Friday, December 26, 2014

JOURNALING BLOG POST FOR DECEMBER 26, 2014

RYP JOURNALING COMMUNITIES​
I hope we can form a journaling community, preferably a lifelong one, where we can support each other through the journaling journey. Let's encourage, inspire, and learn from one another.
HOW? AND THE THREE COMMUNITY OPTIONS
There are three different communities I would like to form. It's up to you and your preference as to which one you would prefer. Although, you could use all three. 
So, the three are:
2 Attach a comment to the end of any blog post at: http://rypjournaling.blogspot.com/​ 
3 Email: RememberingYourPresent@gmail.com
WOULD YOU PLEASE JOIN THE RYP JOURNALING JOURNEY AND FORM A COMMUNITY?
Please sign up for one or all of those options. All you need to do is do a tweet, attach a comment, or send an email. That's it.
IT WOULD BE AN HONOR TO TRAVEL THIS RYP JOURNALING JOURNEY WITH YOU
It would be a deep and great honor to travel the RYP Journaling journey with you and form a community with you. 
Have a blessed day!
~ Stacy Duplease
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JOURNALING BLOG POST FOR DECEMBER 26, 2014
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TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS BLOG POST
1 END OF YEAR JOURNALING
2 LIST JOURNALING: END OF YEAR JOURNALING PROMPT
3 JOURNALING MAKES US SLOW DOWN ENOUGH TO THINK
4 END OF YEAR JOURNALING PROMPT: SUMMARIES
5 JOURNALING BRINGS HEALING
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1 END OF YEAR JOURNALING
Written December 20, 2014, Saturday, 1126 a.m.
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THE LAST TWELVE MONTHS
In case I haven't stressed it before, whether you have journaled before or not, or if it is April and you are reading this, look back at the last twelve months in your life. 
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THE TOOLS YOU HAVE ABOUT THE LAST TWELVE MONTHS IN YOUR LIFE
Look at all of the tools you have in order to do so (journaling, calendar/schedule/planner, email, texts, photos, social media, your memory, receipts, bank account and charges, bank and credit card statements, scrapbook, the Internet, news stories, etc.). Each of those tools will help you capture your life story on the page. So, please, use all of them.
I am a journaling nut. I journal everything I can think of and I get it on the page. I journal roughly twelve single-spaced small font entries per day on average. Journaling is what I do for my full-time job. I am a journalkeeper, blogger, and writer. Now, with all of that being said, I do not capture everything. I have to use those tools in order to get the complete picture of my year. 
{SIDE-NOTE ABOUT PENZU: This is why I use Penzu.com. I send myself my emails there that are ones I want to look at again and help me to remember later. I also send photos to my Penzu.com account via email.}
Make sure to look at each and every tool you have at your disposal to help you re-create your year on the page, to review your year, think about it, analyze it, and plan for next year (the next twelve months from today.) 
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2 LIST JOURNALING: END OF YEAR JOURNALING PROMPT
List 100 memories made, at least, in the last 12 months (in 2014 if you are reading this on the blog today). 
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3 JOURNALING MAKES US SLOW DOWN ENOUGH TO THINK
Written December 20, 2014, Saturday, 1220 p.m.
How much time do you really spend thinking? 
And, is it productive thinking?
I'm not talking the obsessive thoughts that are fears, frustrations, etc. No. That's not it. Rather, I'm talking the thinking that makes a difference. I'm talking about the thinking that matters and is of and about meaning. I'm talking about working through dilemmas and finding answers. I'm talking about thinking things through to make sure you're on the right path and are not about to step off a cliff. I'm talking about thinking about life questions and faith questions. I'm talking about the thinking where you try to learn lessons and remember lessons learned. I'm talking about the thinking where you control your emotions, rather than allowing them to control you. I'm talking about thinking truth, not lies, assumptions, or perceptions. I'm talking about constructive, not destructive (and/or negative) thoughts. 
The type of thinking I was not talking about in the paragraph prior to this one, is shallow thinking. It's thinking of stuff that doesn't change a thing. It's the thinking that wastes time. 
Journaling helps us to get rid of the thoughts we should not thinking and think of the things we should.
However, there is a major reason why we think the other types of thought, the thoughts that are shallow. It's because we are living so fast, so busy, that we do not have time to breathe, let alone sort through and filter our thoughts. We do not have the time to think things through because we are living fast, busy lives. 
Journaling helps us to slow down and sort through our thoughts. Journaling helps us work through, and get out, the thinking that's shallow and destructive. It helps us to focus our thoughts and make them useful to us. 
