Creative Journaling

Over the last couple of weeks I have been so engrossed in finishing Rising Strong by Brene Brown, and now I have had my face in a new book called Creative Journal Writing by Stephanie Dowrick. I have also had my pen in hand and journal in front of me and letting the words flow. This has been a wonderful time of finding some understanding in my life for what I have been through, dealing with and what I plan for my future.




I used to journal a lot when my kids were young and I was in the throws of my eating disorder and un-diagnosed coeliacs disease, where I was not retaining any nutritional value in what I was trying to eat. I would sit in my lounge room, note book in hand and pen poised and out would come all the crap that was within me. I was at a breaking point in my life, at that point of writing. I stopped writing once I moved to my new home (13 years ago) I re-read parts of those past journals before throwing them out, they were very dark times in my life and don't ever want to go back there again. Even though I have spent time over the past couple of years blogging and sharing my life's experiences, I have now gone back to writing in a journal.

I am finding that writing in my journal now is allowing me to navigate a more positive time in my life, even though there are still negatives happening around me. In starting my journal writing again I have allowed myself the time to vent my frustrations, ask myself relevant questions that I can answer straight away or ponder on, then come back and answer later. I have also found that when I get ideas for my novel I can put them down in my journal, come back to it later and move those thoughts into my book that I am writing my novel in.

My journal isn't just writing,  I used to draw and paint as well. I had a particular style to my art, and I am sure even though I haven't drawn or painted for few years now, that it hasn't left me. I am looking forward to the times each day I can spend either writing or even drawing and seeing just how much I have changed over the last 15 years, and in five years or so when I can pick up my journals and re-read and look through what I was dealing with and what my life was about then to where it will be at that time.

"This is in part because as you write you inevitably return to the centre of your being, to your stable sense of 'I'. And also, when it comes to the art of reflecting, on which a sense of inner stability and self-possession depends, journal writing really is the 'tool of tool.' " This is taken from Page 99 of Stephanie Dowrick's book Creative Journal Writing, the art and heart of reflection.

Have a great week

DoryBlu