My Journaling Practice, Working with Resistance, & a Big Thank You to Suzi Blu

This past year I started doing written journaling again.  Suzi Blu started a journaling "course" (it's more than that...hard to pin it down with a single word/phrase) this past year called "Paint & Chronicle".  Here's a link for anyone who wants to check it out: Suzi Blu's Paint & Chronicle: My Sacred Narrative   She has weeks 1-19 available, and you can start at any time (you don't have to wait for January  or any other special time to dive in). I highly recommend checking it out. Unfortunately (but understandably) due to personal circumstances she is unable to continue offering this wonderful course. I have been so inspired by the course (and her and her art) that I don't want to lose that momentum.  So, I've decided to create my own journaling practice.  I've no intention to create the next "Paint & Chronicle" or  take Suzi's place in the journaling world  or anything like that (as if I could even if I wanted to!).  What I *do* want to do is take some of the tools I learned from P&C and incorporate them into a "new-tailor-made-for-me" journaling practice.

Some of the qualities of P&C that I want to carry over into my "new" journaling practice are:

1.  Having a focus and using writing prompts

2.  Using journaling as a tool for taking real action in life

3.  Combining written journaling, art journaling, & scrapbooking all in one journal

Here are my pages for the week.  As you can see my scanning job was less than perfect-oh well!

I liked that Suzi had broken up P&C into weeks.  Each month had a theme and each week had it's own prompts and/or actions.  In my new journaling practice I won't have a monthly theme, but will go week by week.  Each week I will pick a theme.  For me, going week by week will allow me to work with an issue/topic for as long or short amount of time as I need.  When I've done all the work  I need to do with a topic then I'll pick a new one for the next week.  For example this week I am choosing to work with the topic of "resistance".  I will work with it for as many weeks as I need to and then choose a new topic.  (By the way, don't ask why I chose a circus theme...I don't actually like the circus due to the animal cruelty...funny Bunny!)

I've been noticing a lot of resistance in my life lately.  Resistance to meditation, to yoga, to having a regular bedtime, etc.  Soooooooo many things I'm resisting lately!  Good, healthy things that I WANT in my life! So, this is a great place for me to start in my "new" journaling practice.  Suzi picked a quote each week to go with her theme.  I realized I really like adding inspiring quotes to my pages and will continue to do that.  I also liked that she used writing prompts to go with the themes-to give some direction.  Prior to P&C my journaling was all stream of consciousness type writing.  I found the prompts really helpful and will come up with my own each week.

My prompts are written underneath a flip out card I taped into my journal spread:

This week my writing prompts are:

1. Where in my life am I experiencing resistance?

2.  What are my reasons for resistance in each area of my life?

3.  Where am I most stuck?

4.  What can I do to break through the resistance and become unstuck?

5.  What are some ways I can reward myself for reaching my goals along the way to "unstuckness"?

This is how I've been working in my journal, and will continue to work.  I am working in a 8.5 x 11 (I think) size Moleskine sketchbook.  I tape in graph paper (something I learned from Suzi) to do my writing on.  I have been taping two or three pages on top of each other onto the sketchbook page.  I then do some sort of artwork on the underneath Moleskine paper.  I sometimes tape in decorative papers or lists or random other things too.  Today I taped in a pic of a bird from a magazine which I plan to use as a drawing reference. In the pics below you can see how I set up my page(s) for the day. (Sorry for the crappy pics...it's very overcast today and I just couldn't get a good pic to save my life.  And you saw how the scanning went! ha!

By the way...my self care list and self esteem list (which I've taped into my journal) are printable and available to you HERE on my blog (for free)  if you want a copy(s).

So, there you go! I hope you enjoyed hearing about my journaling practice.  I would love to hear about how you journal! Feel free to write about your own journaling practice in the comments (or write about anything at all that you feel moved to write about). And a big giant THANK YOU to Suzi Blu for 6 months of Paint & Chronicle!!  I credit Suzi and P&C for getting me back into written journaling and for sooooooo much inspiration!  I learned a lot, accomplished a lot, did a lot of growing, and so much more over these past 6 months. And I've made some wonderful friends through P&C, including Suzi herself.  Thank you so very much dear Suzi!!  Much love!  

