Why keep a journal?
For those of us who have been brought up to consider journal-keeping as the preserve of muslin-dressed women with time on their hands, think again. It is not something to be squeezed in between water-colouring and embroidery.
Journalling is a way of listening to yourself. So, in a world constantly exorting you to give your opinion, journalling can be a useful check on what you really think.
Of course, you may like your opinions to be a knee-jerk reaction, a response on the wing. But, if so, are they really your opinions? Are they based on evidence and your own form of expertise? Or are they the half-remembered gobbets of other people’s views. Are they views which you could not defend if challenged? And are they truly what you believe?
If you’re dishonest in your journal, you’re fooling no-one but yourself. In which case, why bother to keep a journal at all? A journal is one place where you can afford to be brutally honest with yourself. Think of the advantages of that!
But someone may read it and make a judgement, you may think. Remember the responsibility of keeping your journal as a ‘safe space’ – away from chance encounters with people you have not permitted to read it – is yours. Totally. You have only yourself to blame if you are careless with its sanctity.
If however you do care for your journal in this way, it rewards you with total confidentiality. It’s like carrying around a counsellor or a coach in your pocket. It has that much power.
Saturday, 29 August 2009
Journalling - the route to your inner self
Keeping a journal opens up your inner world with powerful results.
You can, for example, record your dreams on its pages and re-telling dream-stories lifts your waking mood. Breaking your dreams, as the old saying goes. After all, we’ve all woken up – in tears or buoyant with love – with an almost overwhelming desire to tell someone about a dream. At least, if you confide in your dream journal, it won’t tell anyone else. Confidentiality is assured.
But, if patterns of dream imagery recur, your journal may also be warning you of something you need to take seriously but have not yet consciously acknowledged. In this case, your journal will not judge but will help to raise your awareness of some potential danger.
So how – exactly - does form influence the effectiveness of what you write?
Some days, for example, you may want to use your journal to understand – or even to remove – some vivid emotions disturbing your daily life. You may want to hang on to all this emotion or let it go. But, because of the mental energy required, describing it in words is a strong first step towards regaining control of your life.
At this, you may choose to write your journal in the form of a daily poem, exploring the experience through metaphor. Or your journal could become a long-running unsent letter to the person who is generating all this feverish confusion in your life. And – unless you make a conscious decision to share - the person in question need never know. This useful strategy can diffuse bubbling conflicts with your boss. Or keep the lid on a love affair. Or speak to someone who has died leaving you with things unsaid.
You can, for example, record your dreams on its pages and re-telling dream-stories lifts your waking mood. Breaking your dreams, as the old saying goes. After all, we’ve all woken up – in tears or buoyant with love – with an almost overwhelming desire to tell someone about a dream. At least, if you confide in your dream journal, it won’t tell anyone else. Confidentiality is assured.
But, if patterns of dream imagery recur, your journal may also be warning you of something you need to take seriously but have not yet consciously acknowledged. In this case, your journal will not judge but will help to raise your awareness of some potential danger.
So how – exactly - does form influence the effectiveness of what you write?
Some days, for example, you may want to use your journal to understand – or even to remove – some vivid emotions disturbing your daily life. You may want to hang on to all this emotion or let it go. But, because of the mental energy required, describing it in words is a strong first step towards regaining control of your life.
At this, you may choose to write your journal in the form of a daily poem, exploring the experience through metaphor. Or your journal could become a long-running unsent letter to the person who is generating all this feverish confusion in your life. And – unless you make a conscious decision to share - the person in question need never know. This useful strategy can diffuse bubbling conflicts with your boss. Or keep the lid on a love affair. Or speak to someone who has died leaving you with things unsaid.
Journalling for beginners
Communication usually involves someone saying or writing something to someone else and receiving a response. And, as I’m proposing journaling can have a special role in communication, you may well ask ‘Where is this response?’
Keeping a journal must appear to be a very one-sided form of communication. Journals, however, have multiple purposes and can take many forms. And none of these is ultimately incompatible with the concept of communication. You may also find that – ultimately - keeping a journal even enhances your abilities in this area.
Firstly, you can use your journal as a way of finding out what you really think about something. And you may then ‘practice’ conversations there you’ll later have in daily life. About your career, for instance. In the quiet confidential space of your journal, you can work out the pros and cons of the conversation you want to have with your boss about your readiness for promotion.
Personal relationships are common journal material. In your journal, for example, you could find yourself asking why your husband has suddenly taken on responsibility for buying his secretary’s Christmas present – especially as before, Matilda’s talcum powder had always been just an extra on your own Christmas shopping list. You then have a very private opportunity to work out the answer your own question. And prepare for a conversation you know you must have.
