Adams - Journal to the self : twenty-two paths to personal growth : open the door to self-understanding by writing, reading, and creating a journal of your life

Journal therapy is a remarkable, efficient way to open up new horizons in your life. This book shows you different kinds of journals and how they can be used for specific results, how to reread and reinterpret your journal as your life evolves, and how other people have achieved self-growth and solved problems through their personal writings. Learn how to write:

• Dialoguesto work through difficult emotions
• Character sketchesas calling cards for your sub-personalities
• Listsfor clarifying thoughts and finding solutions
• Meditative writingto open up your consciousness
• Topics du Jourto solve work and career problems
• And many other journal techniques.

From a leading expert in the field, here is all the information you need to begin a dynamic journey to greater insightto conquer the most important issues in your life.

A JOY GOOD STUFF! A lively portrait of what its like to grow along with a journal.

Henriette Klauser, author of Writing on Both Sicks of the Brain

JUST THE RIGHT BOOK BY A MASTER TEACHER to inspire and guide all those interested in personal growth through creative self reflection.

Strephon Kaplan-Williams author of The jungian-Senoi Dreamwork Manual

ONE OF A KIND! Using charm and wit and dozens of adventurous stories, Kay Adams has given us the definitive book on journal writing. JOURNAL TO THE SELF is a must-read for everyone interested in recovery and self-growth.

Bob Trask founder of ARAS Foundation and president of Learning Lab

The unexamined life is not worth living.

Socrates

Copyright 1990 by Kathleen Adams

All rights reserved.

Warner Books, Inc.

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10017

Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com.

First eBook Edition: October 2009

ISBN: 978-0-7595-2511-5

Contents

And then she remembered. She, Princess Ariana, first daughter of King Damien of Vadarado, was lost in the Land of Zin, in a most improbable cave, on a far-flung and storm-drenched night.

Zeus,she muttered (to herself, as there was no one in the cave). Whenevershalllearn to mind my lessons?

When the teacher is ready, the student shall appear,sang a melodious voice, as silken as a teardrop.

Ariana whirled around in amazement. Why, thats the silliest thing Ive ever heard!

Kathleen Adams

Ariana and the Goddess of Zin

Lovingly dedicated to my students,

who have fulfilled the Goddesss prophecy.

Let us travel the journey together.

If loves the greatest gift of all, each day of my life is Christmas, for I am blessed with the love and support of several large families. I am profoundly grateful to each.

My first family spills merrily across four generations and ten decades. Thomas Wolfe said, You cant go home again,but he didnt grow up with Dale and Theda Adams on Estes Court. Their door is always open and their hearts are, too; they have staunchly affirmed my potential from the time I was a tot. From the oldest (90) to the youngest (2), my entire family supports me unconditionally. Now, thats a blessing! Thanks, Mom, Dad, Susie, Cindy, Granddad Bill, Goggie, Jessica, Jake, Ricki, Amy, Mike, Leo, Billie, Ray, and the souls of Aunt Katy and Becky. I love you!

My second family is the faculty, administration, and student body at Boulder Graduate School (Boulder, Colorado), where I teach, study, laugh, cry, work, and play. Only in my wildest fantasy did I imagine a graduate program in psychotherapy based on the dual trilogy of body/mind/spirit and theory/ skills/experience. Its alive and well and living at BGS, and Im proud to be a graduate.

My third family is my family of wonderful, giving, caring, loving friends. My sisterhood of writers and other professionalsincluding Sher Long, Normandi Ellis, C. J. Pollara, Sarah Hoskin, Jasmin Cori, Cathleen Huffman, Lyn Merriman, Diana Keck, Dr. Lynn White, Dr. Kathryn Fentress, and especially Marta Heddeprovided invaluable feedback on the manuscript at critical stages. For my Akasha groupThia Walser, Laura Olsen, Andrea Hilgert, and Jean JamesonI give thanks. Special appreciation goes to my poet friend, Lois Bay, for permission to use her copyrighted poem, Windbreak. Mrs. Wilma Long graciously loaned me her beautiful home while I crashed out the first draft of the book on a long winters night. My friend Joannah invited my right brain to Stone Walls, Vermont. Linda Barclay of Dove Literary not only sold the book in amazingly short order but also handled the business details with crisp efficiency, and Beth Lieberman, my editor at Warner, offered reassurance, insight, and gentle support throughout the process. LeeAnne Lewis believed in me when I needed it most. Carl Kallansrud held my vision when I got tired and laid it down.

Students in the Journaling as a Therapeutic Tool classes at BGS and Write On! workshops in Denver provided most of the examples youll find in these pages; to respect their privacy, I have fictionalized their names and certain circumstances unless they directed otherwise. Their contributions are what make the pages of this book come alive.

Several of my mentors also deserve thanks. John Klug, president of Continental Communications Group, runs a first-rate publishing company and helped mold my writing during the six years I served as his editorial vice president. Eiko Michi and her Transformational Journal Workshop were turning points in my own journal journey. Bob Trask, president of the ARAS Foundation, encouraged me to do my lifes work and taught me how to teach. Dr. Lynn Ward White, former chairperson of the psychology and counseling department at BGS, has the uncanny ability to see the vision behind my doodles. To John, Eiko, Bob, and Lynn, my profound thanks. How different my life would be had I not encountered you!

And lastly, love from that special place in my heart that is his alone goes to my cherished companion, Robert F. Sedustine. In the words of Joseph Campbell, may we follow our bliss.

Journal therapythe use of the journal, or diary, to facilitate holistic mental health and self-reliancecan trace its roots back as far as 10th-century Japan, when ladies of the Heian court wrote reflections on life and love in pillow books. Nearly a millennium later, Anne Frank, in one of historys classic underestimations, confided to herself: Its an odd idea for someone like me to keep a diary, because it seems to me that neither Inor, for that matter, anyone elsewill be interested in the unbosomings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl.

Dr. Ira Progoff has been the leader of journal therapy devotees since 1966, when his Intensive Journal Workshop debuted as an outcome of his model of holistic depth psychology. Dr. Progoffs beautifully crafted weekend workshop offers participants a glimpse into their own transpersonal natures, a direct experience with what he calls the knowledge beyond understanding that comes to us at depth.

I am sometimes asked how my system of journal therapy differs from Dr. Progoffs. I believe it is a matter of approach rather than philosophy, for I feel very strongly that everyone writing and teaching about journal therapy today holds a collective vision of the individuals self-knowledge and spiritual awakening.

At a strictly pragmatic level, the Intensive Journal method is physically different from the smorgasbord approaches youll find in this book. The Intensive Journal is characterized by its three-ring notebook segregated into six major dimensions,or sections, and specific suggestions on what and how to write in each dimension. While this approach has many strengths (see , Choices,for a discussion), some students who begin their journal journey with an Intensive Journal workshop have difficulty organizing their thoughts and feelings into its suggested structure. On the other hand, the journal method presented in this book is nothing if not eclectic; there is no structure or form save that of the individuals choosing.