We are a “what do I get out of it?” society, aren’t we? We expect every transaction we make to result in a discounted cost to us, not just a bargain but a super bargain like a give away. If the house is for sale as a foreclosure, we expect the sale price to be 1/2 of the normal price.

Journaling is no different; we expend our time and energy when we could be doing twenty other things so we expect that the resultant benefits will hugely outweigh our perceived cost. Let me list the benes that I have found; you run the calculator:

1. You get to write a letter to and dialogue with God or your Higher Power. Yes, I know he knows what we are thinking but when He sees us write it down and communicate on paper, I believe that it means more; it holds more weight.
2. You get to know yourself better. This will happen as you go back and read your earlier journal entries; you will wonder at what you wrote and what you have done since and where you are now.
3. Writing is healing; we get to lay out all of our emotions and examine them like a doctor or a lab technician.
4. Recording our daily gratitudes, ever so small as a smile, will quickly show us that He is wanting to love us and give us pleasure.
5. We get to empty our “worry bucket” and free our mind to start afresh on the new day. No hold-over worries to cloud the arrival of fresh ideas.
6. Emboding our inner voice is an amazing benefit. Martha Graham said, “… and because there is only one of you in all time, its expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost, the world will not have it.”
7. Stress reduction — when our angers and feelings of disappoinment gain control of us, we become frozen; writing them down makes them smaller and lightens our load.
8. We enlighten our relationship with God or the Higher Power. Writing down our prayers to Him allow us to show Him that we are interested in the love he gives us.
9. Our discernment powers become sharpened. We can analyze our choices from the spiritual standpoint; writing the process down enables us to see where we are going.
10. We can record our daily accomplishments and affirmations. We need a pat on the back every day and this is a good way to do that.
11. We grow closer to God by putting “spiritual” into the writing process. It is more than a daily log of events in our life; it records the spiritual connections of those events.

© Copyrighted 2010

Why do we not take more time to observe and really see someone? We glance over a person’s face but then one hour later we can’t remember enough features to recognize them again when we see them on the street. We give everything and everybody what I call, the “big picture snapshot.” We don’t take the time for a focused observation to really look at the details which characterize one tree from another tree, one person from another person, one sunset from another sunset. We always act as if we are at 20,000 ft with a look time of 1/100 second and then our writing (and our knowing) is bland, neutral, and featureless.

I’m sure you have figured out the line “I See You” by now; it is the greeting of the Na’vi, the people of the planet of Pandora from the AVATAR story. Because, they really “saw” the person they were greeting; they noticed every detail and linked their whole being to each other.

How can you appreciate the uniqueness of God’s creations if you don’t focus on the minute features of them? If you don’t link to them and really See Them, not just Look at Them?

Try this “Really Seeing” exercise shown to me by Linda Beaureguard; all you need is a strawberry, your journal and to actively engage all of your senses.

1. Hold the strawberry at arm’s length. Look at it; notice green leaves, red color and globular shape. Turn it around and look at all of its sides. This is our normal viewing position except we are devoting more time to it. Write down in your journal your first impressions.

1. Bring the strawberry in to 12” away. Look at it now; notice shades of green leaves, shades of red color, some white color. Indentations or segments. Seeds on segments, color of seeds, shape. Write down in your journal your first impressions at this range.

1. Bring the strawberry in to 3” away. Look at it now. Rub your finger over it and record its texture. Smell it. How many leaves? Stem? Segments? Tip? Write down in your journal your first impressions at this range.

1. Take a very small bite. Taste it; what is its texture? Color of the hole left.  Smell it. Swallow it. Write down in your journal your first impressions after this observation.

1. Take a larger bite. Any differences? Write those down in your journal.

1. Eat the entire strawberry (not the leaves). Write down what you feel about this step; eating the whole fruit yourself.

1. Journal what you felt or learned about this entire observation experience after reading all of your writing passages.

The next time you are talking to a person or observing a flower or viewing a landscape, try Seeing and then Journal your observations the first chance you get.

© Copyrighted 2010. All Rights Reserved.

“The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want.” – Ben Stein

The major source of a decay of personal energy in journal writing is caused by a lack of commitment to what we want. Most of the time we neglect writing down our SMART goal for our journaling effort and commiting to achieve that goal.
A SMART goal is one that is:
• Specific,
• Measurable,
• Attainable,
• Relevant and
• Time-bound.
Writing down your SMART goal is required to formalize those five elements. One way to do that is with the form I have provided below; you can just check-off most of your choices.

