We (Tara and I) are very excited that Michelle is one of our Virtual Book Tour Hosts (thank you Mich). We are touring the virtual world promoting our recently released guided journal and companion meditation CD, Journal for the Modern Goddess.
In our previous article we discussed the benefits of journaling, today I thought I would talk about ‘Journaling through Change’. Having moved from Australia to Hong Kong, I went through a huge cultural change and journaling helped me cope with those cultural changes.
As we go through changes within our life, whether it is a change in relationship, a job, a family member passing away, moving to a new home or even a change within you, journaling through your life changes can be more beneficial than just talking about them.
When we created our Journal for the Modern Goddess we included a section dedicated to ‘Moving Forward’. This section allows the journal owner to recognise the changes she is going through, at that moment and turn them around to focus on how she can move forward, and through the change.
There are many different journaling techniques you can use to help you move through change, the three journaling techniques we used are:-
Asking Yourself Questions – In our guided sections (Dreams and Inspirations; Moving Forward; Gratitude and Happiness), we provide a number of questions that allows the journal owner to ask herself. By asking herself the questions she can start to journal her answers and allow her answers to flow.
Our questions are guides; therefore any journal writer can ask herself a range of questions such as “how do I feel at this moment in time?” “What makes me happy?” “What changes are going on around me and how do they affect me?” etc.
Asking yourself questions provides you with prompts to move from not writing to writing, and from there you can allow your pen to flow.
Guided Meditations – Our journal comes with a companion guided meditation CD and we encourage the journal owner to write down her experiences from the meditation and if there are any actions she may need to take to move her forward in her life.
One of our tracks was specifically designed to release your fears and when there is change going on, usually there is a fear about the change.
Meditation allows a person to relax and journaling directly after listening to a meditation CD is powerful because the insights you gained through your journey can be put onto paper immediately.
Free Flow Writing – We have also offered journal pages for the journal owner to write whatever she feels like without being guided. Some call this “intuitive writing” and others call it “free writing”. Free flow writing has one rule, and that is, there are no rules.
Free flow writing is you put pen to paper and write whatever comes into your head. If it is “I don’t know what to write”, then you write that and any thought or feeling, you write and you don’t stop. At first you may set yourself a time limit of 10 minutes and over time you may increase the time.
During this time you do not worry about punctuation, spelling, grammar, capitalisation, paragraph breaks etc. Do not worry if it doesn’t make sense, because you are writing purely for you. Free flow writing leads you places you never would have imagined. Allow your thoughts to flow and your pen will naturally move without you having to think about it.
Overall journaling can be an effective tool for processing the changes going on in your life – As they say; the only constant in life is change. Don’t be afraid to journal your way through your change.
Happy journaling!
Nicole Graham and Tara Spicer are currently on a virtual book tour promoting their recently released writing journal, Journal for the Modern Goddess.
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Sunday, 23 March 2008
Journaling Techniques
Feeling a little stuck? Not sure what to write or how to start? At a loss for ideas? There are a range of journaling techniques that you can use to get your thoughts on to paper.
As mentioned in our article, Journaling through Change, we have used three different journaling techniques (Asking Yourself Questions, Guided Meditations and Free Flow Writing) in the Journal for the Modern Goddess.
There are many other techniques and some of them are:-
Qualities and Attributes: Write down the qualities and attributes you possess and then write down ones you wish you did. Identify one quality you demonstrate well and write about the how and the why, then identify on quality you wished you possessed, and write how you could demonstrate it in your life. You’ll be amazed what comes forward during the writing process.
This technique can be adapted to use words that describe how you are feeling in this moment and you can write about why you are feeling the way you do.
Dialogue: Another technique is to dialog. Dialogues are imagined conversations between two or more people or higher beings. It could be a dialogue between two parts of a person.
Dialoguing could involve writing a conversation between a present or past relationship, someone who is living or deceased. It could be about your role as a mother, sister, aunty or friend. Dialoguing could involve writing about an event or circumstance, traditions, cultural background, marriage, religion.
Dialoguing helps you move through any patterns, resistances or disagreements you may be having with yourself or with others. If you need to discuss a situation with someone, this technique can be powerful as it will allow you to form your thoughts so that you can say what needs to be said in a constructive and diplomatic way.
List Making: List making is a great way to help writers block. You could create a list of 100 things you are grateful for, or if 100 is a little daunting start with 25 or 50. Some examples are listing ways you could nurture yourself, how you can improve your life, what you wish for, places you would like to visit, things you value in life, ways to be more creative, ways to be more productive etc.
Once you have your list you can ask yourself questions to get the writing process flowing.
Art Journaling: This technique uses a combination of sketching, collage, scrapbooking, writing, clippings from the newspaper, images from magazines, photos – anything visual. Art journaling is a powerful way to move beyond words.
