Keep the Faith

David
By David Martin

The more I write in my journal, the more I learn about the world and myself. The more I share my writing with my classes, the more open I become to my students, the more open they become to me, and the better all of our writing becomes. 

Often, I hear students refer to their feelings of isolation from family, friends, and other students. I sense they are stranded on a metaphorical, desert island waiting for a passing steamer to rescue them. Sitting alone under a palm tree, sunburned, and tired of eating coconuts, their lives are blocked. Writing in a journal – one that takes on a personality of its own, one that becomes an extension of the author, one that holds the truth like notes placed in a bottle thrown into the Gulf Stream as a means of salvation – will help create that puff of smoke on the distant horizon indicating help is on the way. 

Many times, students need to see themselves unique individuals. Being different is the price we pay for being better. Following the herd creates a boring sameness, a death-like monotony, and keeps us from achieving our potential. Writing in a journal reflects back to us how truly original we are.

John Hancock Field said, “All worthwhile people have good thoughts, good ideas, and good inventions, but precious few of them ever translate those into actions.”

Wait no more. Writing in a journal encourages me to translate my ideas into actions. If I can write about my ideas, I can see them as real possibilities. If I can capture them in a journal, I refer to them later when I act on them. 

Many students dwell on their negative life experiences, and most of us go through periods like this, sometimes. When I have no one to listen to me, my journal becomes my best friend, my voice in the night, the big brother or sister I never had, my guiding light. Often, simply writing my feeling onto a blank page helps me get through the darkness.

The seventh century Chinese Philosopher, Hui-neng said, “The meaning of life is to see.”

Looking at something is not the same as seeing it. In our complicated world, we have so much to look at, but we see so little. Looking at things demeans life. Seeing things, clearly, gives life meaning.

Writing in a journal forces me to see things, not look at them. I can’t count how many students have told me that by simply writing devotedly in their journals they found a meaning in their life they didn’t know existed.

One of the wisest men I know told me that everyone searches for the meaning to life. He said the answer is not to be found but created. If there is no particular purpose, we must develop one. Following our own unique destiny is challenging for all and frightening for many. We can’t hide in the herd any longer, when following our individual path. Keep the faith. Write on.

From Pain to Purpose

“Writing is the only thing. When I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else”  – Gloria Steinem

Motivation

Motivation is moving towards a goal. Abraham Maslow, the famous psychologist, said there were two kinds of motivation: deficiency motivation (changing an unsatisfactory situation) and being motivation (seeking a positive goal after lower order needs are met). People may use writing to achieve either type of motivation.

Writers often build armor around their psyches by using words to overcome inferiority (deficiency motivation). They add layers of protection and self-esteem to inner feelings of inadequacy and learn to compete with no one but themselves. What they write is personal. Fear, shyness, inferiority, and inadequacy rise into the open on the writer’s own terms, in safety, and confidentiality.

Writers construct strong foundations with words to support their needs. A firm outer image develops through the writing process because the inner image is patched and repaired (being motivation). Journal writers develop healthy egos. Formal writing, to prove ourselves to others, to be accepted, and to receive better grades is not the reason one usually writes in a personal notebook. Some of this writing could develop I to a product one might turn in for a school assignment because an intellectual component surfaces.

Journal writing wants to penetrate the flab, the insincere, and the lies of life. With the proper attitude, it touches unacknowledged feelings, becomes character completion, attitude development, and a healing form of expression, not just for the classroom but for life. It involves self-study, life education, skill, effort, a positive attitude, and discipline.

Move towards Self

Personal writing may require increased introversion, a change in value systems, and a movement toward self-realization. It reduces one’s ego and increases the development of creativity. It ties the unconscious to the conscious.

Albert Einstein said, “ The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.” Writing gives us a tool for probing the mysterious, the unknown in our unconscious and connects it to our awareness.

Awake

Being awake in all aspects of life teaches us that we do not know as much about ourselves as we think. Intensive journalizing shows us there is more to explore than people previously thought, and one of the best to do this is to write about our dream images which illustrate psychological archetypes from our collective unconscious. Dreams restore emotional balance by igniting spontaneous creations the writer builds upon.

Carl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, used the term “archetypes,” psychic structures that organize and hold material in our unconscious file folders during our dreams reveal important ideas about ourselves. Intuitive writing is one effective way to touch these deep seated psychological structures.

Shadows

Journal writers often find shadows in their writing, Jung’s archetypes coming to life. When people face the sun, most do not see their shadows: those dark sides of their natures, their weaknesses, those parts of their being in need of repair. Shadows seldom surface in our conscious life, but when we touch our unconscious, we often reach those areas, which need the most work. Temporarily, turning our backs to the sun allows us to see the shadows we forgot were behind us. We limit our own development by continuously looking into the sun. The best writers recognize their shadows, accept them, and confront the biggest shadow of all, the inflated ego, the biggest barrier in our path, the fire-breathing dragon, perfectionism.

Writing empties the mind of distractions and offers glimpses of emotional clarity. Affirmations positively written transform normal awareness and increase one’s serenity. Journals write the dragons away and provide opportunities to visualize one’s goals for the day, for the year, and for life.

