For the past several years, I have found joy working as a motivational writer and speaker. One of my greatest passions has been the gift of sharing my deep love and respect for the written word. Words are powerful.

They provoke thought, stimulate creativity, and most importantly, they hold within them the power to heal. Most people do not realize the incredible life changing potential writing has.

Journaling is a practical tool that anyone can use to enhance personal well being. It knows no limitations and it is available to anyone willing to make a commitment to themselves.

It only requires minimal investments of time and money, and provides fast results. From the practical to the artistic, there are many varieties of journaling styles, all providing healing benefits.

Through this series of articles, I will explore how journaling heals, journaling styles, and the keys to successful journaling.

How Journaling Heals:

Journaling helps clear the mind

Journaling is an excellent method of clearing mind-clutter and managing thought patterns. The "untamed" mind tends to wander about aimlessly. At any given moment, we have a multitude of thoughts and internal conversations.

Our random thoughts can turn into worries, which turn into stress, which can then manifest as conditions like depression or illness. The act of addressing our thoughts and acknowledging our inner voice allows us to clearly express our feelings, motivations, and desires.

When we do this, we gain the insight needed to effectively manage them. What many fail to realize, is that even seemingly random thoughts, hold powerful energy. All energy seeks an outlet to express itself, therefore what we think and believe manifests.

Spend some time today consciously paying attention to where your thoughts go. Notice the ratio of positive to negative.

When engaging in self-talk, what does the inner voice express? Is it primarily negative self-talk, worry, or other energy zapping emotions? If so, journaling is a positive first step that can be immediately taken to help understand and then redirect these sneaky self-sabotagers.

Journaling Sparks Creativity

It is very important, particularly for those of us in creative fields, to always have an outlet that enhances our creativity by challenging us to think in new ways. Journaling provides that, because it causes us to purposefully express our thoughts and emotions.

Through reestablishing a conscious connection to our thoughts, emotions, and experiences we provide the challenge our mind needs to keep its creative spark. Writing prompts and exercises are a great way to wake up the inner muse. They keep us thinking on our toes, and often become the launching points of bigger projects.

Journaling Keeps Us Honest

When we approach journaling with an open mind and heart, and we commit to being completely candid with ourselves, we open up to limitless opportunity for growth and healing. Through total honesty, we begin to peel away the layers of our psyche.

The masks we wear begin to fall away , revealing our true nature who we are when we aren't "the parent, the employee, the friend" and are just ourselves. Many spiritual paths have taught the importance of knowing yourself.

The soul mate in the mirror is worthy of our utmost integrity. Journaling Allows Us to Express Ourselves Without Judgment Journaling provides a forum where we can express ourselves fully and completely. If we approach this honestly, a journal can become a best friend and confidant.

It won't give needless

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Contemplate for a moment how you felt the instant you laid eyes on your very first love. Is that how you feel about this person today? What do you think about this person, if you even think about them at all anymore? Remembering back to that moment, are you able to articulate your faith experience from that time? How would you describe your faith now?

Where our thoughts, feelings and faith fit into our journaling process are as crucial as every other element, if not more so. Recognizing them as the main ingredients of the whole of life is about as simple, and as complicated, as as it gets.

If you are able to clarify your thoughts, feelings and faith around an earlier or present experience through journaling them, you have the capacity to transform your life.

Undisturbed and unexamined, old thoughts can continue to direct us down unusable, personally destructive paths, leaving us wondering why our lives are miserable and frustrating.

Perhaps your organizational skills are a challenge for you, and each time you are in a position to plan an event, personal or professional, you become frustrated and are not sure where to begin.

Your mind goes in three different directions at once, you are unable to focus on a set of steps to put together the theme, the activities, the refreshments and the guest list.

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Could a journal actually lead one to health and well-being? As both a writer and health enthusiast, this is a question I've given lots of thought to. As it turns out, I'm not the only one.

Upon further research, there's been a considerable amount of press given to the idea that your journal could be a path to health and wellness.

In fact, Southern Methodist University and Ohio State University College of Medicine studied the effects of creative journaling and found it conclusive in cleansing negative emotions and promoting a sense of well-being (ref: http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/articles/health/journal.html).

In my own experience as a writer (and I think most creative types will agree) being creative is not just an exercise, work or discipline it's a necessity.

In fact, I never quite understood my own personality until was immersed full-time in a purely science, left-brained college program. I would often feel tired, lethargic and uninspired (clearly there was more at fault here than having to memorize the phone book).

According to Carl Jung and Myers-Briggs (the creators of standardized personality and interest testing) introverted types draw energy from themselves and less from other people.

We like to be alone a lot and give lots of thought to the world at large. Our extroverted counterparts, on the other hand, can also be equally as creative, but tend to draw their energy from others.

Either way you go, emotions can sometimes become overwhelming, need to be filtered then let go. Over time, (even amidst the sterile science program) I've learned that I can find peace quickly by turning to my notebook when upset or in need of inspiration. And I'd be willing to guess this idea is not exclusive to the right-brained.

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Have you been considering journaling, but have questions about how to get started?

Journaling IS a wonderful way to explore your faith through prayer, reflection and personal narrative. Shared here are some of the popular questions about journaling, and the opportunity to formulate your own answers to see if journaling fits for you and your journey.

Why do people journal?

Journaling is a simple process of putting writing instrument to paper to express a thought, an idea, a belief, as it relates to your own life. Journaling can also be about creating order in one's mind, clearing out the cobwebs of a stressful time, assigning categories for life experiences worked through and shelved away from a time long past. Journaling creates a process by which we can integrate our faith with our life process, and include God in the dialogue.