Use your journal entries as triggers to inspire art. Review what you’ve written over the past week or month and find word images you can translate into drawings or paintings. If you are concerned it will look messy or you will not like what you create, use separate paper and paste it into your journal once you’ve finished. This is a very creative alternative to words.
Overall journaling can be an effective tool of healing and self-empowerment for everyone. There are many more techniques beside the ones I’ve mentioned; however it is recommended that you find the techniques that suit you. Once you become confident in journaling, explore and experiment with other techniques.
Happy journaling!
Nicole Graham and Tara Spicer are currently on a virtual book tour promoting their recently released writing journal, Journal for the Modern Goddess.
As mentioned in our article, Journaling through Change, we have used three different journaling techniques (Asking Yourself Questions, Guided Meditations and Free Flow Writing) in the Journal for the Modern Goddess.
There are many other techniques and some of them are:-
Qualities and Attributes: Write down the qualities and attributes you possess and then write down ones you wish you did. Identify one quality you demonstrate well and write about the how and the why, then identify on quality you wished you possessed, and write how you could demonstrate it in your life. You’ll be amazed what comes forward during the writing process.
This technique can be adapted to use words that describe how you are feeling in this moment and you can write about why you are feeling the way you do.
Dialogue: Another technique is to dialog. Dialogues are imagined conversations between two or more people or higher beings. It could be a dialogue between two parts of a person.
Dialoguing could involve writing a conversation between a present or past relationship, someone who is living or deceased. It could be about your role as a mother, sister, aunty or friend. Dialoguing could involve writing about an event or circumstance, traditions, cultural background, marriage, religion.
Dialoguing helps you move through any patterns, resistances or disagreements you may be having with yourself or with others. If you need to discuss a situation with someone, this technique can be powerful as it will allow you to form your thoughts so that you can say what needs to be said in a constructive and diplomatic way.
List Making: List making is a great way to help writers block. You could create a list of 100 things you are grateful for, or if 100 is a little daunting start with 25 or 50. Some examples are listing ways you could nurture yourself, how you can improve your life, what you wish for, places you would like to visit, things you value in life, ways to be more creative, ways to be more productive etc.
Once you have your list you can ask yourself questions to get the writing process flowing.
Art Journaling: This technique uses a combination of sketching, collage, scrapbooking, writing, clippings from the newspaper, images from magazines, photos – anything visual. Art journaling is a powerful way to move beyond words.
Use your journal entries as triggers to inspire art. Review what you’ve written over the past week or month and find word images you can translate into drawings or paintings. If you are concerned it will look messy or you will not like what you create, use separate paper and paste it into your journal once you’ve finished. This is a very creative alternative to words.
Overall journaling can be an effective tool of healing and self-empowerment for everyone. There are many more techniques beside the ones I’ve mentioned; however it is recommended that you find the techniques that suit you. Once you become confident in journaling, explore and experiment with other techniques.
Happy journaling!
Nicole Graham and Tara Spicer are currently on a virtual book tour promoting their recently released writing journal, Journal for the Modern Goddess.
Sunday, 16 March 2008
Benefits of Journaling
Journaling is the practice of keeping a journal that explores your thoughts and feelings surrounding the events of your life. It is more than keeping a diary and recording the activities of your life, journaling allows you to clarify your thoughts and feelings, thereby gaining valuable self-knowledge.
Below are some examples of the benefits to keeping a journal.
Reduces Stress: Journaling has a proven benefit of reducing stress. The process of writing your thoughts and feelings down allows you to let go, and not carry as much with you throughout your day. This is a powerful form of self-expression, and through that expression you can gain clarity, release, and relief.
Increases Focus: Taking the time to journal can help you disentangle thoughts and ideas so that you can identify your true feelings and bring a clearer focus to what you want. This allows you to begin to live your life to the fullest.
Promotes Self-Healing: Through journaling and reflection you can uncover and record patterns and cycles as well as heal the past, heal relationships and soothe troubled memories. You will gain surprising and valuable insights into yourself as you journal, and again when you revisit past writings.
Encourages Personal Growth: As you express yourself you can integrate life experiences and learnings, explore night dreams, day dreams and fantasies, which in turn allows you to move forward in discovering who you really are.
Better Know Yourself: Journaling helps you create awareness of your beliefs and options, as well as help identify your values. This self discovery reveals different aspects of yourself, and allows you to better know yourself and make changes where you feel there is a need.
Better Communicator: Instead of saying something you may regret at a later stage, journaling is a safe way of expressing feelings and half-formed thoughts until you are ready to communicate them to others in a healthy and constructive way.
Setting Goals: You can clarify what you want and what is most important to you through journaling. Once you have identified those, you can begin to set goals and create action plans to support you in achieving what is important to you.