Sometimes it helps to know why you’re keeping a journal. As with any other form of writing, start by defining your purpose or purposes clearly. Do you want to dump emotion, organise a programme of self-improvement or create a resource of stories and characters which will fuel your fiction writing?
Once you’ve established your clear intent in writing this journal – again, as with any other form of writing - you can then choose the form best suited to the purpose. If you want to dump emotion, your journal could take the form of a long unsent letter to the person who is generating all this feverish need to ‘splurge and burn’ in you.
But always remember, your journal exists to give meaning to your life. You are the one who will be empowered by keeping it. It is safe and private. And you can choose to change your purpose in keeping it and adopt different forms, whenever you want. After the catharsis of the unsent letter, for example, you may feel calm enough to itemise your calorie intake for the day. Your mood diary will become a food diary.
Keeping a journal must appear to be a very one-sided form of communication. Journals, however, have multiple purposes and can take many forms. And none of these is ultimately incompatible with the concept of communication. You may also find that – ultimately - keeping a journal even enhances your abilities in this area.
Firstly, you can use your journal as a way of finding out what you really think about something. And you may then ‘practice’ conversations there you’ll later have in daily life. About your career, for instance. In the quiet confidential space of your journal, you can work out the pros and cons of the conversation you want to have with your boss about your readiness for promotion.
Personal relationships are common journal material. In your journal, for example, you could find yourself asking why your husband has suddenly taken on responsibility for buying his secretary’s Christmas present – especially as before, Matilda’s talcum powder had always been just an extra on your own Christmas shopping list. You then have a very private opportunity to work out the answer your own question. And prepare for a conversation you know you must have.
Sometimes it helps to know why you’re keeping a journal. As with any other form of writing, start by defining your purpose or purposes clearly. Do you want to dump emotion, organise a programme of self-improvement or create a resource of stories and characters which will fuel your fiction writing?
Once you’ve established your clear intent in writing this journal – again, as with any other form of writing - you can then choose the form best suited to the purpose. If you want to dump emotion, your journal could take the form of a long unsent letter to the person who is generating all this feverish need to ‘splurge and burn’ in you.
But always remember, your journal exists to give meaning to your life. You are the one who will be empowered by keeping it. It is safe and private. And you can choose to change your purpose in keeping it and adopt different forms, whenever you want. After the catharsis of the unsent letter, for example, you may feel calm enough to itemise your calorie intake for the day. Your mood diary will become a food diary.
Saturday, 27 June 2009
Naming the rose?
Names are powerful - so much so that the Yogis say, when you feel you understand who you are, you should choose a name to reflect that knowledge. My name is Elizabeth. This I feel connects me to a long Quaker tradition in my family. But its diminutive, Lizzie, allows me to show my playful, joyous side. It was given me at birth but as my second name. My first was used by teachers and friends and family up until the point at which I realised it wasn't working for me and never had. I still feel a shock if someone uses that one - and some people from my past still do. But my choice is Lizzie or - more formally - Elizabeth.
Similarly, when choosing names for a character, you have to take infinite care. Compare Dickens' use of names with your own. None of his were serendipitous. Gradgrind, Pecksniff, or Agnes, they all conjure images which resonate with the characters he portrays.
And - if you are choosing a nom de plume - make yourself fully aware of the possibilities attached to any name you're considering.
Similarly, when choosing names for a character, you have to take infinite care. Compare Dickens' use of names with your own. None of his were serendipitous. Gradgrind, Pecksniff, or Agnes, they all conjure images which resonate with the characters he portrays.
And - if you are choosing a nom de plume - make yourself fully aware of the possibilities attached to any name you're considering.
Thursday, 5 March 2009
Creative Writing and Health & Well-Being
For centuries, creative writing has been accepted as beneficial to people with emotional problems. Aristotle described the cathartic effect of drama. Shakespeare warned: “Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak/ Whispers the o’er fraught heart and bids it break.” And twentieth century researchers began to seek an evidence base for this - hoping to establish a cornerstone for creative writing therapy.
However some of the findings have surprised even the already-converted. In independent studies, benefits of creative writing have proved certainly emotional and spiritual but also psychological and physical.
Alzheimers’ Disease Patients are regularly offered the opportunity of contact with working poets. They talk. The poets listen. The poets create poems from the patients’ words. The patients read these poems and re-gain, however briefly, their sense of ‘self’. This is also a gift to the people who love them.
But creative writing is also now recognised as a stress-buster, forming part of corporate stress management programmes. A bit left-field, you think? Not so. Engaging in writing down serious autobiographical material can lead – as the Alzheimer Patients find - to an increased sense of self (and self-worth) and a sense of control over one’s life. Insufficient control over the work we are paid to do, for example, has already been identified as a major source of stress in the Health & Safety Executive’s Stress Management Standards.
