Rewards of Keeping a Journal

The Surprising Rewards of Keeping a Journal

Ev Ellsworth

I started keeping a journal in 1953, not long after my mother, then 70 -- just about the age I am now -- gave me journals she had begun when I was three years old. With some breaks, I've been "journaling" ever since.

Years ago, especially when my children were small, it was harder to find the time. Now I'm a proud great-grandma with plenty of time and an increasing interest in recording my thoughts and dreams, my family history and my own past. I assigned journaling to my high school English students for many years and teach it to adults now.

WHAT'S THE POINT?

I'm often asked the difference between a diary and a journal. In diaries, we create a factual record of what we did on a given day. In journals, we may do the same, but we also describe how we felt about what happened during the day and about life's big questions.

When people ask why I keep a journal, I say, "To make sense of my life."

In her book Leaving a Trace, Alexandra Johnson observes that both "diary" and "journal" are derived from words for "day," but neither need become a daily rite. Instead, she suggests that we think of writing as a way to help us see our world differently every day.

A journal is essentially unedited. You can cross out things and play with the material later, if you wish. The purpose is not to build a storehouse of materials for polishing -- you are writing thoughts as they occur for yourself and, if you wish, for posterity.

SETTING UP

All you need is a pen and some paper, preferably bound into a book. My journals range from a silk-bound volume -- a gift and too beautiful to use, although others may prefer such things -- to dime-store notebooks. Most of my students favor the six-by-eight-inch spiral-bound type -- it's portable, but big enough for easy writing. Use what pleases and inspires you.

Running your finger down the smooth surface of creamy paper may spur you to pick up a pen. If, like me, you're intimidated by gorgeous materials, buy cheap ones.

After several years of using both sides of the paper, I began writing on one side only. That way, I can write notes and further thoughts on the back. If you decide to remove or expand on any entries later, one-sided writing will make it easier. Keep your journal with you at all times, and jot down thoughts whenever and wherever you wish.

Millions of people keep computer journals. I do, too, but my writing has a different quality then. For me, personal musings must be done at a slower pace, using nothing electric.

WHEN SHOULD I WRITE?

Some people write every morning or night. That's too often for me. I write in my journal for two to three hours three times a week. You'll learn what works for you.

Unlike a diary, a journal needn't be dated at every entry. I date mine every few weeks.

WHAT SHOULD I WRITE ABOUT?

Let your thoughts wander. Example: My journal entry about throwing out stuff to prepare for an aged relative's visit led to reflections on the visit itself... Aunt Ale's personality... the nature of aging.

You may choose to use your journal as sheer therapy. Caveat: You may want to throw certain very personal entries away.

Recording the details of important events and memorable times will give you pleasure later. Example: Rereading my journal from a trip to the Florida Keys eight years ago reminds me of the strong sense of place I felt there.

Excerpt: "I still see the long, shadowy driveways along Route 1 through the Keys... mysterious, the homes too far back to be seen. I picture women in evening gowns, stepping into Rudi Vallee roadsters, servants watching and knowing -- what family secrets? The sandy roads with overhanging vines -- what are they? Some with weathered concrete pillars, an iron gate -- and then darkness."

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

Consider joining a journaling class for encouragement. For sufficient interaction, the ideal number of participants is six to 10. Can't find a class? Start a writers' group at a library, local school or just in members' homes.

Agenda: Taking turns, read selections from your journals. Then take turns critiquing the writing, not the content. Offer positive suggestions that are likely to be helpful for future writing.

Example: "I liked that metaphor... I enjoyed the connections you made... I'd like to know more about..."

Journal writers often omit important details when they know a story well. Ask questions about what's missing.

Participants can refrain from reading any highly personal details aloud. Maintain confidentiality and encourage candor with this rule: "What is read and said in our group stays here."

REVIEWING YOUR ENTRIES

I like to reread my journals, looking for patterns. Doing so a couple of years ago, I discovered several topics that must interest me more than I realized, since I pondered them so often.

I found that the bulk of my journals were banal, focused on my struggle with personal habits. But I seem to be fascinated by what people want done with their remains! Of the 18 or 20 volumes, I threw about half away, dispensing with those that might be hurtful or boring to my children and retaining the narratives of my childhood and other notes of interest to my family.

Here's a passage I kept. Years ago, after a brief estrangement from one of my daughters, I wrote: "How do people cope when family members break away? Who else has been through this? Barbara. Sherry. Elaine is speaking again to her son, thank goodness. What of children who join cults, join the Army, run away, disappear? What about parents who never even look for a missing child, like the ones in that Annie Proulx novel Postcards."