No Structure: Start today, stop tomorrow and that is how it should be. Journaling allows you to write whenever you feel like it. It is your journal, and your journey – record what you want and when you want based on your personal needs.
Overall journaling can be an effective tool of healing and self-empowerment for everyone, from those suffering great personal battles to those who wish simply to empower and clarify their own unique light and wisdom.
Your journal is your own sacred space, where you honour yourself and the unique light that you bring to our world.
Nicole Graham and Tara Spicer are currently on a virtual book tour promoting their recently released writing journal, Journal for the Modern Goddess.
About the Journal for the Modern Goddess:
This beautiful hard covered, spiral bound writing journal helps women uncover the beautiful, unique and powerful Goddess that they really are.The journal features 6 coloured inserts with inspirational quotes, guided questions, affirmations and 204 lined pages for journaling. The coloured inserts divides the journal into sections - Gratitude and Happiness; Moving Forward; Dreams and Visions; Journal Pages; Guided Meditation; and Sanctuaries and Sisterhood.The companion guided meditation CD features 3 tracks that provide women with sacred journeys that inspire and encourage them to create positive life patterns. These tracks help them to recognise and invite magic, inspiration and loving energy into their lives.
The journal retails for $34.95 AUD including GST.
To view or purchase the journal, please visit Nicole and Tara’s website, Journals for Empowerment. Please visit:
Below are some examples of the benefits to keeping a journal.
Reduces Stress: Journaling has a proven benefit of reducing stress. The process of writing your thoughts and feelings down allows you to let go, and not carry as much with you throughout your day. This is a powerful form of self-expression, and through that expression you can gain clarity, release, and relief.
Increases Focus: Taking the time to journal can help you disentangle thoughts and ideas so that you can identify your true feelings and bring a clearer focus to what you want. This allows you to begin to live your life to the fullest.
Promotes Self-Healing: Through journaling and reflection you can uncover and record patterns and cycles as well as heal the past, heal relationships and soothe troubled memories. You will gain surprising and valuable insights into yourself as you journal, and again when you revisit past writings.
Encourages Personal Growth: As you express yourself you can integrate life experiences and learnings, explore night dreams, day dreams and fantasies, which in turn allows you to move forward in discovering who you really are.
Better Know Yourself: Journaling helps you create awareness of your beliefs and options, as well as help identify your values. This self discovery reveals different aspects of yourself, and allows you to better know yourself and make changes where you feel there is a need.
Better Communicator: Instead of saying something you may regret at a later stage, journaling is a safe way of expressing feelings and half-formed thoughts until you are ready to communicate them to others in a healthy and constructive way.
Setting Goals: You can clarify what you want and what is most important to you through journaling. Once you have identified those, you can begin to set goals and create action plans to support you in achieving what is important to you.
No Structure: Start today, stop tomorrow and that is how it should be. Journaling allows you to write whenever you feel like it. It is your journal, and your journey – record what you want and when you want based on your personal needs.
Overall journaling can be an effective tool of healing and self-empowerment for everyone, from those suffering great personal battles to those who wish simply to empower and clarify their own unique light and wisdom.
Your journal is your own sacred space, where you honour yourself and the unique light that you bring to our world.
Nicole Graham and Tara Spicer are currently on a virtual book tour promoting their recently released writing journal, Journal for the Modern Goddess.
About the Journal for the Modern Goddess:
This beautiful hard covered, spiral bound writing journal helps women uncover the beautiful, unique and powerful Goddess that they really are.The journal features 6 coloured inserts with inspirational quotes, guided questions, affirmations and 204 lined pages for journaling. The coloured inserts divides the journal into sections - Gratitude and Happiness; Moving Forward; Dreams and Visions; Journal Pages; Guided Meditation; and Sanctuaries and Sisterhood.The companion guided meditation CD features 3 tracks that provide women with sacred journeys that inspire and encourage them to create positive life patterns. These tracks help them to recognise and invite magic, inspiration and loving energy into their lives.
The journal retails for $34.95 AUD including GST.
To view or purchase the journal, please visit Nicole and Tara’s website, Journals for Empowerment. Please visit:
Tomorrow, Nicole and Tara will be talking about the best way to use their beautiful journal over at Chakra Goddess. Visit them at www.chakragoddess.com
There is a reader’s competition, to find out more, visit http://www.journalsforempowerment.com/virtual-book-tours/competitions/ This week’s clue is: Our Goddess is gracious in victory
There is a reader’s competition, to find out more, visit http://www.journalsforempowerment.com/virtual-book-tours/competitions/ This week’s clue is: Our Goddess is gracious in victory
Coming soon to Rainbow Dreams, a series of articles from The Modern Goddess, Nicole Graham. To read an article with Nicole, click here.
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