Journaling and CreativityJournaling, by hand, is a habit I acquired early on in life. My English Mother always kept one. She used it mostly as a record of events and travel experiences rather than as a place to unload her deepest thoughts and emotions.Early writings of mine reveal my initial mirroring of my Mother’s daily writing habits. It took me until my early 40s before I discovered the joys of the hand written daily pages as confidant, secret keeper, source of inspiration and so much more. Giving ourselves permission to let it all flow out and onto paper, engages our creative side in addition to thinking and speaking of our ideas. It stimulates the fluency of our creative urges. Recent research shows that writing by hand engages the brain in learning. M.R.I. scans reveal that handwriting lights up the brain in a way that keyboard writing does not. The tactile quality of forming letters with pen or pencil gives us time to think – meditation on the page. It allows us access to ideas that are just below the surface, barely conscious even. Keyboard writing by-passes this step. In the activation of our creativity and individual expression, we need the slower pace of hand writing. Time to think and receive messages from our intuition. Encouraging ourselves to try new approaches, then report back with news of how it went later. A conversation with yourself that can be deeply compassionate and understanding. After all, who knows you better than you. More pages on daily writing will follow soon. In the meantime, we invite you to share your own experiences and ideas about journaling and the creative process here.
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