Open Your Senses

Writing success involves conserving energy, plugging leaks, and increasing one’s vision. We see with our eyes. We hear with our ears. We touch with our hands. We taste with our tongues. We smell with our noses, but we understand with our hearts. Open hearts make better writers.

People find strength in the careful selection of their language. Many go from pain to purpose. There is nothing like a serious writer’s block to discover what true opportunities lie in the next paragraph. There is like a crisis to reveal a true epiphany. We create our own miracles. The rhythm of life and the spirit of the universe are at our fingertips. Writing is a state of mind and reduces life’s negative influences. Accentuate the positive. Practice. Practice.

Road Signs

Confusing aspects of life make us feel that we go around in circles. When we drift, become discouraged, depressed, lonely, alienated, and bored, stringing words together becomes a silent place to record our confessions. Often, if we take the time to write about our difficulties, we see spirals instead of circles. Spirals indicate that even though we continue to go around, we may move upwards at the same time. This is progress even though it is cyclical. Writing a few minuets daily, changes people’s lives. Serious writers learn in a short time to find road signs for their lives. They write their way to Oz, down the Yellow Brick Road, and home again.

Writing is stress therapy for the grid-locked, an adventure of the mind and heart. One cannot stay depressed and continue to write a journal. People become optimistic, if they write enough.

Write On! – David Martin

[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://finelines.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/David.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]David Martin is the founder of Fine Lines community. Also he is a writing professor, the Fine Lines Camp director, and head editor of the journal. [/author_info] [/author]

Making the Most of Journal Writing

Writers, Join Me!

Let’s Explore Journal Writing.

Our guide for this expedition will be our journal. We will write a journey of self-discovery. We will go down different roads and to new, exciting places. We will find insights that we did not know existed, allow write to build stronger minds, so we can heal, and the pages will help us find answers to questions that we avoided.

Here are a few guidelines we will follow:

  • Poetry may count, but good prose is what we emphasize.
  • Art work counts if we explain it.
  • Quotes by others will count, if we react to their messages.
  • Practicing good grammar and standard English weigh heavily.
  • Words matter.
  • Originality, quantity, and pride in the writing will become routine.
  • Ten weekly pages of concerned, honest, writing is our goal.

Let Go

Writers who feel good about themselves enjoy the experience and the power of self-expression. Let’s try to sit down in front of the computer or when we pick up a pad and pen in a positive frame of mind. Let’s not be afraid to express ourselves. We are not writing for a grade. We are writing to learn and become enlightened. We do not fear the writing process. We embrace it. Let’s make writing fun and rewarding.

Continue reading “Making the Most of Journal Writing”

A Letter to My Journal

papersDear Bubba,

This name I give to you, like a father gives to his son, is one of raw and sincere simplicity. It has a country connotation, one that I respect. The truth is best stated simply, the way farmers and cowboys talk to each other. Complexity muddies the water. This daily journal will be unadorned and unaffected. These blank pages invite the accuracy of vision, as the topics appear in front of me.

I write for only you and me.

This New Year’s resolution for 2015 promises to be creative.

When this concept first shook me awake, I loathed the idea. Writing something every day sounded a lot like work, unpleasant work. You were a thorn in my side and a pain in my neck. When I decided you wanted to grow to be 365 pages or more in one year, I cringed. At first, you scared the heck out of me. How was I ever going to feed you enough ideas so you would gain that much weight in twelve months? At the beginning, just completing a four page essay exhausted me. I didn’t like you one single bit. For a while, I ignored you, hoping you would go away, but the more I neglected you, the more demanding you became. You began to roar for food like a starving lion. Still, I refused to feed you.

After a while, I realized that if you weren’t fed, you wouldn’t grow. I looked at you, as you lay there on the shelf, a skinny spectacle. You were so thin that your three binding rings showed through like skinny ribs with a few paltry scraps of flesh attached. Four weeks later, you were a little better, and some color returned to your face, but you were anemic. In four more weeks, you were a little bigger, and I knew I could neglect you no longer. You didn’t go away as I hoped. In front of me, you loomed like a sickly, pale apparition too tough to die. We had a pact, and I must carry out my end of the bargain.

I started feeding you a couple of pages a day and soon realized that this wasn’t going to be enough to guarantee your health, so I increased your rations to five pages a day. I started to feel more like a concerned parent. You weren’t getting a prime rib dinner at each meal, but at least you were not starving anymore.

Secretly, there is something I must tell you.

I’m growing fond of you. I’ve taken a liking to you, I guess. Perhaps, this change in my attitude toward writing has come a little late in my life, but I don’t mind. You allowed me to discover things about myself that I never knew, and you opened a door to let in needed fresh air.

Mondays with martinWhen this acquaintance began, you always taught me more about myself. You are a window through which I look when I want to glimpse what is inside me. You are a place where I can be alone. When I am hurting, I can cry with you. When I have a problem, you are the friend I confide in and share how I feel. I only wish that I met you when I was younger. Oh, the memories, the emotions, the pains, and the dreams – there are so many things to say. There is no sense in worrying about the past. All I can do is start with today and make each one better than the last. You certainly made a lousy first impression, but I don’t know what I would do without you now.

 – David Martin

What do you want to tell Your writing pages?