                 MY JOURNALING CONTRACT

Starting ___/___/___, I commit to journal every day for the next __30 days __60 days___More (specify)

I am going to journal each day (minimum) __ 5 mins __ 10 mins __ 30 mins ___ More (specify)

I am going to journal __ Within 30 mins of getting up __ Within 1 hour of getting up __ Within 1 hour before going to bed ___At a set time (specify)

I am going to journal __At home __At work __________At another place (specify) __Various (while waiting)

I am going to use this method to journal __Daily record of events __Reactions to events __Dialogues __Prayer __Interpret Bible verses _______________________Other (specify)

The tool I am going to use for my journaling is __Journaling software on computer __Wordprocessor on computer __Notebook __3X5 File Card _______ Other (specify)

The top three goals I want to achieve from my journaling are:
1. ____________________________
2. ____________________________
3. ____________________________
I am going to be accountable to _________________________ every _______________ for this contract.
My Printed Name ________________________________________
My Signature____________________________________________
Date _____________________

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So, jointly pick up a journal and a place in the bookshelf to store it. Then you and your significant other can alternately write in the journal and place it back on the shelf for the other person to pick it up the next day to continue the process. Or mimic the process using online tools.

Start out with one sentence and then increase the amount of writing; “I love you” is necessary but not sufficient. Just Journal.

I consider spending the ending of the day journaling to and about God as a special time:

• It is unhurried and relaxing; the morning seems more of a “hurry up and get this done” kind of situation for me.
• In the evening, I don’t have any thoughts jumping into my mind about forthcoming appointments, meetings, schedules, etc.
• It’s easier to remember and reflect on the day’s events and then plan tomorrow’s; by the next morning things have been forgotten if not jotted down during the day. (See my “2 Sentence Journaling” post for another possibility).
•  A quiet time and place is easy to find since the household is getting ready for or are already in bed.

Now I realize that some people are night owls and some people are morning roosters so a lot depends upon when you are the most creative and productive. Interestingly, creativity guru Julia Cameron maintains that after free writing three pages in your journal, you really start generating ideas just like one of those stand-up popcorn makers has popcorn exploding out of the cooker all around the glass cage. So maybe the quantity of your journaling entry is as important as the time of day that you write in your journal.

If you have not found your regular time/place yet, it may take some experimentation to find the best one for you but this task should be one on your most important resolutions for the New Year. (I have settled on sitting in bed in the evening right before sleep time.)  And add a contract to your resolutions:

                I am inspired to journal during 2010 and contract with myself to write at least once per day, at _________ while sitting at ______________. Signed ______________________

 When do you journal? Let me know and I’ll publish the survey results.

Individuals, managers, CEOs, business owners, etc. should be keeping their own Personal Business Journal for their profession career development, self-empowerment and, in the case of small businesses, for the best way to document and assure the continued growth of the business. This journal will be in fact an on-going resume of the business which is readily available for future loan applications, merger discussions, and the Board of Directors.

Two main categories of business journal entries are Facts and Feelings:

• Facts
  • The plans and outcomes of meetings, both internal and external.
  • Documenting goals and successes: yearly, project-oriented, budget, etc. The data for the Annual Report.
  • The recording of ideas for future business “moves”: new markets, future products, new advertising campaigns, etc. as they come to you.
  • How major decisions were made and their results after reflecting back on the outcomes later in time.
  • Feelings
    • A record of meetings with employees; the planned agenda and the actual results.
    • An opinion of business relationships: how are they developing and how can they be improved for the “good of the business.”
    • What focused learning will enable you to better run your business; when can it be scheduled?
    • How is my spiritual and physical life being accommodated in the “rush” to run the business?

Journaling reduces stress and allows us to exercise the highest form of self-expression. We can document our beliefs, our ideas, our progress and our values. It is our sacred space, a record of those thoughts that pass through our mind at a certain moment in time. The Personal Business Journal can be structured or not, regular or not; but the question of a journal entry should be evaluated at the end of every business day.

Pick up a blank journal today and start journal keeping in 2010; you and your business will profit from it.

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Why another journal and a totally different type of journal keeping, you say? Well, I’ve started so many journals before that I’ve never finished. During the day, there are lots of short times during the day that I could use to journal if I would just write two sentences. That journaling is not complicated and a very manageable task. I find it is like jotting down the small pieces of your life puzzle and later, at the end of the week when you reflect on the daily two sentences, you can discern the big picture, the meaning of it.

How do I do it? I use 3×5 lined file cards and a storage box. Then, I:
• Use one card per day; putting the date on the card at the upper left,
• I journal each day; sometime during the day when I have a quiet space. (We’ll talk about the Journaling Process) in the next paragraph.)
• I put the cards in the storage box which then becomes my Journal.

Let me tell you more about my actual journaling process; I:
• Date the card, say a short prayer and open my sense channels,
• Try to notice the input signals being beamed into my soul; the sounds, images, smells, touches, messages, etc.,
• “Listen” for the gaps, the quiet spaces in between the signals, like the quiet wavelengths between radio and TV broadcast stations. I realize that I have the freedom to make a choice of not listening to the signals which have become my own “spiritual noise.”
• Focus on those spaces, tuning out the signals and allow my mind to slow down and concentrate on the one task at hand. I try to eliminate those thoughts of multi-tasking,
• Take a long deep breath, in and out,
• Reflect on my day so far (I usually do this during the evening so I have the whole day to review.) and write one sentence about it. I write only one sentence, using semicolons if needed or comma separated words/phrases.
• Reflect on other people in my relationships that need God’s care and I write only one sentence of a wish or prayer for those people.