JUST DO IT

Most of us go about with something on our minds. In your journal, write about it.

Don't worry about titles, writing style, creating a "writing arc" or any other fancy literary terms you may know. Your journal is your special place to write your thoughts. Deciding whether to send excerpts to friends, family members or editors can come later.

Your writing style is uniquely your own. It will emerge, as will your "voice" -- the personality who speaks in your words. You may find that that person interests you very much.

Safety probe of plastics chemicals urged - Yahoo! News

Safety probe of plastics chemicals urged - Yahoo! News: "Animal studies cited by the panel indicated that exposure to phthalates affected male reproductive system development. Some phthalates reduce levels of the male hormone testosterone. Studies also link phthalates to liver cancer, the panel said.

If the EPA does an assessment, it could lead to new regulations on products with phthalates, the panel said.

'If we don't do this as a cumulative risk assessment focused on these adverse effects, we're going to be underestimating risks,' said panel chairwoman, Deborah Cory-Slechta of the University of Rochester."

Part II - Proven Cure and Preventative for Cancer

Documented, Proven Cure and Preventative for Cancer (Part II): "(NaturalNews) The Budwig protocol is the food treatment and cure for cancer and other major debilitating diseases created by Dr. Johanna Budwig. It was designed for use with extremely ill and wasted cancer patients who had been sent home by their doctors to die. These were patients so ill that many were unable to take any food at all in the beginning, and had to be initially treated with enemas. The protocol is so simple that it can be tailored to fit whatever situation is encountered, from use with someone at death's door to use as a preventative and part of a healthy lifestyle.

There are only two essential foods in the protocol, flax oil and cottage cheese or some other sulphurated protein such as yogurt or kefir. The oil provides electron-rich fats, and the cottage cheese provides the sulphurated protein to bind with the oil and render it water soluble. In this state, the oil is able to carry immense amounts of oxygen straight into the cells. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygen rich environment."

Documented, Proven Cure and Preventative for Cancer (Part I)

Documented, Proven Cure and Preventative for Cancer (Part I): "(NaturalNews) This article is about how you can prevent and cure cancer with a bottle of flax oil and a carton of cottage cheese. As incredible as this may seem, it is a truth that has been well proven and documented. It is also a truth that has been vigorously suppressed because the cancer industry is big business at its worst.

You or someone you love may have been diagnosed with cancer, and you are very much afraid. You have been taught by the disease establishment that you have a life threatening condition, and you had better sign on for the 'standard of care' treatments before it is too late. Your doctors have thrown all sorts of frightening statistics at you about what will happen if you don't have immediate surgery followed by radiation, chemotherapy, and probably a lifetime of debilitating drug use. You are being pressured to make an immediate commitment to these toxic treatments."

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OpEdNews » Microwave Technology: An End to the Human Race

OpEdNews » Microwave Technology: An End to the Human Race: "Wireless radiation is repeating history

REFLEX studies confirm that a transmitting cell phone broadcasting microwaves into living tissue is essentially an X-ray machine in the context of DNA damage. Scientists say it requires only one DNA mutation to generate a cancer condition. Most tragically, a cancer condition can manifest in babies and very young children born with damaged DNA.

In the 1950s, Dr. Alice Stewart, a British pediatrician and epidemiologist, began studies to determine the cause of an alarming increase in childhood leukemia in Britain. At that time, fetuses were routinely X-rayed and Stewart suspected that the leukemia surge was connected to excessive prenatal radiation. Dr. Stewart’s research became a threat to the medical status quo and she was subjected to brutal criticism. She lost staff and funding, yet she continued gathering epidemiological evidence showing that a fetus exposed to ionizing radiation in the first three months of development was 10 times more likely to develop cancer or leukemia than a non-irradiated fetus.6 In 1962, Dr. Stewart’s work was vindicated by Dr. Brian MacMahon of the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. MacMahon’s studies found that cancer mortality was 40 percent higher in children born to women who had been X-rayed while pregnant.7

Nearly 20 years elapsed before the American public was sufficiently warned about the dangers of X-radiation during pregnancy. Experts fought for almost two decades to obtain a national standard recommending that pregnant women not be given pelvic or abdominal X-rays except for emergencies. Finally, in 1980, the FDA and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists launched a massive public education program warning of the dangers of pregnancy X-rays.

