I always thought I would be someone who journaled. Preferably fireside with a sweater on and some hot beverage steaming out of my mug while it is snowing, this is how I always see it in my mind’s eye.
Especially these days as we tap-tap-tap on our phones and computers, the notion of a journal with actual pages feels so romantic to me. Maybe there is a ring from the coffee on the page or even a fabric bookmark to save the page.
I really found my way last year in my journal practice writing with Amy Shenk in her therapeutic writing sessions (not an ad, all love). I found I needed a prompt and a container with time and people. I will rarely sit down to write down solo, how nice to know about myself.
And now I can say that I so enjoy how the pen releases onto the page and some times when I am writing frivolously, it smudges the line. It makes it so real. You write. You feel. You smudge. And then you go out into your day with remnants of the practice on the edge of your right hand and on the edges of your being. I do believe a space for expression matters.
Speaking of expression, I wrote an e-book and at the end of each chapter are journal prompts to explore the content and let your words integrate the material you read. Perhaps you explore pen to paper as you read the prompts. Or maybe you close your eyes and see the answer. Maybe you like to think and move so you screenshot the questions and take them with you on a walk - how very Mary Oliver of you.
Today I am sharing journal prompts from Chapter 1: Create Your Ground in my new e-book, Getting Found: A Core Values Experience…
Grab a pen. Grab a journal.
Make a list of attributes you love about yourself. Think about what people count on you for? Think about what you count on you for?
Where in your life do you feel most free? What are you doing? Who are you with? What does that freedom feel like in your body, explain in sensations.
List the page 1-10. Write out the places and spaces where you feel out of alignment, it may feel like sandpaper. Now you know. Save this list, we will refer back to it.