JOURNALING BLOG POST FOR DECEMBER 23, 2014
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TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS BLOG POST
A DO NOT CENSOR YOUR JOURNAL OR DELETE ANYTHING FROM YOUR JOURNALING (A JOURNALING HOW-TO)
B BUSY AND FAST
C MORNING JOURNALING AND END OF YEAR PERSONAL JOURNALING SOMETIMES... (PERSONAL JOURNALING)D SOMETIMES... (PERSONAL JOURNALING)
E FIND YOUR OWN WAY AND JOURNALING SYSTEM: EXPERIMENT AND BE FLEXIBLE
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A DO NOT CENSOR YOUR JOURNAL OR DELETE ANYTHING FROM YOUR JOURNALING (A JOURNALING HOW-TO)
Written December 18, 2014, Thursday, 332 p.m.
NO MATTER WHAT, JOURNAL IT. NO MATTER WHAT, JOURNAL.
You open your journal and stare at the page. What do you journal?
Or, you are in the middle of a journal entry. What should your journal?
Journal everything. Never, ever, ever fail to put something down on the page for any reason. If it comes to mind, journal it.
I don't care what it is. No matter how silly it is, no matter how ridiculous it is, no matter how ugly it is, no matter how much it hurts, journal it.
No matter what, journal it.
Never censor your journaling.
Write it even if you feel you write poorly.
Write it, even with all the bad grammar you can use.
Journal it, no matter what. No matter what, journal.
It's the stuff you fail to get down you will wish you did later.
And, more often than not, the things I thought were rubbish at the time, I will discover were anything but. In fact, it's usually a springboard for something bigger and better as far as journaling.
Remember that at the time, your journaling may seem rubbish. But, trust me. It isn't. Everything in your journal, and in your journaling, builds and connects. Part of the reason we journal is to figure out what connects, how, and what it means.
Your journaling does not have to be eloquent and it can be simple. It does not have to be flashy, showy, or flowery.
Do not cross anything out, as well, unless you rewrite it immediately.
So, never censor your journaling. Capture it ALL on the page. It will be useful to you sometime. Maybe now, maybe later, but it will be useful, for it builds and connects.
NEVER THROW ANY OF YOUR JOURNALING AWAY
The only mistakes and regrets I have ever made in my journaling was throwing some of my journaling away--or ripping it up and purging it.
Keep ALL of your journaling. All of it. Without fail.
If you think it would make you feel better to rip something up and throw it away or burn it, make a copy. Save one.
If you are worried about other people reading it, do online journaling with a password. Then, change your password every month. This gives you the most security.
I am not kidding. Save all of your journaling.
If you rewrite something, still keep the original version.
Why? As I said in the previous section, journaling builds and connects. You may not see it at the time, although sometimes you will, but later you will. You will want to be able to go back and see it and review it. It will be highly useful to you.
So, keep ALL of your journaling, without fail.
Sometimes, it can feel really good to throw an entire journal away. Fine. Do it. Get a new brand new and clean trashcan. Throw away that journal in that trashcan. Then, keep the trashcan, with your journal, in the closet. The action of throwing it away and having it in a trashcan can be cathartic. But, by golly, keep the journal and the trashcan. Look at it later. The trashcan becomes your holding place. You can look at it in a year, two, or five. But, keep it for goodness sake.
Keep all your journals and never censor your journaling.
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B BUSY AND FAST
Written December 18, 2014, Thursday, 408 p.m.
Life is fast.
At the time, it may seem to crawl. But, look at it in hindsight, and it's fast.
We live in a fast-paced, fast-food, busy, busy, busy, rush, rush, rush society. Everything is supposed to be bigger and better. The more you do, the more you are fulfilled. The more you make of yourself. The more you are a person of worth.
Or, those are the lies we tell ourselves, have heard, or believe.
But, that's just it. They are lies.
Busy or fast are not better.
When I say busy, I do not mean what we should be at work. We should never have idle hands at work. Busy at work is very good.
I'm talking busy in every other arena. I'm talking the full schedule, no moment to breathe busy.
I'm talking the busy we try to be if we are trying to avoid something or avoid dealing with something.
