I follow Karen from CHOOKOOLOONKS almost religiously and I got two great ideas from her and Rawkin whom she referenced in her blog. One was about journaling, something I abandoned last year. It’s ironical but I seem unable to blog and journal concurrently; as if the two are mutually exclusive. She gave some very good ideas as regards journaling and I can’t wait to try them out. I don’t feel like I can really blog about those personal thoughts and for some reason I don’t feel like sharing those thoughts with my friends. A common occurrence sadly. I go through phases where I need to more or less cocoon myself away from everyone when it comes to my intimate thoughts and so going back to journaling will be a great way to balance it out. My favourite journal idea was the ‘Morning Pages’. The idea is actually espoused in Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way, and the concept is this:  first thing in the morning, before you even turn on your computer, you write at least 2 pages (The Artist's Way actually suggests 3 pages) of whatever comes to your head -- completely stream-of-consciousness, without any particular attention to spelling or grammar, simply spilling all the thoughts that are cluttering your mind every morning. Karen says ‘To be honest with you, I rarely go back and read these pages -- but what I've found is that just doing this clears my head for the day, and gets rid of the superfluous thoughts so that I can focus on what's important to me for the day.  It's just a nice little clearing exercise. One tip that my friend Jen gave me that I try to maintain:  try to do the to-do list and the morning pages (if you do them) before you turn on your computer.  In this way, you can be sure to focus what's important to you for the day before your email inbox decided to rule your world.  Your email should supplement what you want to accomplish for the day, not take it over.’

 

I am definitely going to try the morning pages idea. Karen also had a second idea of a vision board-a board which would visually capture the things that you hope for yourself for the year to come. For some ideas of what others have done check out this. Rawkin decided to spin that and do a Vision book in lieu of a vision board. Rawkin says’ Essentially this, in my opinion, is best done by flipping through expendable periodicals with print and/or pictures, such as magazines, sales fliers, newsletters, catalogs, etc., and finding either things that you want, that you like, that just draw you and you don't know why, or all of the above. Along with the comp. book, grab yourself a regular old glue stick, and a pair of scissors, then head to your mailbox and/or stack of old magazines.

 

Begin to flip through, relaxing your analytical mind so that your creative right brain can take the lead. Don't judge yourself. Whatever sparks your interest, be it a group of words, an item, a picture, a setting, even something that falls outside any of these options but represents something that YOU like, cut out and put to the side. 

This process doesn't have to be neat.

It doesn't have to be tidy. 

No one other than you has to see it.

And on that note, it doesn't have to make objective sense. Do what YOU like, and if a picnic basket reminds you of hiking in the desert, something you've longed to do (although I'd have no idea why, it's HOT out there), cut it out! It means "hiking in the desert" now.

 

Now, here comes the fun part. You can glue things onto the pages of your comp. book as you cut, or you can wait until you have a stack of oddly shaped bits of paper to work with, then start glueing. (see notes above, in big print, to guide you here. Again, turn off your analytical mind. Just go to town creating what YOU like). 

 

You may find this process addictive.

(I do too.)

You may, in addition, find that weeks may go by without you even thinking about this process.

(I do too.)

 

Either way, it works the best if, from time to time (daily is optimal but do what you can/want) you flip through the book, admiring your handiwork, imagining with joy and gratitude a life that matches what you see in the pages.

 

And you WILL see trends that you didn't expect.

(I do too.)

 

It's an enjoyable thing. It's cheap, easy, doesn't take up much time, and definitely goes into that self-care & self-love category, which is all-important and definitely underfed in just about all of our lives.’

 

So starting from tomorrow I will start the morning pages while the vision book will have to wait till next week when I am back from my out of town trip. Who wants to join me….and we can share pictures of the same…