In the 1990s, author of Opening up and psychologist James Pennebaker identified that meaningful creative writing about autobiographical material (ie not about trivia) resulted in a strengthened immune system and reduced blood pressure. This could help to militate against certain cancers, stroke and heart disease.
And, even arthritis sufferers have been found to need fewer pain-killers when encouraged to engage in creative writing.
How creative writing works is well-documented.
As Julia Cameron indicates in her seminal work, The Artist’s Way, writing is a means of problem solving. She advocated – as all we coaches do – free writing to throw up repeating themes, concerns and even solutions. For example, she explains how Phyllis – a leggy, socialite – had for ten years written nothing but letters and shopping lists. But after starting to free-write – Cameron’s morning pages – she wrote her first poem and has moved on to many more.
It’s now generally accepted, according to Yogic principles, all the thoughts and ideas populating the ‘busy brain’ can keep you awake at night. So, having a journal by the bedside and writing them all down may even help with the insomnia produced. Once these images and issues are ‘out’ of the brain and – in the form of words on the page – become a visible presence, the writer can re-read them later (ie next morning) with a fresh perspective and focus. An empty brain allows you to sleep.
Increased interest in the deployment of the humanities in the practice of medicine and social care has resulted in a whole range of projects, pulled together in the Prospectus for Arts and Health (published by the Arts Council and the Department of Health). For example, funding has been made available for the inclusion of creative writing within a medical humanities model for the medical students of the University of Bristol.
As a well-thumbed source book for my Out of the Box Creativity Workshops – I personally commend Writing Works – a resource handbook for Therapeutic Writing Workshops and activities, published in 2006 by Jessica Kingsley and edited by Gillie Bolton, Victoria Field and Kate Thompson. And In his foreword to this, Blake Morrison expresses the view that this book should be used in schools, colleges, hospitals, prisons, rehab clinics and community centres.
“There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come” said Victor Hugo, author of Les Miserables. Creative Writing, of course, has always been powerful.
However some of the findings have surprised even the already-converted. In independent studies, benefits of creative writing have proved certainly emotional and spiritual but also psychological and physical.
Alzheimers’ Disease Patients are regularly offered the opportunity of contact with working poets. They talk. The poets listen. The poets create poems from the patients’ words. The patients read these poems and re-gain, however briefly, their sense of ‘self’. This is also a gift to the people who love them.
But creative writing is also now recognised as a stress-buster, forming part of corporate stress management programmes. A bit left-field, you think? Not so. Engaging in writing down serious autobiographical material can lead – as the Alzheimer Patients find - to an increased sense of self (and self-worth) and a sense of control over one’s life. Insufficient control over the work we are paid to do, for example, has already been identified as a major source of stress in the Health & Safety Executive’s Stress Management Standards.
In the 1990s, author of Opening up and psychologist James Pennebaker identified that meaningful creative writing about autobiographical material (ie not about trivia) resulted in a strengthened immune system and reduced blood pressure. This could help to militate against certain cancers, stroke and heart disease.
And, even arthritis sufferers have been found to need fewer pain-killers when encouraged to engage in creative writing.
How creative writing works is well-documented.
As Julia Cameron indicates in her seminal work, The Artist’s Way, writing is a means of problem solving. She advocated – as all we coaches do – free writing to throw up repeating themes, concerns and even solutions. For example, she explains how Phyllis – a leggy, socialite – had for ten years written nothing but letters and shopping lists. But after starting to free-write – Cameron’s morning pages – she wrote her first poem and has moved on to many more.
It’s now generally accepted, according to Yogic principles, all the thoughts and ideas populating the ‘busy brain’ can keep you awake at night. So, having a journal by the bedside and writing them all down may even help with the insomnia produced. Once these images and issues are ‘out’ of the brain and – in the form of words on the page – become a visible presence, the writer can re-read them later (ie next morning) with a fresh perspective and focus. An empty brain allows you to sleep.
Increased interest in the deployment of the humanities in the practice of medicine and social care has resulted in a whole range of projects, pulled together in the Prospectus for Arts and Health (published by the Arts Council and the Department of Health). For example, funding has been made available for the inclusion of creative writing within a medical humanities model for the medical students of the University of Bristol.
As a well-thumbed source book for my Out of the Box Creativity Workshops – I personally commend Writing Works – a resource handbook for Therapeutic Writing Workshops and activities, published in 2006 by Jessica Kingsley and edited by Gillie Bolton, Victoria Field and Kate Thompson. And In his foreword to this, Blake Morrison expresses the view that this book should be used in schools, colleges, hospitals, prisons, rehab clinics and community centres.
