Journals and Journaling

If you know me in real life (and probably if you know me online, too), you know that I am obsessed with journaling.  I try to make it a daily practice.  Sometimes (if time permits), I will even journal multiple times a day!  The clarity I get from it can be quite addictive.

I do a sort of free form, stream-of-consciousness, journaling.  I allow my hands to be a recorder - while my brain dictates.  Because I can't write as fast as I normally think, it slows my brain down a bit, quiets the extraneous thoughts, and allows what is REALLY on my mind a space to be heard + recorded.

And every time I do that - I get the answer.  Sometimes, the answer to my problem/question will just pop into my mind - as if it were already there hiding beneath the surface waiting to be called up. Sometimes it will come from something externally - like a post on facebook - or a passage from a book that I am reading.  Putting my issues into words, for some reason always calls the solution to me.

For the past few years, I have used a cheapie composition book to journal in. It is covered with a cute, scrappy-quilted, journal cover (that I plan to reuse - but by the time I finish a journal, I am in the mood to make another cover).

I love the look of the outside of them - but I wanted my current journal to be a bit more expressive of my inner world. So, I made a book that represents that - a book filled with black pages.  I know, that sounds very dramatic.

But seriously, when I sit quietly inside my own head - it is so dark and grim in there - probably from being so repressed.  I learned from my super religious up-bringing, that we are to search OUTSIDE of ourselves for answers, that the Bible holds all of the (important) answers, and if there is any conflict in my mind - then I must squash the inner *knowing* that is conflicting.

Because what is it that we really know?  Isn't man inherently evil?  And without believing in the Christian faith, aren't we lost and doomed for hell?  Maybe...

But if I keep following a path that someone else has dictated is the *right one*, I will most certainly have a nervous breakdown.  My family has a history of mental illness, so this is more than probable.

Anyway, that is the back story to my journal of black pages.  Fortunately, the more I face my shadows (shine light on them) they disappear!  So maybe my next journal will be a bit brighter. ;)

Are you ready to start journaling? Do it!  Do it right now!  It may take a while to get your flow - and to start receiving inner wisdom - but it is soooo, soooo amazing when you do!  Here are a few tutorials to make your own journal!

Here is a tutorial on how to make a journal cover.              Here is one on how to make a journal with black pages.

                   

Love and Light

Ayana