Do you ever feel like you are going in circles in your journal, writing about the same old thing all the time? Do you feel recharged and replenished after you write in your journal or do you sometimes feel bored and uninspired?
Journal writing can stir lots of ideas and emotions, self-expression is cathartic! Journal writing is a way of making time for yourself, it is a way of saying that “I matter.” It can be fun and nourishing to show up to the blank page to know, grow and care for yourself.
Here are three creative journaling ideas to help you recharge and be inspired from within:
1. Write outside in nature – book a “journal writing date” with yourself and pick a favourite spot out in nature to go and write. You might sit on a park bench, lean against the bark of a big tree, take a blanket to a nearby beach or river bank…simply pick a spot outside that feels good to you. Arrive there, get comfortable, take a few grounding, centering breaths to relax and open your journal and write.
Write about where you are, how you feel, write about how being in nature touches something about your inner nature, write about the trees – how they are breathing in the air you exhale and you are breathing in the oxygen they create. Remember and notice your connection to trees. Write whatever wants to emerge in nature.
2. Write about possibilities – use your journal like a dream board or vision board or manifesting tool. Let it be creative. Perhaps you want to doodle, or paint, or collage, or use stickers, or add photos, or glue a picture of your dream vacation, or write a poem about how you want to feel. Here is a journaling into possibility list exercise I did at the retreat –
I made a list of 20 I could.…statements. I could swim with dolphins. I could go on a writing retreat to Bali. I could learn how to swim lengths. I could finish writing my adoption memoir. I could…
YOUR Turn: I could…
3. Play with poetry in your journal – I am not a poet but I love playing with poetry because it allows me to use less words, explore more playfully, use metaphors, listen within and observe more closely. There are many ways to write a poem. A simple and playful way is through what are simply called alphapoems (you might remember these types of poems from when you were a child?)
I made an alphapoem from a single word. First I completed this sentence, I want to…
I want to create a FRESH vision.
Then I played with the word FRESH in an alphapoem and wrote:
F un
R elax
E njoy
S ilence
H appy
YOUR turn: Pick 1 word, a feeling that you might like to feel more of in your life, write it down and create an alphapoem with it.
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Creative journaling does not have any rules. It is playful, spontaneous and a chance to give yourself full permission to let go of any perfectionist, or “doing it right” tendencies that might creep into your journal writing. Give yourself permission to play. To create. Allow inspiration to rise up from within. Breathe. Write.
As Nicolle Nattrass, our creative journaling facilitator at the recent uBlossom woman’s retreat I attended, said:
- “No rules. No pressure.”
- “Journaling is a soft place to talk to myself. A soft place to land.”
- “My journal is a sacred space for myself without pressure.”
- “You can access a fresh version of yourself through journaling.”
There is that word “fresh” again. Keep it fresh!
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