Journaling makes us take the time, and make the time, to think. 
In our lives, we do not have much time at all to really slow down and think, never mind stop and think. This is a true travesty. Since we do not have the time to stop and think, never mind think things through, we often will make mistakes or we will fail to live life as fully as we could. 
Journaling sets our minds free so we can live a full life, one of blessing, productive, intentional, and thoughtful. We can then think deeply and live deeply. We then live intentionally. Life takes on meaning since live lives of meaning, rather than meandering, trying to find a way, missing our blessings. 
Journaling helps us slow down. It helps us get rid of the unnecessary thoughts and focuses our thoughts on beauty and blessing, and helps us to live deep and purposeful lives.
This is why it is so important to journal every day. It provides us a means of escape, where we can get rid of the stuff that doesn't matter and focuses us on the stuff that does. What healing this brings and what a blessing this is, if only we would slow down and journal and think things all the way through. 
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IT'S YOUR TURN
Journal the following:
When was the last time you fully thought and thought things through? 
What thoughts are going through your mind today? 
Do you want to live a thought-full, thought-through life? 
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4 END OF YEAR JOURNALING PROMPT: SUMMARIES
Look back at the last twelve months and summarize the year of your life in each of the following:
A 1 word
B 1 sentence
C 1 paragraph of 4-8 sentences.
D 2 paragraphs
E 1 page
F 2 pages
G 5 pages
H 10 pages
Do at least A-F. Ideally do A-H. 
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5 JOURNALING BRINGS HEALING
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THE BENEFITS OF JOURNALING
Journaling has nothing but positive benefits. It impacts our lives far more than we realize. We may stop and think about this and realize some of the benefits. However, I don't think we can ever fully realize how deep journaling runs and trickles into our hearts and the synapses of our minds. Yet, we have some sense of it when we do stop and think about it and realize how much journaling impacts our lives. 
FACE THE PAIN THROUGH JOURNALING
The one way journaling's effects are seen almost immediately is when we have been hurt and need healing. It doesn't matter if the pain is from the past or from the present, journaling helps immediately, if we do it right. Journaling is about facing our pain head on and dealing with it, rather than allowing it to deal with us. It means not avoiding pain (running from it). It also means not allowing ourselves to live in denial. Journaling means we deal with the pain head-on, once and for all.
The previous paragraph is not full of platitudes. It's full of truth, which is what journaling is. Journaling is about facing truth and living truthfully. After all, our journals give us a safe place to do so. 
PAIN BRINGS BLESSING
Let us face it. Life is full of pain. We cannot avoid it. However, we can make the pain useful and can use the pain to bring a deeper meaning to our lives. The pain will always be. It may be greater at times, but lesser at other times. However, the pain is something that can bring far more blessing in our lives than any other time--if only we stop and look for the blessings. We cannot see the blessings if we do not look. In our pain, it can be difficult to do so. Journaling helps us to look for our blessings, see them, count them, and remember these blessings later. 
Yes. Pain brings blessing. 
Pain brings great blessing and numerous blessings.
So, how? How does journaling bring healing and blessing through our pain? 
JOURNALING THROUGH THE PAIN
Are you hurt?
Have you been hurt?
Do you grieve?
Have you experienced loss?
Journaling is the most useful tool you have at hand to help you through your pain and with your pain. However, it means you have to acknowledge your pain and face this pain. Why? If you address it in your journal, if you journal about it, then you are doing precisely that. You do not have the choice. 
Do it.
If you have ever been hurt or are hurt, journal about it. Trust me. You have far more to lose if you do not. I say this from firsthand experience. 
Put your pain on the page. Why? If you do so, you are letting go of it. With each word you write, you are leaving the pain on the page and are not leaving it within. With each word, you face the pain head-on. You are not denying it or avoiding it. As you do this, you are dealing with the pain as you should. You are dealing with the pain in a healthy way. And, when you do so, it frees your mind and your heart to look around, see, count, and remember the blessings in your life.
Pain tends to blinds us. Pain means we do not see clearly. Rather, we see everything through the clouded and darkened lens of the pain. As we journal and put our pain down on the page, as the pain trickles out word by word onto the page and no longer living within, we start to see clearly so we can look around and see the blessings in our lives. 
Journal your pain. Journal through your pain. Get it on the page and let the pain go. 
Face your pain. Deal with it. 
Write it. 
