Dowrick - Creative journal writing: the art and heart of reflection

Stephanie Dowrick has the rare distinction of being a No. 1 best-selling author of both fiction and non-fiction, but it is for her authentically encouraging books on personal and social development that she is best known. These include Intimacy &Solitude, Forgiveness & Other Acts of Love, The Universal Heart and, most recently, Choosing Happiness: Life & Soul Essentials.

She has been writing the Inner Life column for Good Weekend magazine since 2001, is a regular guest on ABC radio and is widely in demand as a public speaker and retreat and workshop leader. Formerly a publisher, and at 28 the founder of the British publishing house The Womens Press, Stephanie combined her writing with a small psychotherapy practice for many years. In 2005 she was ordained as an Interfaith Minister. She is the mother of a son and daughter and lives in Sydney.

www.stephaniedowrick.com

ALSO BY STEPHANIE DOWRICK

Non-fiction
Choosing Happiness
Free Thinking
Every Day a New Beginning
The Universal Heart
Daily Acts of Love
Forgiveness & Other Acts of Love
The Intimacy & Solitude Self-Therapy Book
Intimacy & Solitude

Fiction
Running Backwards over Sand
Tasting Salt

Childrens
Katherine Rose Says No

Spoken word
Self-Love
Guided Meditations: Grace & Courage
The Universal Heart
The Art of Acceptance
The Humane Virtues
Living with Change Intimacy & Solitude

STEPHANIE
DOWRICK

Creative
Journal
Writing

the art and
heart of
reflection

Extract on page 205 from The House at Pooh Corner. Text by A.A. Milne The Trustees of the Pooh Properties. Published by Egmont UK Ltd London and used with permission.

This book contains some material first published as Living Words: Journal Writingfor Self-discovery, Insight and Creativity, 2003

First published in 2007

Copyright Wise Angels Pty Ltd 2003, 2007

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10% of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.

Allen & Unwin
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National Library of Australia

Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Dowrick, Stephanie.
Creative journal writing : the art and heart of reflection.
ISBN 9781741751376.
1. Diaries Authorship. 2. Creative writing. I. Title.
808.06692

Cover and text designed by Cheryl Collins Design
Typeset by Blue Rinse Setting
Author photograph by Monty Coles
Printed and bound in Australia by Griffin Press

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For the journal writers who have shared their stories
in these pages with such openness and generosity.
Thank you

Contents

One of the essential ingredients of creative journal writing is freedom: freedom from judgements, freedom to write as you wish and only about what interests you. How you will use this book is, necessarily, entirely up to you. But my humble suggestion is that you first read it through like a conventional book, stopping only if an exercise here or there grabs you by the ankle and pulls you to the ground. Stop here. If that doesnt happen, experience the ideas and the many wonderful stories as a whole, and only then go back to work your way through it far more personally, engaging with all the exercises that you want, at the pace you want, and in the way you want.

Pleasure is the other essential ingredient of journal writing. So use this book in the way that will give you most pleasure: reading, writing, pausing, setting aside, returning: all at a pace and in a rhythm entirely of your own making.

Whose plans?

It takes courage to do what
you want. Other people have
a lot of plans for you.

Joseph Campbell

Writing a journal may
change your life

I want to write, but more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart.

Anne Frank

On thick white pages in a leather-bound book or scribbled across the backs of envelopes tossed into a cardboard box; written faithfully through a lifetime or with years in between entries; written lyrically or as a bare list: journal writing may well be the most accommodating of all writing forms. It may also be the most pleasurable.

The impulse to write is natural for many people. Yet the demands of more public forms of writing can be inhibiting or even crushing. In the private spaces of your journal, a genuine sense of possibility is renewed with every blank page. The internal judge or critic that so often sits between the writer and the page can be sacked. The possibilities of style, mood and expression that journal writing offers are limitless.

Journal writing is a supreme way to record your own lifes journey. It is a way to discover what matters to you and even what and how you think. It is a gloriously self-directed source of inner development, yet it also makes the world beyond your own self more real and more vivid. It can become an interface between you and the outside world. It can become a companion that supports but doesnt judge. It can be a place of discovery, of learning, of emotional relief and insight. It can also become a playground, where the everyday rules of writing, reflecting, problem-solving, goal-setting, production and planning no longer apply.

Without restrictions or censorship your mind can race or slow down. It can step outside boxes or turn them sideways. It can make utterly fresh connections or simply pause, allowing you to see what is familiar with new eyes. It can train you to observe with subtlety all kinds of situations. And it can help you to learn something of value even from the unwelcome ones.

Journal writing will train and hone your eye for beauty. It will invite you into the present moment (while also allowing you to roam your past). It will let you re-experience awe and wonder. It will let you intensify and renew your pleasure in events and situations that have gone well. It will support your recovery (and the gaining of wisdom) from the times you wish had never happened.

However small the physical pages on which you are writing, your journal is big enough to encompass all of your selves: your intuitive self, your everyday competent self, your dreamy self, your practical self; your uncertain self and the self who knows just what is needed. This is a place, too, where you can talk to your soul or spirit, and hear your soul talk back to you. You can talk to other people, alive or dead; you can release uncomfortable emotions and find new responses.