Do you know how to journal in ways that advance your recovery? If not, we highly recommend that you watch this webinar recording of Harriet Hunter, award-winning author of Miracles of Recovery and an expert on Journaling with Purpose.
Click THIS LINK to watch the video. Also read the following tips on journaling provided by Harriet.
Subtle Thoughts and Messages That Stymie Our Creativity
For those of us on a creative trail, our journey is often met with lots of stumbling blocks depending upon the time, and the emotional, spiritual and physical place we just happen to be traversing at any given time. Here are a few of those blocks that get in our way, obscure our creative vision, and would prefer that we get up and have coffee and read Dear Abbey instead.
- If only… The “if only’s” were designed by the same people who often recite their “why bother?” We must push through this poor pretense of an excuse and as we do, write it down and throw it in the garbage.
- Who do I think I am? This façade comes up to halt progress quite regularly. It likes to turn us around to something safe, not quite as fear-producing as what we might find going out on a creative bender.
- There’s no payoff so why waste my time? This oftentimes is an old-belief handed down from others who thought through the ages that if you’re not DOING SOMETHING that produces “a living,” then it is a frivolous dereliction of energy and effort that would best be used in graduate school or a rewarding trade.
- I don’t have a creative bone in my body. If we’ve not ever done anything quite like this, these thoughts are a natural transition of thought that you would feel this way. You can ignore this thinking and consider it old, useless thinking. Until you put pen to paper, it’s rather impossible to know just what we’re made of!
- What will my friends/family think I’m trying to do? No one needs an explanation unless it is kind, loving, and brief. Then we turn our attention to other things. And we prepare ourselves for our creative journey because it is what we need for ourselves.
- But I can’t afford this! This is one of the most precious gifts we can give ourselves: the gift of self-esteem; the gift of inner-awareness and the gift of a shift in our transformation to be able to see unfathomable growth in ways we never thought possible. If we change our vantage point and be honest about the last time was we’ve given ourselves the gift of personal focus and intention, trusting the process is the core of this spiritual journey you will be on.
- I’m afraid of what I might find! This is one of the most overstated fears I hear from other men and women. It’s true we are not used to ‘going within’ and it’s normal to want to steer clear of the unknown.
- But I have no time to write! I work full time, I have an important job, I have a husband and children, I have too much to do, I’ll never be able to fit this in my schedule, etc.
The question becomes rather “How important is this?” to the balance we all seek. Taken further, the question imparts the answer to “How important am I? For instance: Aren’t I deserving of nurturing and developing my inner-muse and become closer to the person I want to be?
By allowing ourselves the precious grace of personal time to focus on ourselves, we become closer to our own resolve, and to the wholeness that we seek but most importantly, that we all deserve.