Busy and fast means you are ignoring things. The things that really matter. Busy and/or fast usually means you are focused on the wrong things and are doing the wrong thing.
Do you feel stressed if you are too busy?
Do you feel stressed if you are having to rush?
This stress should be a sign. A neon sign. A flashing billboard meant to get out attention.
Busy and/or fast/rushing is rarely essential.
The only times we need to be busy or fast/rush are life in death situations or at work. That's it. Rarely are they essential or necessary. We usually are these things if we are trying to avoid something, as I stated early. It's usually when we are in denial about something that we make ourselves busy or do we need to rush.
Busyness or being fast or rushed never make us fulfilled or better people. They do not make us happy, and in fact most often lead to frustration or errors.
Busy never is better or whole or fulfillment or happiness.
Fast is never better or whole or fulfillment or happiness.
If you are doing either one of these, and are not at work, and someone isn't dying, then stop and ask yourself why you're doing that. Journal this.
If you catch yourself ever having a full plate/schedule, or are rushing, STOP. Journal right then and there. Ask yourself why.
There is something you need to work through. I guarantee it. So, do your journaling work. Get busy there and be fast about journaling.
Journaling will help you deal with it and will help you slow down and enjoy life, so you can see your blessings and count your blessings.
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C MORNING JOURNALING AND END OF YEAR PERSONAL JOURNALING
Written December 19, 2014, Friday, 721 a.m.
Today is a new day. It's a new beginning. I get to choose this day whom I will serve and how I will live. It is an opportunity I will not have again. I get one shot with living a blessed day today, for December 19, 2014, Friday.
This year has been a tough, but very blessed year. I have clung to my blessings like a baby gorilla clings to its mama. I have wrapped myself in the Great Comforter and the blessings He has given me.
The truth of the matter is I would be a puddle on the floor if not for counting my blessings in spite of the challenges faced this year. This week has only added two more sucks to an already difficult year and a half in all actuality. I cannot imagine how I would be if not for counting my blessings, reading my Bible, prayer, and journaling. They have been what has kept me standing.
And, I cannot wait to see what God does through all of this.
So... Today and this weekend, I am going to journal and write as much as possible and use the latest bruises from life to my advantage. They make me look for my blessings all the more and bring me to my journal and deeper in my journal. Plus, I will get a great deal more written of JOURNALING STUFF. So, I will use the stress and grief of 2014, and what is upcoming in 2015, to my advantage. I will grab hold of these opportunities and count my blessings and journal. Truly, life will be sweet, joyful, and blessed because of this.
Written December 19, 2014, Friday, 721 a.m.
Today is a new day. It's a new beginning. I get to choose this day whom I will serve and how I will live. It is an opportunity I will not have again. I get one shot with living a blessed day today, for December 19, 2014, Friday.
This year has been a tough, but very blessed year. I have clung to my blessings like a baby gorilla clings to its mama. I have wrapped myself in the Great Comforter and the blessings He has given me.
The truth of the matter is I would be a puddle on the floor if not for counting my blessings in spite of the challenges faced this year. This week has only added two more sucks to an already difficult year and a half in all actuality. I cannot imagine how I would be if not for counting my blessings, reading my Bible, prayer, and journaling. They have been what has kept me standing.
And, I cannot wait to see what God does through all of this.
So... Today and this weekend, I am going to journal and write as much as possible and use the latest bruises from life to my advantage. They make me look for my blessings all the more and bring me to my journal and deeper in my journal. Plus, I will get a great deal more written of JOURNALING STUFF. So, I will use the stress and grief of 2014, and what is upcoming in 2015, to my advantage. I will grab hold of these opportunities and count my blessings and journal. Truly, life will be sweet, joyful, and blessed because of this.
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D SOMETIMES... (PERSONAL JOURNALING)
Written December 19, 2014, Friday
Sometimes...
Sometimes you want to wear jogging pants, yoga pants, or your pajamas all day.
Sometimes you want to sit on your sofa all day and curl up with your journal and get lost in it.
Sometimes you should throw away your to do list and just be.
Sometimes you should grab some color pens or pencils and doodle the day away.
