Day 4

Shocker to no one, perhaps. But I was a little girl with a journal.

In fact, I still cart around several boxes filled with all my notebooks, the earliest dating back to when I was 7 or 8. (Perhaps some of you caught sight of the “Cathy’s life before Sam + Lou” box sitting in my office in the “before” video of my practice space ;)).

Reflective writing, putting pen to paper, journaling — however you call it — has always been the most natural way for me to figure myself out.

I’ve fallen in and out of the habit over the years, but since I finally came around to committing to Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity a few years ago (it’s one of those books that 10 or 12 people need to tell you about for 5 or 6 years before you finally do it yourself, I’ve found!) — I’ve been in a daily rhythm with my personal writing practice.

It’s become simply non-negotiable. As essential as my cup of coffee or brushing my teeth. It’s how I emerge as me on any given day. Three pages, handwritten, in big 9x12 sketch paper notebooks. I do it as close as feasibly possible to waking up, on my couch usually in the middle of the chaos (though I’ve traded that setting in for my office / practice space during these 40 days because I’m adding on the meditation too!). Morning pages, as Julia Cameron call them. Or “saving grace,” as I do.

Morning pages are unscripted, unprompted. Only rule is you can’t put down your pen until you’ve filled three pages.

I’ll talk more about different journaling techniques during these 40 days (and give you plenty of prompts too!).

But today, try this approach to ease your way in (or back in!) to journaling —

Press play on the mediation (just 5 minutes today) and spend the next 5 minutes after that simply unloading what you found in your mind onto the page. You don’t have to “do” anything with it for now. Just get it down on the page. 5 minutes. Set your timer. Commit to filling as many pages (or simply lines) as you can.

I call this journaling technique “meditation mind dump.” And it’s also awesome to practice just before bed if you tend to have thoughts racing through your head when you’d rather be sleeping (just me?).

Leave a comment below — how do you feel about journaling?

I feel like people are usually all in or all out :) But whether you love it or hate it or you’re “good” or “bad” at it, I have it on professional authority from poet Naomi Shihab Nye that rarely do you hear anyone say they feel worse after writing things down.

BONUS COMMENT: Has anyone else here done The Artist’s Way? Or any other life-changing books you’d recommend to the group?

I can’t wait to hear how it goes!