People journal for all kinds of reasons, including all of the above, as well as to mark an occasion they hope never to forget, a vacation of a lifetime and a lifetime well-lived. Individuals journal to connect with their souls, to enrich their conscious experience and to document the details which can slip away so easily. Mostly, people journal because they want to, and they love to.

Who journals?

Anybody who wants to journal and makes the time to do so can. Author Virginia Woolf, women journeying to settle the West in the nineteenth century, Mary Chestnut, Civil War-era Southern woman, war veterans from Revolutionary times to the present, and Anne frank, teenager killed in a World War I.

German concentration camp, all wrote journals which survived their writers to tell of their lives. Most of us have no intention of publishing what we write, in this lifetime or the next, SO this is not a point of perfectionism or a belief that journaling is only for those who consider themselves good writers.

Journaling is for anybody who wants to write, feels compelled to write, especially if only for themselves. As people in our culture become more comfortable with expressing their feelings, journaling has increased in popularity.

Today you will discover journaling crossing gender and generational lines, as well as being a self-discovery /cheap therapy for many people to work through personal issues, family crisis and as part of the process of grieving. Frequently used situationally, journaling is also a life-path sounding board for those who consider doing journaling as important as their morning coffee.

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LeStallion offers premium PU leather journal notebooks for writing, dedicated to all those who are pursuing their dreams and goals, or nurturing their personal development and mental health.

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God gave us memories that we may have roses in December. Although these are not my own words, but a quote from a source long forgotten, I have returned to them frequently for their truth and beauty.

Roses being one of my favorite flowers, It is an easy bridge from the image of the red blossoms that pose for a few weeks each summer in my back yard to my Auntie Viola, who taught me to love them as she did.

While Auntie Viola passed on years ago, and my roses are settled into their out-of-season repose, the idea that our memories are gardens reflecting the rich detail of our lives and its accessibility to us, means we can revisit our experiences, thoughts and feelings amy time we want, and enjoy again the tangibility of relationships and events from earlier times.

Happy memories rekindle warmth, tenderness and delight. Tougher situations recalled give logic and perspective to feelings that, at the time we lived them, overwhelmed or frightened us.

Memories are important parts of our lives. Working back through dimly lit hallways from our childhood, high school or college years teaches us not only where we have been, but also how our choices have shaped our lives.

Redirecting our memories to challenge us to grow into who we want to become is also the gift of recognizing how we may choose to view past experiences and life in the present moment.

Retracing memories is perhaps one of the most useful tools to reveal our lives to us in new ways, and to assist us in integrating our experiences as lasting, positive parts of our lives.

Journaling this process is particularly useful for several reasons. Just as a written historical record of an event creates a touchstone to which we can return for reassurance, hope or confirmation, so does a journaled account of a memory.

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LeStallion offers premium PU leather journal notebooks for writing, dedicated to all those who are pursuing their dreams and goals, or nurturing their personal development and mental health.

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It's nearing the end of summer, and I have no credentials to my benefit these holidays. As the end of the holidays approach, I keep wondering what I have to show for the summer other than the noticeable tan, and the load of incomplete articles adorning my computer.

Having nothing to write about can be exasperating. But having plentiful to do, and not doing it! out of sheer laziness or lack of interest is a whole other story. I have articles months old that haven't seen the light of day. Ah, if only I could complete them. But procrastination and laziness stand in the way. I've been telling myself that it's the heat, but with the temperatures going down again, I'm not even left with that excuse.

have seemingly divorced myself from the half-written articles that sit there waiting on some remote folder in my computer. Somehow, I never get to completing something if I leave it midway. And this time is no different. I ended up opening the files, reading their contents, closing them with a mental note that they needed to be finished and went back to my Need for Speed racing adventure.

After an endless round of mindless car racing, I decided it was time to get back to work. Having nothing to write about, I thought I'd try my hand at a journal. Writers are always saying that keeping journals spark up your creativity, but somehow I never thought I'd be writing in one. I'd always wondered why a writer would waste her precious time writing in a journal, when she could be earning money, writing those words in an article or story.

So, I began Mission Journal by simply opening up my word processor and writing the first thing that came into my mind. Incidentally, I started rambling about how much I had wanted to achieve but with a drastic case of writer's block having swept over me the last few days, my ambitions had been reduced to dust. Before I knew it, I had written two thousand words, simply on why couldn't write and how it was playing havoc with my spirit. hate to admit it, but the truth is I was wrong. A journal is not a waste of a writer's time. It's a learning process.

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LeStallion offers premium PU leather journal notebooks for writing, dedicated to all those who are pursuing their dreams and goals, or nurturing their personal development and mental health.

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We all have that one friend we know we can’t do without. Every time we speak with them, it’s that person who makes us feel better—that friend who can make friends without effort. And can calm uncomfortable situations with little difficulty.

Have you ever wondered how they do this? You may have noticed this and attributed it to your friend being a “people person.” It must be why everyone likes this person, you may think.

But what if it is known that this “people person” is this way because he has certain traits? Yet, you, too, can get these traits as well. Would this be something you’d like to learn? Would you like to be a people person, too?

If yes, it might interest you to know that your friend is a “people person” because of EQ, Emotional Quotient, or, in a simpler term, Emotional intelligence.

You might wonder, what is emotional intelligence? Let’s see what we can find out.

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LeStallion offers premium PU leather journal notebooks for writing, dedicated to all those who are pursuing their dreams and goals, or nurturing their personal development and mental health.

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