Sometimes you need to pet your critters more time than usual.
Sometimes you should to count someone else's blessings and not your own.
Sometimes you want to be alone.
Sometimes you journal so you can escape the here and now, which are painful.
Sometimes your journal is your only solace.
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E FIND YOUR OWN WAY AND JOURNALING SYSTEM: EXPERIMENT AND BE FLEXIBLE
Written December 19, 2014, Friday, 1215 p.m.
TOO MUCH INFORMATION
This blog and upcoming blog post will include far more information than you might ever want to use. And, as I add more to this blog and blog book, you will discover far more information than you will ever be able to use. That is the point.
Journaling is meant to be simple and freeing. However, if you ever get stuck when journaling, it increases the chances you will not continue journaling at all or that you will take a break from it. Both are the worst things you can do. If you fail to journal, I guarantee you will fail to leave a deeper, more meaningful life and the less likely it will be that you look for the blessings in your life and count them. This blog and blog book are to help you to avoid this from ever happening. The more information you have, the more tools or resources you have, the higher quality of a journaling life you will have.
How can I say any of this? I have learned from experience what not to do and what to do as far as journaling. I know the pitfalls I can fall into regarding journaling and can share them with you so you do not have to make the same mistakes and you will, in turn, find your journaling far more rewarding because you will not have to learn these frustrating and heartbreaking lessons the hard way, for I learned them for you.
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KEEP IT SIMPLE
So, regarding your journaling, keep it simple.
You do not have to implement everything I share on this blog or in the blog book.
Find what works for you and do that.
When it stops working, try something else and see if that works. This blog and blog book, JOURNALING STUFF, will provide you with the 'something else' options.
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EXPERIMENT AND BE FLEXIBLE
Your journal is meant to unleash your creativity and inspire you to live a more blessed life. It's also meant to help you gain proper perspective and live a healthy life. Journaling is meant to help you do what has meaning, go deeper, and think about and do what really matters--and eliminate anything that does not help accomplish any of the things I've mentioned in this section.
The only way your journaling can accomplish any of these things is through you being flexible and experiment to see what works for you and what does not regarding your journaling--and then adjust as needed.
There have been times I've tried a new way to journal, or a journaling system, several different times in one day, never mind in a week or month. This helps my journal to stay fresh and never feel dull, boring, or mindnumbing.
Needless to say, I offer you this challenge: Keep your journal lively and fresh. Experiment, be flexible, and adjust as needed or wanted.
Happy journaling!
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THE PURPOSES AND BENEFITS OF JOURNALING: WHYS OF JOURNALING
There are hundreds of reasons and benefits to journal keeping. However, we're going to explore just a few of them in this section. The rest we will cover throughout this blog. Some of the purposes and benefits of journaling are as follows:
Journaling...
Helps you to keep remembering your present.
Helps you leave a legacy.
Encourages you to live a fuller life.
Helps you to evaluate and analyze your life.
Helps you to explore and analyze what you believe, what you don't, and strengthen your beliefs.
Decreases stress or anxiety (and/or heals).
Decreases and/or heals pain.
Helps and/or heals depression.
Walks you through the hard times of life.
Helps with anger management.
Helps with addictions.
Records your current experiences and memories.
Helps you to remember past memories and get your life down on the paper.
Forces you to deal with the stuff that haunts you.
Keeps you from living in denial and makes you deal with your stuff.
Helps you lose weight.
Helps you to exercise.
Helps you to keep your list of the things you want to do before you die. I also call this your dream list.
Helps you to set goals to make your dreams and goals come true.
Holds you accountable.
Forces you to think.
Makes you transform yourself and your life into something better.
Helps you to learn the lessons from life.
Teaches you to learn to see the world form a broader, deeper, and more beautiful perspective.
Forces you to go deeper rather than live in such a shallow fashion.
Keeps you from living a wasted life.
Draws you nearer to God.
Answers the questions you have about life.
Helps you to vent the yuck in your life and throw-up on paper.
Records your ideas.
Relaxes you.
Energizes you.
Helps you to deal with a crisis.
Helps with grief and loss.
Helps your relationships.
