Another Way Of Journaling

Gratitude journals seem to be in great abundance lately. While these are great (and yes I keep one), I would like to step away from this for a moment and discuss and different type of journal. This one is great because you do not have to worry about anyone stumbling upon it accidentally or on purpose, and it will never take up any space in your home for a significant amount of time. I am going to talk about release journaling in this post.

Release journaling is my own name for writing down the things that you wish to release from your life. These can be emotions, habits, attitudes, ex’s, an old pair of socks….anything that you want to release from your life once and for all. It is just as easy as a gratitude journal with one exception: it involves fire.

As with a gratitude journal, you write down five things each day that you want to release. Once you write these down, tear off the paper from the notepad, fold into a square, and burn it (safety first please). Burning your daily list means that you are not only giving these items conscious attention to be rid of them, but you are sending the energy out via the burning that these things REALLY do not serve you anymore.

I tried this here and there on occasion and have found that the more I do it the more effective it is. You can get results if you do it once in a while, but they will be spotty and not as concrete as if you stay the course and do it regularly. Do you need to burn this every day? No, you don’t. I do a burning every week or two depending on how affected I am by whatever it is I am trying to release. How often you burn is a person preference that you will need to determine on your own.

Keeping a release journal is a freeing and empowering experience. Combined with a gratitude journal you will see before too long the road blocks and baggage that you wish to be rid of start to disappear, giving you more possibilities for your gratitude journal. Enjoy!

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Just Randomly Typing Along…

I was working on one of my book projects when my wrists started to get stiff and sore, as I am experiencing a bit of tendentious at the moment. Since I write my books out longhand before typing them, I took it as a hint to type out a quick blog post.

Today was a pretty unspectacular day in my world; wake up, rush through the typical Monday tasks, do some meditating, read a bit, scour the internet for article ideas or additional information for book projects, and of course a little bit of computer and phone shopping when an interval arose. A day of healthy eating paved the way to an evening of cream soda, flavored popcorn, and ice cream. Guess I’ll try the healthy eating thing again tomorrow, starting with an almond milk, banana, and blueberry smoothie.

So, what is my point here tonight, why am I sort of rambling on about these details? Well, I guess my point for this point is that sometimes there isn’t a point to something, a destination to arrive at, an ending on the horizon. You know that saying that goes along the lines of the best part of the trip isn’t where you are going, but is the journey itself?

That is where I am at tonight…on a journey to who knows where…I have no clue where it is I am going, just felt like writing some more even though my wrist was not in agreement with me. It is just a beautiful evening with a nice cool breeze, cat in my lap, Spotify cranking out tunes, and an empty bottle of cream soda sitting on my desk. Yup, that’s about it.

How can anything be more perfect than that?

How In The World?

How in the world did I get here? Who are these people? Am I dreaming this?
Have you ever asked yourself these questions? If so, why?
Confused yet? Tired of questions? Care to respond?

Why?

Are you thinking? Not thinking? Not caring? Wondering where I’m taking this?

Your mind is ramped up; you’re wondering if you should keep reading this. Of course you should.
Hear that noise? You know, the noise that is all over your thoughts after reading the above. That noise that lets you know that your brain is working; that your thought processes have kicked in and are busily processing this data.

Conscious thought is great, but very noisy. Being in touch with your subconscious is to be in touch with your instincts. Your instincts know exactly what you need to do and when you need to do it. It taps the brain only when it needs facts, such as the date of an appointment, how to install a printer driver, or what temperature to set the oven.

Remember all the noise from earlier? If you were listening to your instincts, your thoughts would not have been churning away. If you know it, how much thought do you really need to give to it, right?

Losing your mind is not a bad thing, even though the times we use this saying have made it a negative statement. What losing your mind truly means is that you are able to live and breathe in this world happy as a clam, without the thoughts of the mind interfering. Are thoughts of the mind really that bad?

