The Artist way, is not just for Artists!
Journaling is a great way to mentally de-clutter. It can be deeply therapeutic to tap into your thoughts and release them on paper. Through journaling, we can create a safe place to put our daily findings from our experiences through this thing called life. For many, the very thought of journaling can seem juvenile. After all, most of our early experiences with journaling involved a small diary with a lock on it (Hello Kitty, anyone?!). But journaling can be a deeply rewarding and important exercise to add to your routine. When we journal, we explore ourselves and shed light on our thoughts and feelings which in our head can seem random and pointless. However, when we take the time to document our findings, we are able to see countless possibilities within that we may have left unexplored. It is through the exploration of our daily ramblings and contemplations that much is revealed.
Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. — Carl Jung
When we journal regularly, we are able to see what possibilities lie within ourselves and create a quiet space to return to again and again. We can use this space to download, off load or unload whatever may be rattling around in our cage “up there.” By creating this log/record/entry we can look back at our findings and see how far we have come and the progress that we have made. These findings oftentimes reveal that even when outwardly growth appears slow, progress is being made, and dreams are being built. This quality time spent with yourself is time worth spending.
You can use the creative space space of journaling to download, off load or unload whatever may be rattling around in your mind.
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron is a great way to begin journaling and gain some wonderful insight into the creative process. Given to me by a good friend, The Artist’s Way is all about self exploration and connecting to the artist within, meant to assist artists with the recovery of their “inner artist” or as I like to call it the “creative within.” This series can be used by anyone who is interested in beginning the process of journaling.
Morning pages leave no corner of our life unexamined. Our dreams, our hopes our disappointments, our pains-all of these are grist for the mill. A day at a time, an issue at a time, we become intimate with ourselves. Our hidden feelings become known to us. We ourselves are the terra incognita that we are exploring.
The Artist’s Way
I was gifted this “compass” by my former boss and mentor. Initially, I was truly bewildered as to why she would think that I would need a book called “The Artist’s Way.” After all, I am certainly no artist and had never viewed myself as artistic in any way (much less a struggling artist!). To me, artists drew pictures and painted, played instruments, and sang songs, performed on stage, and were theatrical. But being the intuitive person that she is, she saw something I didn’t. She saw a deep need in me before I discovered it in myself.
The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron
I loved it. It was like writing in my “Dear Diary,” which I had done my whole life — only this time with purpose. Instead of just journaling when I felt filled to the brim with any strong emotion (love, anger, sadness) it taught me the importance of keeping a daily log about myself and how I was feeling and where I was in my journey. It gave me a special space of my own to purposely write down my dreams and hopes, prompting me to explore my grievances and even follies.
By completing the exercises given in The Artist’s Way’s workbook, I was able to step out of my normal mode of thinking and begin to process who I am and who I wish to become. That is the beauty of journaling. By agreeing to commit to sit with ourselves and release our minds on paper, we have the ability to be honest and vulnerable in a world of our own design. We can then start our day with a mind de-cluttered and cleared, open to all the wonderful possibilities that life has set before us. My morning pages have become a quiet haven for me, and I have often found that it is in the silent moments when I am alone and the house is asleep that my writing has often surprised me with wonderful nuggets of insight from deep within. So whether it be the “artist’s way” or just “your way,” I encourage you to take the time to look inward, write it down, take notes, and hear what your quiet voice within is trying to say. You never know, you just might surprise yourself.
