The Power of Journaling
Journaling has been a tool in my tool box that I go back to again and again. It is useful in so many phases in my life, like the moon I trust that it's always there for me.
It used to be a writing mind dump but now it's much more organized. I have a small group that meets and we bounce prompts around ans well as a list of words we incorporate into a poem or short story. We call it the "Word Salad".
Prompts
What really Bothers Me Plus the Word Salad:
The Aqua Laptop skin on the Mac Book that is starting to peel bothers me.
The Desk with the color chipping in the corners is bothering me. It’s not an antique, it’s the first thing I bought in this place.
Curious, I tried to repair it with a coconut color husk paint but it just teed me off. Almost a quarter off the corner, like a ball, came up and dented it. Like a bite came out of it.
The cat was too graceful of an animal to check the corner. Based on the cat’s performance, he’s the least clumsy and the most svelte. Instead of nine lives, this cat had sixteen. This cat, of course, was special.
Word Salad: Aqua, Laptop, Desk, Tee, Coconut, Cat, Color, Curious, Ball, Bite, Quarter, Based, Least, First, Most, Sixteen, Check, Animal, Antique, Special
I like how this came out. Kind of a story, kind of a poem, and I used all the Word Salad words.
An Exercise for my Brain
I love what journaling has done for me, it really lets me flex my brain muscles. Of course I wrote the above prompts so I worked in the cat. There is always a cat in my stories.
Conclusion
I highly recommend writing everyday, even if it's just a list of what I'm doing for that day or plan for the week. Even just a log of daily activity is helpful, as to what you are feeling, and how the day is going, this can be helpful especially in therapy or in doctor's appointments.
