Right or wrong way to journal?

hi everybody I am just wondering what ways of journaling worked for some of you and if you can explain how wrote. I am finding it difficult to journal I don't know where to start. Anyone else have this problem?

 

Funny as was just thinking about this the other day. I knew about TMS for about 8 years and knew that journalling was obviously one off the core strategies in dealing with it. Even though I had this knowledge it took me about 5 years to actually start to journal and then I would give up each time after a day or two as it felt that I was doing it wrong and therefore was a waste of time etc.

Looking back I can see this was probably a perfect storm of perfectionist thinking and more tellingly that my sub-conscious was sabotaging me in the hope that I would just put it aside and stagnate in the same situation.

Bottom line is that there really isn't a right or wrong way to journal...all you are doing is allowing yourself to bring forward a thought and disassociate yourself from it, the important thing is that you start.

 

i do this all the freakin time thank you so much for sharing i truly appreciate it.

 

Hi Brendan,

You may find this page useful...

http://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/How_do_I_journal%3F (How do I journal?)

Best regards

 

Hey, thanks!!! I was just thinking about how I was having a hard time journaling. That was really helpful : )

 

I feel Journaling is like psychotherapy. You just write whatever is on your mind in your paper. It will be a surprise for you how much you can write about anything.

 

You're most welcome, Ines. I'm glad you'll find it of use.

 

Long before tms appeared in my life I had an established habit called 'The Morning Pages' which basically is a practice of writing three full pages of stream-of-consciousness first thing in the morning. No pausing. No thinking. No chance for the inner critic to start voicing opinion.

It was devised by Julia Cameron, who is an author and screenwriter. It is the backbone of a book called 'The Artists Way' which is a ten week method for unblocking. It's actually an excellent program for all people, not just artists. I think we all benefit from a little more creativity and a lot less judgement.

I can elaborate more if it helps.

 

There is no system .....right freely and throw it away...tearing it up helps more in the realsing part..dont over think it..also there is no set time or rules write your thoughts as they come swear be as black and white as possible dont worry about grammar and all the other bull shit.

 

Please do

 

Hi wonderful Plum, I'm quite curious about this. I'd love more information. Thanks kindly,

 

Ok, The Morning Pages is one of the basic tools Julia Cameron devised to connect us with what she called our 'spiritual electricity.' Her intention was to help us transcend our limitations and immerse ourselves in our own creativity. For our purposes, I would like to suggest that you embrace your healing as a profound and really quite beautiful act of creativity. Because it is you know. You are taking the clay of all your life experiences thus far and with your hot little hands you are shaping an angel.

Henceforth all the following suggestions apply:

Be compassionate with yourself
There is no right or wrong way only your way
Given that this is an act of creation, you can create anyway you like
There are no wrong lines
Nothing is prohibited
Mess is encouraged


I'm going to quote Cameron directly:

"What are the Morning Pages? Put simply, the morning pages are three pages of longhand writing, strictly stream-of-consciousness: "oh, God, another morning. I have NOTHING to say. I need to wash the curtains. Did I get my laundry yesterday? Blah, blah, blah..." They might also, more ingloriously, be called brain drain, since that is one of their main functions.

There is no wrong way to do the morning pages. These daily morning meanderings are not meant to be art. Or even writing. I stress that point...writing is simply one of the tools. Pages are meant to be, simply, the act of moving the hand across the page and writing down whatever comes to mind. Nothing is too petty, too silly, too stupid, or too weird to be included.

The morning pages are not supposed to sound smart - although sometimes they might. Most times they won't, and nobody will ever know except you. Nobody is allowed to read your morning pages except you. And you shouldn't read them...just write three pages...and write three more the next day.

All that angry, whiny petty stuff that you write down in the morning pages stands between you and your creativity.* Worrying about the job, the laundry, the funny knock in the car, the weird look in your lover's eye - this stuff eddies through our subconscious and muddies our days. Get it on the page."

*healing

In essence that is it. It is best to do them in the morning but not imperative. Actually doing them is the thing. Give yourself two or three months to get into the flow and hopefully you'll find journaling becomes easier, and maybe the morning pages will serve as a journal.

Plum

 

Everyone is different, but I found that I needed to write with ink on paper (word processing didn't cut it). I also prefer writing prompts than journaling without any guidance. The structured therapeutic journaling in Unlearn You Pain seemed to work for me.