Journaling and Joy
- annawhitmore0
- Feb 10
- 3 min read
Journaling As Art
I love the winter, the quiet of the forest, the snow on the trees, and the blueness of the sky. I love snowshoeing and seeing animal tracks beside me. I love sledding down a hill and feeling like I am 6 years old. I love the joy of a cold nose and the song of a chickadee. The forest makes me feel safe, grounded, and joyful.
In this time of chaos, I think we all long for a bit of safety, a bit of grounding, and a bit of joy.
This year, I have created a list of journal prompts that will hopefully ground us as we move through 2025.
Journaling
The thing about journaling is that it is hard. It is hard to know what to write. It is hard to find the time to write. It is hard not to have tunnel vision and see only the chaos and the negative, and no one wants to write that down. However, the beauty of journaling is that it records your journey. So I came up with some simple questions for me to answer daily. And as I answer these questions, I have seen a transformation. I am not someone who just creates art for a living—my whole life is art.
Journaling Your Journey Questions
What or who made you smile today?
Did you smell something that reminded you of family or childhood?
What was hard today? Did you learn something? Did you ask for help?
Did you hear a favourite song? Did you sing along? What song was it? When did you first hear it?
How did you show love today?
What was something new in your life? A recipe? A trail? A book? Anything - no matter how small.
Did you do something courageous today? Anything out of your comfort zone?
What colour was the sky?
What did you do that was creative? Sing a song? Draw? Knit? Dance?
What brought you joy or gratitude today?
Becoming a Joy-Monger
Jessica Lin is an amazing artist, a trusted friend, and a joy-monger. In a world that is full of fear-mongers and anger-mongers, she focuses her energy towards joy. Jessica has created a wonderful program for finding and seeing joy in everyday things. This is how she describes her 21-day adventure.
"These are challenging times we’re living in, but you can control how you respond and react to the world around you. Something that I’ve found incredibly helpful is to consider joy as a resilience practice."
By noticing, creating, and sharing joy, we can each not only strengthen ourselves but also create ripples of joy within our communities. Together, it’s my hope that we can create a tsunami of joy!
I will be sharing 21 daily emails and blog posts, each with a simple suggestion to empower you to increase the experience of joy in your own life and the lives of those around you. These daily communications will briefly describe that day’s joy activity, along with a short explanation of why I’m suggesting it (in case you’re like me and need to know a reason behind doing something!).
Day 1 - Savour
A few years ago, my husband's sister passed away. The tsunami of grief was unexpected and disorienting. All we felt was pain. My husband's grief counselor recommended that we do something small that gave us pleasure. The only thing we could think of was food. So we ate sushi, ribs, curry, pad thai, fries, chicken wings, whatever was tasty, and for 30 minutes a day, we didn't feel pain. It wasn't joy, but it was something easier. Sometimes it is the littlest moments that change the trajectory of your life.
Visit Jessica Lin's site to dig deeper into the power of joy and the idea of savour.
I would love to hear about your joy and your journaling. If you would like to share your journey I would love to hear it.
コメント