Please do check out these links to Suzi's work.  She is an incredible artist who sells all sorts of cool stuff...rubber stamps, original art, and you can even take an online class with her!

 Visit Suzi's blog

Buy Suzi's book

Definitely check out Suzi's Etsy shop!!

Self-Care and Self-Esteem (Free Printable)

Hello everybody!  Thank you for all of the support and encouragement yesterday on "opening day" of my new blog.  Today I have another free printable for you-Yay!! I won't have printables every day, but when I make something for myself that I think you guys might like I will try to make it available to you as well.

So...today's printable is a self-care and self-esteem combo.  (Clickable link to the PDF below)  The side with the cute girl is for us to write down our self-care tasks/goals/tools for the day.  The side with the plants is for us to write down some of the reasons we deserve to give ourselves loving self-care.

SELF CARE:     Self-care tasks for the day will be different for everyone, but I will share a few ideas for those who feel they can't come up with any at the moment.  If you have suggestions for self care tools, please feel free to share them in the comments! There are basic self-care tasks that need done daily like brushing our teeth, getting a good night's sleep, and eating nutritious food.  Those might seem like no brainers, but when a person is depressed or anxious it can be easy to forget to do those things (or not feel like doing them).  Having a written reminder can be helpful for a person struggling to get the minimum done.  Then there are the "above-the-minimum" tasks, the tools that we can use to improve our quality of life- & to cope with things like anxiety and depression.  This is where we all might have different things to add to our lists.  Some of mine would be:  color in a coloring book (helps me when depressed), play with my cat Buggle (he's always good for a laugh and it helps my depression), and organize my art supplies (this is a good one for me to do while anxious).  Other tools which might be a little more universal: taking a walk, meditating, yoga, taking a few deep breaths, watching a movie, talking to a good friend, and soooooooo much more.

SELF ESTEEM:     For the self-esteem side of our printable we can list some things that make us feel worthy of taking good, loving care of ourselves.  For some of us this will be really, really hard.  If you find it too challenging to come up with anything or if you can only think of one or two things...consider asking a loved one (or several loved ones) to add to your list.  Someone who cares about you might be able to help you see some of the wonderful qualities in you that you aren't seeing at the moment.  EVERYONE has positive qualities and everyone has potential, so if your mind is telling you that you don't have anything to add to your worthiness list-trust me, it's a lie!!  A few tips to help you with your list (Please don't be limited by this list!!  There is sooooo much more that can be used to make your list, this is just a very small list of things to help you brainstorm)...

*  Think about how you interact with others.  Are you a good friend, sibling, employee, a good caregiver to a pet, etc?   Are you a good listener, helper, supporter, encourager?

*  Do you have hobbies?  What do you enjoy doing?  Don't judge the quality or skill level here!!  Whatever you are capable of doing deserves to be nurtured-not just the things you are "good" or skilled at.  For example I am an artist.  That deserves to be nurtured and taking good, loving care of myself is one way to nurture my creativity.  It doesn't matter what my skill level is-my artisitc side deserves good care whether I am the most or least skilled artist in the world.

*  What is in your heart?  Are you kind? Compassionate?  Loving?

*  What do other people say about you?  Ignore any negative feedback you've gotten.  We are only concerned with the positive feedback right now.  What do you tend to hear over and over from others?

I hope that you are able to create a nice long self-esteem list!  You could try writing out a new list every day and see just how many things you are able to come up with!  Even if you can easily come up with a worthiness list...it still might be a good boost to ask loved ones to add to the list.  Having good self esteem increases quality of live big time.  Taking a few minutes to recognize some of the ways you are deserving of good care is time well spent.

I hope this was helpful!  I would love to hear your thoughts on this printable.  And if you have requests for future printables or tutorials feel free to put them in the comments.  I can't promise I'll be able to fulfill them all, but I will definitely consider all requests.  Thanks for joining me here on the blog!!

Click HERE to get your free printable