journal may be just what you're looking for.

If you need any convincing, here are five and a half reasons I've found true for me:

1. Spiritual journaling gives me a magnificent means to discover little and big, happy and sad, major and minor things about my Self.
2. Writing regularly offers outstanding opportunity to bring to the surface what really wants to be brought to the surface (even if I didn't know it did!).
3. Virtually every time I write I get relaxed and energized at the same time.
4. By looking back to see forward I bring my past into my present without going into "Why am I...?" and "Why do I...?" psychological quagmires.
5. Having and writing a journal gives me a friend who's always with me (who's not the imaginary friend I had to let go years back.)

     5.5 It's loads of fun.

Not Your Usual Book of Blessings

Sometime back I became really aware of how thankful I am for so much in my life.

That led me, thankfully, to realize how many blessings occur in my everyday life, every day. Blessings of all shapes and sizes: small, medium and large.

I decided to add another journal to my collection of ongoing journals, logs, chronicles, blogs, and notebooks. A Blessings Notebook.

So simple. It sits on my beside table, and a pen is always there beside it!. A few minutes every night right before sleep, I jot down what I feel has blessed me, blessed my day, blessed my world.

Here are just a few of the things I've discovered thanks to this small notebook:

• My sleep-thoughts and dreams go back over the day's blessings. I sleep beautifully.
• I don't forget to write the blessings down every day because my Blessings Notebook is right by my bed.
• During the day I am more attentive to the good that happens, to the blessings I enjoy.
• Every couple of days I go back and review what I've written previously. It's a kick.
• I simply cannot feel needy with the growing record of blessings right there in my own handwriting!

I would love for you to share how you discover your gratitude, express your thanks, hold on to your bliss.

Spiritual Journaling? All It Takes Is Pen and Paper

I have written a journal, of one type or another, for 40 years. To say my journal is my best friend is almost true. To say it is the friend with whom I have had the longest, most intimate relationship is decidedly true.

As recently as a few months ago, I realized that every journal I've kept still contributes to my spiritual discovery and growth, from the stiff cardboard covered composition book my freshman year in college to the leather bound notebook I am filling now. The effort of writing, the follow-on reading and reflecting, and the seamless connection of one journal to the next (no matter how many months or years intervened) and of all journals to each other--all these have impact.

I offer you these reasons to consider keeping a journal. I see these reasons as benefits of journal writing. Journaling may give you

• A quiet, uninterrupted place to express thoughts you don't want to make public.
• An opportunity to ask questions of special importance to you.
• An opportunity to sample answers to those questions and not worry that the answers aren't      "right" (yet).
• A place to look simultaneously at past, present, and future and consider how they may be      connected (or not).
• A way to play with ideas that may not make sense right now (or ever) but that you wish to play with anyway.
• A chance to look at and listen to your Self without any judgment or criticism or fear.
• A repository for your consciousness: the connector between your thoughts and your actions.

When I invite people invited to my workshop, Journal Trek: 108 Steps on Your Journey to Journaling, I hear many excuses. These are most common:

• "I'm a terrible writer."
• "I wouldn't be able to think of anything to write."
• "Having to write makes me remember how much I hated Language Arts in school!"

They may choose not to become journal writers. You may not either. Still, I offer these counterpoints:

• No one grades your journal; you shouldn't either.
• Difficulty thinking of anything to write is a perfect topic to write about.
• You do not have to fill your journal with Big Topics or Great Ideas or Major Themes. You can do lots of meaningful writing about very, very simple subjects.
• Allowing yourself to put pen to paper just may release negative energy you've held onto for a long time.

Since I don't want logistics to stand in your way, here are some recommendations about materials, time and place that may help your journal writing:

• Select a notebook that makes you completely comfortable. If lined make careful selection between normal and college-ruled. Do you want a journal you can fold open to one page-side only (like a spiral notebook), for convenience? Should it fit in your purse or briefcase easily? Would you prefer brightly colored and designed or subtle and demure?
• Equip yourself with a pen or pencil that you really like using. For me, a large part of my enjoyment is the physical act of writing. So the more I like holding and maneuvering my pen, the better.
• Determine if you will be happier writing at the same time every day or if you want your journal      writing to be more spontaneous.
• Consider the same about space: want to always write in your study or your favorite coffee spot? Or can you sit and write wherever the spirit moves you?
• Write without thinking about how "good" (or "bad") your writing is. Your journal writing does not have to produce a poem or story, a report or article. Your purpose is to explore and express, not to excel.

Finally, here are three books I recommend you take a look at. You will not need any of these books to get you started. That only requires pen and paper! But once you're rolling as a journal writer, these books may interest you:

• Baldwin, Christina; Life's Companion: Journal Writing as a Spiritual Practice
• Budd, Luann; Journal Keeping: Writing for Spiritual Growth
• Cameron, Julia; The Artist's Way

Write on!