Helps you to change as needed.
Helps with life transitions (divorce, mid-life, puberty, pregnancy, loss of job, starting something new, moving, retiring, marrying, getting engaged, starting a new work position, etc.).
Makes you cherish your life and memories.
Keeps you alert, conscious and aware.
Makes you live life deliberately, intentionally, purposefully.
Makes you move from emotion to the logic or from the logic to the emotion.
Clears your head.
Is a safe place to store your fears.
Keeps your memories because you'll forget time.
Helps you to help others who are going through a similar experience as to the one you journaled about at one time. It provides a common ground.
Helps you to write your autobiography, memoirs, and/or life stories.
Motivates you, inspires you, and gives you passion.
Makes you live your life quite differently because of all the reasons and purposes of journaling.
Is your Life Story.
Is transformational.
Etc. (If not listed above, what does journaling help you with?)
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A SEASON OF BLESSING: A PERSONAL JOURNALING ENTRY
Written December 23, 2014, Tuesday
Last night was a long, long... long... lo-ooo-ong and difficult night. The Denver Broncos lost the Monday Night Football game to the Cincinnati Bangles. It was painful to watch. Sigh. Whimper. Pout. Angry face. Poor Broncos. Poor, poor Broncos.
One more reason this Western gal doesn't care for living on the East coast is because of how late the late football games are. Ugh. (And, I remember complaining about that while living back home in Denver, thinking the games were too late. Hah! Chuckling. This is one more reason to be excited about moving here in a couple of months to Wyoming.)
Finally turned the light off last night, I mean this morning, about just before midnight. (Ugh.)
There have been few times in my life when I have slept the whole night from light out to alarm. Last night, thank God, was one of them. I have been fighting some sinus crud and being up so late wouldn't be helpful one iota, so I am grateful I slept as well as I did, even though it was a short time. Talk about a blessing.
Here it is, Christmas Eve Eve and I cannot help but feel extraordinarily blessed. Life is good, for I am blessed.
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LIFE IS MADE OF MOMENTS: MY MAIN LESSON LEARNED THIS YEAR
There is a great lesson I have learned this year, thanks to counting my blessings. It's that life is made of moments and so is each day. Within each moment, there are several dimensions and many layers of depth.
Within the sunshine or the storm moments, there is far more than the sunshine or storm. Oh, there is so much more! Peel back the layers, go deeper.
1 The first layer is our initial reaction to the moment.
2 Then, there is emotion.
3 There, there is thought, trying to understand or make sense.
4 Then, the emotion and logical thought combine to offer a different perspective.
5 We start to learn lessons from the moment as we reflect, analyze, think through, and remember the moment.
6 Then, the spiritual layer comes into the scene, where we make sense of it from the spiritual lens,then we start to count our blessings.
7 Then, life-transformation happens, not through our own volition. It just happens naturally.
8 Then, we are able to look around with clear vision and we see how many more blessings there are/were in the moment. We count them and count far more than we can fathom, which is a blessing.
9 Then the realization comes to us how there was far more to the moment than the initial reactions, feelings, and thoughts. Epiphany. Aha!
10 We choose to live blessed and be transformed as we keep digging into the moment and finding lessons learned and more blessings.
My initial reaction, feelings, then thoughts are only a very small portion of what really happened in the moment.
Also, we go through all 10 steps at different times, in different ways, and the steps are not an order we always go through things. We may go through them in a far different order than what is listed, much like the stages of grief. But, we must intentionally peel back the layers and capture the complete moment if we want to live awfully and purposefully as possible. Or, we shortchanged ourselves and the moment.
LESSON LEARNED: There is far more to every moment than we realize or give credit, but should.
ANOTHER LESSON LEARNED: Even in the middle of a terrible storm, we can also be joyful and experience mind blowing, extraordinary blessings.
We just need to look beyond the emotion, beyond the reactions, beyond the initial thoughts, and get to the other depths of the moment. Counting our blessings in the middle of the moment, in the middle of sunshine or storm in process, forces us to live a deeper,more meaningful life because we learn moments have a great deal more depth and layers than we often realize.
Those two lessons may be the most important lessons of my last four plus decades of life.