Consider this: how many of your thoughts include positives, affirmations, the go get ‘em kid moxie we all have inside? Write down your thoughts, even if for only an hour. Are they positive? Negative? Showing confidence, or making you seem as cowardly a rabbit? I bet they are more of the negative variety. Here’s why.

I learned, not too long ago, that thoughts are our reaction to things we have friction with. How many times were you cruising along the highway, listening to some great tunes, not even aware of the miles that were clicking by, before suddenly having your thoughts awakened by an extremely slow driver coming up in front of you? Or perhaps you are working on a project at work, and get an email from your boss saying to switch gears. Does your thought process kick in, or do your instincts seamlessly take in the change of direction and move forward.
So, have you lost your mind yet? You should; it’s freeing and makes for a smooth ride through life.

Scared To Be Happy?

A long time ago, either late in high school or early in college, I came to realize that on days that I felt like I was on top of the world, the world did its best to knock me down a few pegs. At that time I could not understand why; I just knew that I reached a point in which I began to avoid feeling my best because I was not willing to fight for that feeling.

Sounds kind of stupid in a way…not wanting to fight to be at an elevated emotional state…to see the world from a grand position in life. But, there I was, fighting to not feel elated.

There was a lot going on my life back then….my parents had just separated and were heading to divorce, I was getting ready for (or already in) college…either way I was not doing well academically. I had this powerful idea of driving my car around my home state, searching for nature stories that needed to be brought to the public’s attention.

I laugh at this thought today…since I was an engineering student at the time and had never written an article or anything for that matter which was not a class requirement or assigned project. Researching and writing these assignments were my favorite part of school. Had I been a little smarter, I would have picked up on that and picked my major accordingly. But, again…that top of the world feeling and not having the courage to fight to stay there.

After a couple of years of spinning my wheels, I came across an advertisement for a baseball writing position for a startup magazine in a Prodigy bulletin board. I applied, sent a test article to them about the career of Robin Yount, who had just retired after 20 seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers. About two weeks later I receive a phone call from the magazine’s founder/chief editor welcoming me to Sports Map! Now that was a great feeling! I was jumping up and down and every which way! But, again, he who stands tall must fight the gravity of the world. And fight I did not.

My run at Sports Map lasted about 4 years. I had written 16 columns (it was a quarterly magazine), all of which received positive feedback, but the magazine itself did not catch on enough for the founder to keep it going, so that was that. I resigned myself to defeat, and focused on my very young IT career for a long period of time, never really writing except for work or business related needs.

Flash forward about 8 years. While on a camping trip with friends, we were talking about some of the things we had each done that maybe no one had really known about. I mentioned my Sports Map gig. To my complete surprise, one of my friends remembered reading my column religiously. My  heart leapt into my throat as the all too familiar feeling of resisting that climb to the world became almost overwhelming. Thank God for vodka; I was on my way to an anxiety attack.

That feeling was short lived. The next day as we were winding our way through the bluffs and cliffs that surrounded the area, the light bulb went off…the adrenaline kicked in…a switch had finally been thrown. This day was the most fun I had in a long time, and my being caught in the moment was so powerful that it never occurred to me that I should be scared of being back on top of the world. But I wasn’t. I was living and being present. No tomorrow, no yesterday.

That feeling was as if every ounce of positive energy in the world had come to reside inside of and around me. The fear to be on top of the world was gone. I wanted to stay there…build a house there….never come down…and now when I get there…I fight….I scrap…I claw to stay there.

I do get knocked down. But now I know how to get back up there. I am not scared of getting back up there. I am pushing forward, pushing up, learning about and practicing manifesting my future to be what I want it to be…and with success that shows itself in small and major ways.

I now write regularly, though not as much as I would like. That is slowly changing. I am carving out time wherever I can to get the words out. Even if it is just a sentence, or a quick review of a reference website for my book, I do something to get myself back to the top of the world.

It took me almost 20 years after my initial observation to get here; I am finally getting around to writing for both myself and others. Writing is what gives me joy, what makes me feel whole, and what puts me back at the top of the world.

And I am not scared to fight to stay there, or to claw my way back there.

 

 

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