At the end of the week, I take out the cards, read each one, and choose a title or topic name for my writing – I put that at the upper right. Then I create “category” section in my file box and file the appropriate cards in that section.

This Journaling Process takes maybe three minutes each day; I know I can find, or make, that much quiet time each day. Can you too?

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What does a “group” have to do with a singular activity like journal keeping? I maintain that a group is the best format to study journaling, share the entries in member’s journals and support each member in their journaling journey. The members of the group will motivate each other to enhance their journaling and each member will be available to hold the other members accountable to their journaling discipline.

You can start with 2-3 committed people and grow to about 6-8; more people tend to make the sharing occupy too much time. Committed, however, is the operative word: people who are committed to attend every session and committed to journal on the intervening days. Beginners or experienced people can provide good group members; a willingness to share with others is the primary prerequisite.  Meeting about 1 ½ hours per week, a support group can provide the essential thrust to keep the members energized for the week.

General rules are:

• Although sharing of their journal writings is a key element of the group covenant, “passing” is also allowed by the members.
• Members should be in a supporting and witnessing mode; not to judge or criticize another’s writing.
• Absolute confidentiality is a must; a person’s journal writings are private and can’t be repeated or discussed outside of the group. The breaking of this rule will destroy a group as well as seriously affect the members.

A simple format for a session could be:

• Welcoming Prayer and Candle Lighting.
• Group Sharing of Discoveries of journaling during the week.
• Description of the Journaling Topic for the session.
• Individual journaling on the Topic.
• Group Sharing of: the Journal Process and the journal entries on the Topic.
• Closing Prayer.

This format will fit nicely in about 1 ½ hours for 6-8 people and can easily provide that extra encouragement necessary to keep a journaling person going on, and on, and on.

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 Spiritual Journals give us a place to record our honest and vulnerable journey with God. We can record what God’s been doing in our lives and we can spiritually share ourselves with Him and examine ways for spiritual growth. Journaling is one important spiritual discipline to employ to achieve a grace-centered life.

The ability to show up regularly to journal (and review later if desired) permits us:

• To generate & record ideas,
• To release anger and,
• To ask for forgiveness,
• And to express our gratitude of blessings received.

 We can describe:

• Where we have been,
• What happened today,
• And where we would like to go.

We can delineate those specific plans for future days and evaluate the accomplishments at a later journal entry.

As a place to sustain our inner personal growth and enhance our professional career, a journal should never be an end to itself but more like practicing the piano – the more you do it, the more natural it becomes. Nor should journal keeping become an obligation or a chore; it is a tool and may fit your “hand” better than other tools fit.

Some more specific types of journals are:

• Logs, a regularly kept record of performance like a ships log recording navigational details. This factual account of events over time is usually kept in a format or even in a table for easy examination of trends and patterns. In summary, a log is a chronological journal, focused on the recording of a specific category of events of our lives and our reflections on those events – a temporal ordering that is familiar to us.
• Diaries, “a daily record and a book for keeping private notes and records” according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, are filled with everything private and personal. They are filled with feelings where logs are aimed at recording facts. Anything is fair game as a “subject” for an entry and spontaneous, “free writing” is the method usually employed. Since knowing a person’s feelings are the clue to knowing a person, diaries are sought after by readers eager to learn about the writer’s true self.

But since our descriptions of our current thoughts are influenced by our moods, diaries usually prove difficult to retroactively analyze the soul, even by the writer.

• Journals then, are a “service book…for accounts of daily events, a record of proceedings and a periodical dealing with current events,” according to the dictionary. Or they can be thought of as containing the superset of entries from logs and diaries, but also recording personal reflections therefore becoming a true working document.

T. Mallon organized journal keepers into seven types:

• Chroniclers—of everyday events of one’s life; more like a diary.
• Travelers—keeping travel journals; more like a log of times and places.
• Pilgrims—exploring the questions of life and its purpose; a true journal.
• Creators—documenting ideas and sketches for later actions; a service book.
• Apologists—explaining history from their viewpoint or another’s; feelings and facts together.
• Confessors—acknowledging their sins and asking forgiveness; and
• Prisoners—either physically or virtually restrained, needing to vent anger not possible in real life;  primarily feeling-oriented.

 So we have named above the keepers of the most common classifications of journals:

• Self-Help,
• Creative,
• Family History,
• Nature & Garden,
• Travel,
• Chronological,
• Professional Accomplishments,
• Dialogue,
• Dream Analysis,
• Responses to Reading Scripture.

But the one “face” of Journaling not mentioned above is one that I feel is perhaps the most important, the Personal Goals and Growth Journal. By writing down your goals, whether daily, weekly, or whatever and then reflecting on the progress toward achieving those goals; that writing can be a terrific source of increased inner potential and development.

As May Sarton said, “ Perhaps we write toward what we will become from where we are.”

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