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In February 2021, I got a new copy of How to do an artist By Julia Cameron, the 12-week “The Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity,” first published in 1992. I have heard praise for this book, which has been sung on the internet for a long time. Of the spontaneous writing, you wake up and you'll be done. I only finished nine weeks. A common joke around books is that no one finishes it the first time they try it. Three years later, Morning Pages are one of the most fulfilling habits of my life.
I am one of tens of thousands of people worldwide who have picked up journaling as a mainstay in my mental health hygiene over the past few years (the search term for “journaling” rose sharply in Google Trends in April 2024 ). And while people have journaled about their lives for centuries, journaling is spending modern moments in the spotlight.
How to do an artist It retains a ubiquitous presence not only in writing-centric hubs like Substack (the rapid scrolls of recent feeds bring dozens of mentions about books), but also in many celebrities' social media feeds. Singer Olivia Rodrigo says the book helped her make her sophomore album in 2023. Entrepreneur and investor Tim Ferris says it is “the most cost-effective treatment I've ever discovered.” And Adriene, a yoga student with YouTube fame, invited her followers to join her to write a morning page in September. Thirty-three years after publication, it sold 5 million copies and translated into 40 languages. At the time of writing, he is currently ranked 2nd on Amazon's “Creativity” bestseller list and 48th on the Barnes & Noble self-help list.
Then there Shadowwork Journala highly popular book published in 2021 by author Kayla Shaheen with a bachelor's degree in psychology and marketing. She was only 24 years old when the book stopped the release of Oprah's latest book club. Based on the concepts by psychiatrist Carl Jung, the guide to confronting “shadows,” or part of the unconscious, exploded with Tiktok, where you can find over 29,000 videos with the hashtag #ShadowWorkJournal. Shaheen is not a therapist or trauma expert, but many people praise journal tools such as “wound mapping,” an exercise to self-identify core wounds under categories such as trust, negligence, and guilt. I'll sing. Shaheen's second book Shadow BookIt will be released on January 14th through Simon & Schuster imprints as part of a multi-book transaction.
Shaheen – A lifelong journaler who maintains various notebooks for topics like productivity, focus, dreams, imagination, and more – when her diary guides her to self-help and spirituality, exploring shadowwork, she says, “Deep Crisis.” I had experienced this.
“Back to those diary pages, I converted the questions I ask myself and changed the exercise I do into a guided journal that makes a lot of sense to me, so it's my own pain and other “It was mostly how to handle resources for people to experience,” says Shaheen.
Guided journals can help you kick off your writing habits, but you don't need anything specific to get started other than a pen and notebook. Everyone from George Washington to Maya Angelou did that. If you want to use a tech like a laptop or tablet, you can use a word processor like Google Docs. But apart from keeping your own life record, journaling can offer many real health benefits for almost all effort and zero dollars.
Proven benefits of journaling
In addition to many people who can prove the transformational power of journaling, there is also solid scientific evidence that the simple act of writing about our emotions is good for our brains. Author and psychotherapist Kathleen Adams opened the Journal Therapy Center in 1988, dedicated her career to the “intersection of writing and healing in a mental health setting.”
“When I first started this job, six books were published in Journal Writing,” says Adams.
The first scientific research that helped popularize journaling as a mainstream form of mental health care is American Medical Association Journal In 1999, Adams said. Two groups of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and asthma were asked to perform the Pennebaker method. This is a writing exercise where you write down your thoughts and feelings every day for three days. Control groups wrote about neutral topics, while other groups wrote about their most stressful life events.
“In 47% of cases, doctors reported their symptoms [in the patients writing about their stress] It was a dramatic decline,” Adams said. Earlier in her career, Adams also worked with patients dealing with post-mental disorder stress disorder, anxiety, depression, and other issues at a mental hospital when “journaling wasn't the case yet.”
“What I found was that, despite the fact that writing the journal was very new to most of them, when they wrote for a few minutes at a time, they felt better. ” she says. “They learned some coping strategies they're going to be with them after they were discharged from the hospital, and that was a very revelation for me.”
However, when Adams continued working with a patient with severe trauma, she discovered that unstructured journaling could “make patients traumatize themselves.”
“They used their magazines as friends, as peers, as confessions, as attempts to work through the traumatic memories they had,” Adams says. “However, they reported in our ingestion interview that they would fall off a cliff or dive deep into some kind of dark space, in the context of them writing about their trauma. It was structured. , it may be about the lack of pacing, containment.”
Adams created the Journal Ladder, a structure of a treatment writing program, to combat the potential adverse effects of journaling. The lowest or first rung is the most structured, allowing the patient to write down a specific prompt only once for a few minutes. As you become accustomed to journaling, you will be able to follow the path to Top Lang, a free and unstructured writing.
There are no “rules.” You can change your journaling routine at any time. When you write, it depends on you how often and how long.
Over the years, many other studies have identified the benefits of journaling. A 2006 paper found that journaling reduces depressive symptoms in young adults suffering from mental health, but a 2018 study found that journaling on traumatic experiences for three days a week for a month. We concluded that it is associated with reduced mental distress. Improved overall well-being of patients with medical conditions.
Journaling allows you to create almost magical alchemy for some deer lists, for some deer lists, for some deer lists that keep them grounded. In 2023, 37-year-old writer and performer Hunter Gardner was fired from his tech job in New York City and lost his job for nearly a year. That summer, a friend invited him to join a group of comedians like himself. How to do an artist together.
“I was really surprised at how comforting it was, sitting in the morning with blank pages and pens, what was overflowing in my heart,” Gardner says. “It really taught me a lot about how to check in with myself and some of my negative self-thinking. …It taught me how to spend time with myself.”
As part of the book exercise, Gardner wrote personal affirmations such as “I am allowed to be happy as an artist” and “I know what's best for myself and my happiness.” Soon, Gardner realized that he was creative in new ways and more willing to experiment.
“Even now, even when I kept a journal,” he says. How to do an artistI sign “I love you, Hunter” on every entry. ”
How to Start Journaling – and How to Keep It
As you head further into the New Year, there is a simple, stress-free way to kickstart your journaling habits. My personal tips include choosing a note that keeps the spark for you. Choose the design and color that attracts you. My current diary has purple flowers with gold embossed finishes that I always keep on my desk. Try journaling every day (or week, whatever you feel is achievable for you). That becomes a habit. If free journaling feels intimidating, look up a simple prompt online, buy something like a 5-minute journal with a prompt already inside, or just about being grateful Please write it.
Here are some of the best journaling tips from Adams:
- There are no “rules.” You can change your journaling routine at any time. When you write, it depends on how often you are working for you. The only “rule” to really pay attention to is whether you are “getting the results you cherish,” says Adams.
- There is no significant difference in the writing on your hand or device. Whether you're tapping on the Notes app or writing by hand, both digital and analog journaling can help you enjoy the benefits. If you prefer digital journaling, you can use stylus, journaling apps, or direct the transcription app.
- Incorporate relaxing or satisfying rituals. Combine your writing with something relaxing, such as coffee, tea, or meditation. “The little pleasures applied will help you to consistently deepen and expand your writing,” says Adams.
- Set several goals and use the journal to track your progress. Once a month, you can check in your goals using the journal. You can see the progress you have already made. At the same time, you can plan to advance your goals next month.
Adams herself met Julia Cameron How to do an artist First came out, she once wrote morning pages for 17 months. “It doesn't seem like there's anything particularly complicated about this,” Adams says. … Because journals are clearly self-aware, the ability to have a healthy relationship with the journal predicts the ability to have a healthy relationship with the self. ”