Then, once you journal your pain, through your pain, then look around. Your sight is clearer than it was with the pain. Look for the blessings in your life all around. They are endless. But, we cannot see if we have the lens of pain.
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IT'S YOUR TURN
What pain and/or loss have you experienced?
What pain are you experiencing now?
How have you been blind because of the pain?
What blessings do you see now?
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PAIN AND HEALING
We will talk a great deal more about dealing with our pain, and finding healing and blessing through it and because of it. Today was just a beginning.
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A JOURNALING PROMPT
Answer all of these questions in your journaling. Then, do any you haven't done.
Have you done your daily journaling template?
Have you done your daily journaling summary?
Have you done your daily journaling review?
Have you done your weekly journaling template?
Have you done your weekly journaling summary?
Have you done your weekly journaling review?
How's your end of year journaling going?
Also, you can start to work on your monthly journaling template, summary, and review.
Also, you can start to work on your quarterly journaling template, summary, and review.
Also, you can start your six month journaling template, summary, and review.
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MY TREASURE AND PRESERVATION JOURNAL (AND MY BLESSINGS AND QUIET JOURNAL)
Written December 24, 2014, Wednesday, 1019 a.m.
MY TREASURE AND PRESERVATION JOURNAL (AND MY BLESSINGS AND QUIET JOURNAL):
A JOURNAL OF MANY NAMES
I shared earlier how my current journal is titled: "#14 2014 December."
I explained how #14 is the # of journal I have in Penzu. It's #14 after keeping a journal at PENZU.COM since mid November 2012. I average 700 journal entries per journal. I started filling a journal ever one to two months, though, starting in July 2014.
I've also always found it helpful to have the date of my journal as part of the journal. It helps when I do searching for material later on and when I do a journaling review.
However, my journals have other names that I don't put on the cover, in the file name, or on the first page of the journal, but I make sure to include these names throughout.
My journal, my #14 2014 December Journal, also has these names:
Treasure Journal
Preservation Journal
Blessings Journal (This is my life word.)
Prayer Journal
Quiet Journal (My one word for 2015. I want to listen far more to God and others than I speak.)
Remembering My Present Journal (name of my business and my goal)
All-Inclusive Journal
So, the full title of my current journal is:
"#14 2014 December: The Treasure, Preservation, Blessings, Prayer, Quiet, Remembering My Present, All-Inclusive Journal of Stacy Duplease."
Whew. What a mouthful. {Those are not in any particular order, by the way.}
I want to count my blessings and treasure and preserve my life stories of these blessings. This is the purpose of my journal.
Preservation has great meaning to me since I moved to the Hampton Roads and Tidewater area of Virginia in July 2010. This area is the birthplace of the United States of America. Hence, preservation of history means a great deal to me. Also, since I moved here, I've worked on my family tree and have discovered how I had three family member come here to the USA in April 1607, which none of us even knew about. Never mind how someone close to me suffered from dementia and another from amnesia. Needless to say, preservation means a great deal to me. Preservation of story. Preservation of history. Preservation of life stories. 
A JOURNALING PROMPT, COMMENTS, AND EMAIL: A JOURNALING COMMUNITY
What is your story?
What is your life story?
What stories do you want to preserve? 
Please attach a comment at the end of any blog post about this and/or email me. I would love to hear your stories and would love for you to share them.
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WRITING PROGRESS OF "JOURNALING STUFF: A JOURNALING RESOURCE 2014 EDITION"
Written December 24, 2014, Wednesday, 1040 a.m.
I haven't edited it or added material to it yet, but "JOURNALING STUFF 2014" is 87 typed pages so far. I cannot wait to flesh out more of the material, add more journaling prompts and how-to's--never mind edit the blessed thing.
I wish I had more written. Of course I do. I want to give you every advantage I can. However, I am pleased and relieved I will have this blog and will add more material in time.
It's my hope to create a library of material on journaling.
It's to help inspire you to treasure and preserve your life stories. They are sacred and should be treasured and preserved--and the best way is through journaling.
Now, you see why I love to count my blessings. You are a blessing, reader and fellow journal quest journeyman, and so are our journals and journaling.
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A JOURNALING PROMPT
What do you want to preserve from 2014 in your journal?
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WILL YOU PLEASE SHARE YOUR 2014 JOURNALING SUMMARIES?: A JOURNALING COMMUNITY AND JOURNALING PROMPT
Will you, please, share with us in a comment at the end of any blog post any or all of the following?: 
Your 2014 One word summary.
Your 2014 One sentence summary.
Your 2014 One paragraph summary?  
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