As I Am

NOTE: I originally wrote this piece on March 3, 2009.

JUST WRITE IT
Have you ever just wrote something down to get it out of you? To put it down so it doesn't feel like the anger or pain or overwhelming excitement is all stuck inside of you? I think a lot of people have - I definitely have. Most people think of a journal as a place to write down everything they do in a day. I kept my journal that way for long time. For me it was hard and ultimately discouraging to do it that way. I would get behind a couple of days or a week or a month and then feel like I had to write down EVERYTHING I had missed. The task would feel so daunting that I would just quit. SO I had to decide to scrap the rules I felt so constrained by and come up with some new...non-rules...to write by!

1. You may write whatever you want. About anything that pops into your head. About anything that is going on or that you feel or that you think.

2. If you don't want to write about your everyday activities, don't. If you just want to skip over something, do.

3. It is okay to skip days. If you forget or don't feel like writing one day, just don't do it.

4. Take your journal everywhere. It doesn't just have to sit by your bedside. You never know when something is going to strike you.

5. Drawings, quotes, poems, pictures, souvenirs, letters, and anything else can be put or written in you journal.

6. If you don't want to call it your journal, pick another name like your personal blog, your place of anger, your ears that never stop listening. Its your world. Call it whatever you dang well please. You could even give it a name like Joe or Susie!

7. Don't follow any rules:)

Writing is a release for me. I love to do it. Journaling can be a great help and companion for getting through life. So try it. Get out a piece of paper and just write how you feel. You might learn something about yourself...