Sharing & Growing Through Journaling!

What does journaling do for me? In private it helps me clear my thoughts, get out a lot of my feelings and helps me examine what my frequent thoughts are. It really helps me to see what I have been thinking about over and over again, year after year and allows me to view myself from above or from the magic carpet in the sky, as Maia would say. It helps me to see how "stuck" I have been and it prompts a screaming voice inside me to say, "You have got to change this, it isn't serving you!" and then it sends me out on a mission to do just that. I have noticed from discovering journals I had written back in the 90's that not much had changed in my thinking process especially around relationships with men. In private journaling no censor is needed and the way that helps the most is for creative writing endeavors where a flow of unedited thoughts is needed to let imagination flourish freely. We get out the gunk that sits in the conscious mind to clear a path for creation. This is somewhat difficult to do when the mind is in a state of stress. Real creativity comes in waves and must be allowed to pour fourth when the writer is open to it and ready to express, like a faucet it just comes. For those moments I do keep a note pad ready. But, for now I have basically stopped writing in a private journal and keep private writing as only love letters or assignments in You University, because I am tired of writing about the same relationship stuff. I feel like it enables me to stay stuck and I want to move forward in my life more than anything!

In public journaling I feel I have to use a censor as what comes out may not always be fit for public consumption, especially when darkness prevails and so I find there is a thick line between what I want to say and the form the expression must take in order to make it palatable. If feel that private journaling is most effective for people who want to make examination of the self a tool for change, because censoring is admonished.

I believe public journaling asks me to come up with solutions or at least look for a way out of my own boxed in thinking simply because other people will be viewing it and in that I find the gift. When I journal publicly I want people to read about my progress. I want people to feel the the movement in my thought process from one day to the next, one moment to the next, one thought to the next. I want them to realize that we all have very similar experiences in thought and deed and action and mistake and regret and shame and that all of these are simply lessons on a journey of self healing moving us ever forward to a place of self acceptance, self love and inner peace! Public journaling gives us the courage to express in front of others in order that they may find the strength to express for themselves. Public journaling creates a space where others can see that they are not alone. That we are most vividly all fighting a great universal battle that exists within and when we express encouragement to others through our loving comments we can also come to express encouragement to ourselves, be less hard on ourselves and view the world as connected and that brings us closer to the truth. With public journaling We CAN heal, with self directed inner thought reproduced, one word at a time for the world to see!