Sunday, December 25, 2011

Why I love to Journal

I was remembering a past career I once had as a journaling workshop coordinator.  My goal was to teach people in groups on how to journal and in my intro, I would always start of with 'Gratitude' as the group's first activity.  In debriefing the activity, the group would agree that they felt amazing after completing this simple exercise of writing everything they had to be grateful for, and doing so in ten minutes.   This is when I would enthusiastically say 'And guess what, everybody!?  YOU made yourself feel great!!!"  A simple journaling activity that can instantly change the way we feel- AWESOME!

The feeling of being drawn into the present moment and having the weight of burden lifted from your shoulders is what I experience regularly when I journal with my heart.   As mentioned in earlier posts, being completely honest with yourself is a requirement for effective journaling....and really being free in general.  However, we may not always have a venue/ear to vent or spill our problems to.  A journal provides a safe way for you to dump your troubles and if you are not comfortable having this out in the open, all you have to do is simply destroy the page you wrote on.  Leading to my other reason for enjoying journaling- it is a relatively inexpensive way to relieve stress.

I came across a fantastic blog post that is quite timely for the new year.  In reading this, I started asking myself questions such as 'What do I enjoy doing that makes me happy?', 'Who in my life can I spend my time with to help me grow and love?', 'What can I do to be in the present moment? ' and so on.  I highly recommend this read and would encourage you to converse with your thoughts in a journal on how you are going to make 2012 a successful and happy new year!

http://www.marcandangel.com/2011/12/18/30-things-to-start-doing-for-yourself/

And for any questions on journaling, please send an email to gautam4life@gmail.com .  And remember, be honest with yourself and speak from your heart.  :)


Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Take a breath and pat yourself on the back.....:-)

Too often, we work ourselves into a frenzy always focussing on the next step and we lose track of all that we have accomplished.  This is a journaling prompt that I used yesterday, which provided me with incredible energy and validation.  

The prompt: "I am proud of what I achieved today!  Among the many things, I am really proud of..."
and this is where you can create a list in point form or by sentence.  The magic of journaling reveals itself when the user is completely honest with themselves and does not edit their thoughts.   After doing this activity, I felt that I had provided some value to my family, my career, and my.....life!