“There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come” said Victor Hugo, author of Les Miserables. Creative Writing, of course, has always been powerful.
Your Life, Your Autobiography
THE SEARCH FOR IDEAS
Earlier in this series, we have looked at memories as a resource. But why stop at a memory. Would you like to work on your own Life Story? In this you are your own hero/heroine. You could find out the ‘Why’ of you. And another glittering prize – when you embark on this journey – is the production of a resource to answer all those questions your family will suddenly find they’d like an answer to – albeit long after you’ve forgotten most of what you’ve been and what you’ve done.
As a coach, I can almost hear all the unhelpful voices leaping out at you as you’re thinking about this.
Which one’s sitting in your head?
• My life’s been boring
• I was never any good at English
• I’d forget my head if it was loose – never mind recalling all those people and places
• And, where do I start?
Well, the beginning’s always a good place. Researchers such as Joseph Campbell (author of ‘The Hero with a 1000 faces’) and Christopher Booker – both of whom’ve studied human storying in depth - would agree that human beings love stories that have a beginning, a middle and an end. Well, you may not yet have reached the end but you’ll certainly already have lots of material to hand for the beginning of your book.
Here comes another wall of objections. There’s too much. And how do I write my story?
You need to:
• clarify what you want to achieve
• think about how best to do this
• organise your material
• learn to understand your material
• trust yourself.
And remember, you don’t have to do this alone. Lonely Furrow Company is there to help.
Earlier in this series, we have looked at memories as a resource. But why stop at a memory. Would you like to work on your own Life Story? In this you are your own hero/heroine. You could find out the ‘Why’ of you. And another glittering prize – when you embark on this journey – is the production of a resource to answer all those questions your family will suddenly find they’d like an answer to – albeit long after you’ve forgotten most of what you’ve been and what you’ve done.
As a coach, I can almost hear all the unhelpful voices leaping out at you as you’re thinking about this.
Which one’s sitting in your head?
• My life’s been boring
• I was never any good at English
• I’d forget my head if it was loose – never mind recalling all those people and places
• And, where do I start?
Well, the beginning’s always a good place. Researchers such as Joseph Campbell (author of ‘The Hero with a 1000 faces’) and Christopher Booker – both of whom’ve studied human storying in depth - would agree that human beings love stories that have a beginning, a middle and an end. Well, you may not yet have reached the end but you’ll certainly already have lots of material to hand for the beginning of your book.
Here comes another wall of objections. There’s too much. And how do I write my story?
You need to:
• clarify what you want to achieve
• think about how best to do this
• organise your material
• learn to understand your material
• trust yourself.
And remember, you don’t have to do this alone. Lonely Furrow Company is there to help.
Public Lending Rights
Public Lending Rights.
Many Happy Returns to the 1979 Public Lending Right(PLR) Act. We’re celebrating a rather glorious principle this year – namely that the public should be able to borrow books freely from government- funded libraries but the creators of books - ‘lent’ by government -should have a legal right to payment for their ideas, energy and hard work.
The current situation is:
• Not only authors but also illustrators, translators, editors and photographers qualify for payment
• 1400 new authors registered last year for the February 2009 payments (part of a rising trend)
• The current loan rate runs at 5.98p
• 28 countries now have PLR systems
• The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society is the industry watchdog committed to ensuring payment is forthcoming to registered authors
• Registration must be completed by June 30th each year for payment to be made in the following February.
Those of you who have had books published recently and want the Library systems – in the UK or in the European Union Member States - to take them up should:
• Ask the PLR office for a registration form by telephone: 01642 604699
• Visit the website, www.plr.uk.com ,to apply for registration online.
Many Happy Returns to the 1979 Public Lending Right(PLR) Act. We’re celebrating a rather glorious principle this year – namely that the public should be able to borrow books freely from government- funded libraries but the creators of books - ‘lent’ by government -should have a legal right to payment for their ideas, energy and hard work.
The current situation is:
• Not only authors but also illustrators, translators, editors and photographers qualify for payment
• 1400 new authors registered last year for the February 2009 payments (part of a rising trend)
• The current loan rate runs at 5.98p
• 28 countries now have PLR systems
• The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society is the industry watchdog committed to ensuring payment is forthcoming to registered authors
• Registration must be completed by June 30th each year for payment to be made in the following February.
Those of you who have had books published recently and want the Library systems – in the UK or in the European Union Member States - to take them up should:
• Ask the PLR office for a registration form by telephone: 01642 604699
• Visit the website, www.plr.uk.com ,to apply for registration online.
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