In the past, people understood synchronicities, signs and symbols

In every moment, the Universe is whispering to us. There are messages being carried on the winds, waiting for us to pay attention. The morning songs of the birds outside the window, the sound of an ocean spraying the cliffs, or the babbling brook gurgling over rocks. Ordinary, everyday happenings in our lives carry communication for the realm of spirit.

In the past, people understood and knew how to interpret these signs, symbols and omens. Often the entire destiny of a tribe or nation was decided by signs. As technology and science became more disconnected from the concept of the world as a whole, people became more and more isolated from their connections to the earth and their inner wisdom.

The natural essence of the Universe is perfect harmony. Spirals, labyrinths, numbers, and other symbols create a myriad of intersecting landscapes for us to investigate. There is no point where God begins or ends. Our lives are intimately connected to everything. There are those who hope to dissect the parts and thereby understand the whole. Thus mystics and scientists travel down different roads, but their destinations are the same.

The majesty of the Universe is beyond our minds. The symphony of the Cosmos is beautiful and harmonious. Sunflowers grow in spite of the weeds, reaching for the sun. Hummingbirds remind us to taste and enjoy the sweet nectar of life. Coyotes trot into our lives to help us laugh and be creative in our undertakings.

Spirals and labyrinths connect us to our souls, and remind us who we really are. Numbers, throughout the ages, guide us to the mysteries of the Universe as we learn their codes. Cooperation and harmony is the way of Nature. Greed and discord is not natural. Our lives are designed to follow a plan that promotes growth, joy and harmony. Anything that doesn't fit in that category is a waste of time.

The symbolic world is the language of the Universe. Thus words often do not convey the essence of truth. It is important to realize that our perceptions create our inner stories, which in turn create the directions of our lives. Spirals, triangles, circles, squares, and crosses evoke feelings of connectedness that seems universal among humans throughout history. Different cultures, arts, and deigns tell us their stories through the symbolic world.

One of the reasons that our systems and institutions are struggling on this planet is because people are evolving to new levels. They need different perspectives, different and more open techniques, to discover the world around them. Their stories are weaving the 21st Century's history, and as a society, we must make the necessary shift, to help our searching minds and hearts.

The symbolic world is a rich resource for us. We have symbolic systems that been used throughout history. Although many look upon tarot decks, runes and the I Ching with suspicion, these symbolic systems are tools to allow us to use and develop our own intuition. Prayer beads, prayer wheels, mantras, rosary beads, crosses and mandalas are all tools to allow us to connect with our spiritual essence.

Synchronicities, signs and symbols are at their most potent in the realm of plants, animals and insects. Patience and openness is the missing link in the discernment process. As we search for guidance and clarity in our lives, the Universe will guide us. It is our job to be still, observe, meditate and take time to connect with nature, where often the answers to our questions will gently unfold.

Throughout time, our ancestors have learned how to uncover the solutions to their problems and the guidance they needed, by paying attention to the signs and symbols in Nature. The Etruscans coined the word "ostenta." Ostenta are signs in the natural environment that usually comment on what is happening right now, or foreshadows of those events in the future. The Etruscans interpreted the direction of the wind at a particular moment, cloud designs, and patterns in lightning much as did the native people of many cultures.

While interviewing people for my latest book SYNCHRONICITY, SIGNS & SYMBOLS, I was especially touched by the stories I was told around animals and birds.

One woman told me a significant story about her encounter with the eagle. Some years ago her life was in major turmoil. She had gone through a difficult divorce and had some important decisions to make about her life and her home. She walked out to a large rock outcropping that overlooked a valley near her home. As she sat there crying, she begged God and the Universe for guidance and help. Suddenly two large golden eagles started circling about thirty feet above her as she sat on this rock overlook. She knew in that moment that no matter how bleak things looked that she was on her right path. Later in that same week, much to her delight, a pair of eagles circled her home for about a half of an hour. She had never seen eagles near there before and has not seen them since. In many traditions the eagle signals a time of power, strength and soaring freedom in our life.

Denise Linn told me a number of wonderful stories connected to the owl and the crow. She told me that they show up whenever she needs help, encouragement or wisdom, in any way. The crow is a very powerful sign. The crow is thought to have mystical powers and to be a messenger from the spiritual realm. Change is always on the way when a crow shows up in your life.

Our lives are intimately connected to everything. Stop from time to time and listen to the whispers of the Universe. You might be surprised at what you hear.

source - soulfulliving.com
by Patricia Rose Upczak -