Journaling

Have you ever tried journaling on a regular basis? It is one of the most amazing experiments I have ever done, and I still practice it when I can.

I first learned about daily journaling from the book The Artist's Way. Author Julia Cameron suggests writing three pages of stream-of-consciousness text every morning. A few years ago I tried her program, including the journaling, and the results were really amazing. I felt inspired to act on the ideas I wrote about, and I was able to work through some personal issues just by writing about them again and again. I felt less blocked, freer, and happier. Most surprisingly, I noticed a startling jump in synchronicity in my life. Things that I would write about again and again started to resolve themselves in ways that felt totally magical. That was the first real experience of synchronicity in my life, and an important milestone in my personal development and work.

Recently I've encountered the concept again. I'm taking an online course with Christopher Penczak, author of the Temple of Witchcraft books, and writing daily pages is one of the first magical exercises he suggests. Learning that he advocates this practice (which he says was also inspired by The Artist's Way, as well as the tradition of occultjournaling) really helped to convince me that I'm on the right path with this.

Personally, I haven't journaled regularly in years, although I do go back to it sometimes when I feel things I'm not fully facing up to start bumping around in the back of my head. Someone in my class suggested the website 750 words, and it's impressive enough that I just mightget started again. On this website, you can get a running word count and daily progress statistics as you write, but your words themselves are completely private and practically ephemeral. Since I type fast, it's also a little quicker than long-hand.

Interested in trying journaling yourself? I agree with most of Julia Cameron's recommendations: at least three pages or twenty minutes (or 750 words) per day, every day, for at least three months to see how profound the effects can really be.

It can be tempting to skip or skimp, but it's doing the practice regularly that helps get to anything you might be trying to avoid. Which sounds kind of terrible, when you put it that way...but I really recommend trying it for yourself.