At the beginning of this month of March, I finally got around to starting a daily journal again, something that I haven’t done in a very long time. I’ve decided to do this for a number of reasons…
1. I can take the chatter out of my head and put it onto paper
2. I can examine my life on a day to day basis
3. I have an outlet to say whatever it is I need to say at the time
4. It allows me get organised and stay focussed
5. I am more perceptive to new songwriting ideas
Since starting again, I have found that I’ve been inspired to write and create more and my thinking has been a lot clearer, my focus sharper and my overall mood and stress levels have been much more manageable.
Not bad for just writing every day is it?
I was inspired to keep a daily journal probably around 15 years ago when I purchased Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way and in it, discovered the concept called the Morning Pages… Three pages of stream of consciousness writing every morning as a way of emptying the mind to allow fresh ideas in.
It was the information that I needed at the time to evolve my journaling from just keeping a daily diary to something much more substantial than that.
I was doing really well and noticing the many benefits that keeping a daily journal brings into your life until one day, I stopped writing and I didn’t know why.
In between that time and now I had considered picking up where I had left off but for some reason, hadn’t done so but I am so glad I’m doing it now.
I had forgotten how great it felt after using my daily journal for an intense mind dumping session. I had forgotten how much more mindful and in control I felt about my life because I used my daily journal to contemplate about it. I had forgotten how focussed, organised and happy I felt being able to just get shit done because I had used my daily journal to plan it all out.
On the creative side, using my daily journal to clear my mind to receive other information has enabled me to be more receptive to any songwriting ideas that come my way and have the focus to expand those ideas into a completed song.
My blogging output has also increased dramatically since keeping a daily journal so thanks to that you’ll be seeing more updates on this blog
Am I going to stop again… NO! Am I going to keep it going… YES!
I’ll be putting up more posts and articles about journaling and its benefits as I now believe it to be the foundation of my creativity and my content creation/curation strategy. You should consider starting up a daily journal for yourself too.
Peace,
Corey 🙂