Hence, every moment has multiple stories, and they are all sacred and blessed.
Real maturity searches for and counts the blessings in sunshine and in storm.
Real wisdom knows counting our blessings in spite of facets of the moments in our lives is living purposefully and with eternal meaning.
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A PERSONAL JOURNALING ENTRY: A JOURNALING SAMPLE EXPLANATION
Written December 23, 2014, Tuesday, 1008 a.m.
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SAMPLES OF JOURNALING ENTRIES: AN EXPLANATION
I figure it's time I started to include some journaling samples in this RYP Journaling Blog (A Journaling, Memoir, Autobiography, and Life Story How-To Blog). It will be of my personal journaling, but I would love to include some of yours as well. So, send it to me as a comment on this blog or in an email sent to: RememberingYourPresent@gmail.com.
The journaling samples are by no means a "pat-on-the-back, look-at-me" thing, but rather is a tool to help inspire you. Nothing more.
Therefore, use them to do a SOC (Stream of Conscious) Journaling, use it as a journaling prompt, and as something to inspire you and unblock you as needed.
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A PERSONAL JOURNALING ENTRY: THE IMPORTANCE OF COUNTING MY BLESSINGS
Written December 23, 2014, Tuesday, 1018 a.m.
I cannot help but be reflective at this time of year--because of Thanksgiving, Christmas, December 31 (finishing up the year), and New Year's. It makes me thankful for all of my blessings and makes me look for all of the blessings I counted throughout the year, but are extra special and meaningful now with hindsight, but it also makes me look for the blessings I failed to see originally, but can now because of hindsight and/or maturation through experiences from this year.
I realize I missed tons of blessings throughout the year. I also didn't make it a point to count as many blessings as I could or should. (Sigh.)
I try never to use the word 'hate.' It is a strong word. However, there are times it is appropriate. For instance:
Hebrews 1:9 Living Bible (TLB)
9 You love right and hate wrong; so God, even your God, has poured out more gladness upon you than on anyone else."
Living Bible (TLB)
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
It is okay to hate wrong.
I hate how I don't count my blessings (are not intentional about it) at times and how I miss blessings because I focus on things that don't really matter and are temporary things meant to get my eyes off of what is important.
After all, counting my blessings, and looking around for the blessings in my life and in the lives all around me, is the best thing I can do with every situation, with every circumstance, without hesitation. Counting my blessings is the most productive thing I can do and it blesses me all the more, which in turn, means I spill forth with blessing and they cannot help but spill forth onto others.
Blessing others is what God does through me, when I get my focus off of self and onto blessing, which in turn gives me a proper perspective and gets me focused on what really matters, and then it frees God to bless others through me because I am focused on what matters--not on the superfulus.
Counting my blessings forces me to be less self-focused, less past focused, and less focused on the stuff that does not matter one iota in eternity. It brings perspective and helps me to see that there is far more to every single moment than the surface. Counting my blessings, and searching for them so I can count them, helps me live a whole, full, abundant, deep life.
I grow weary with the shallowness life can bring.
I want to live deeper than the fleeting emotion and the surface stuff.
Journaling helps me see how the things of this world are shallow and don't matter.
What matters is the purpose of why I live. God created me, and all of us, to bring Him glory. One of the ways we bring Him glory is to look around to see His glory and we see His glory through the blessings, the gifts of favor, He bestows upon us.
Counting our blessings moves us from the shallow, temporary, earthly, sinful, finite realm to the spiritual, sacred, holy, set apart, sacred, infinite realm.
This world will fail us every single time, without fail.
When I live with the earthly mindset, I fail every single time without fail.
Counting my blessings moves to the realm I cannot control, but can see when I live with the new point-of-view found only through counting my blessings, the infinite sacred real beyond space, time, and universal laws.
Counting my blessings frees my mind, heart, and actions--so I can focus on what really matters, not on the shallow things of this earthly realm.
So, when I fail to count my blessings, I am earthly focused. I see things with finite eyes and heart.
Hence, I will try to count all of my blessings from 2014 in my personal journaling between now and the end of the year. This is my new personal journaling challenge.
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