photo credit: valcanno

You know it’s bad when you have to go searching for your WordPress password. It gets worse when you suddenly realise you haven’t posted to Twitter for two whole days. It’s like…what am I doing to myself? I know the world will stop if my followers don’t get at least six tweets a day from me, and all carefully timed to go out so they hit the global audience at breakfast, lunch and dinner, with careful attention to time zones.

But wait! There’s more. I haven’t written day 16 of the 21 articles I need to post to ezinearticles.com. I haven’t hit Squidoo, eHow, Yahoo Answers, Technorati and all the rest with my latest SEO attack.

Okay. Enough already. 2010 was all about process. 2011 will be all about sitting back and letting it happen. If only.

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There are a lot of claims made for the power of positive thinking, and it’s probably safe to say that it’s a multi-million dollar industry right now.

Positive thinking is a product that’s easy to market. Why? Because we all want to believe that it can improve our lives, help us get whatever it is we want, and move us one step closer to that universal goal of perfection.

Most of us really do believe that positive thinking is right, wholesome and achieveable. So why don’t we do it? Why do most of us spend a very large percentage of our lives doing the very opposite — viewing our problems and challenges negatively?

Seth Godin has the answer. Read his thoughts on The Problem With Positive Thinking.

So easy to become negative about blogging

At times it’s all too easy to allow negative thoughts to take over. Let’s look at one example — online marketing. You’ve started a great blog, worked hard to get it right, to get the content together, to tweak the design, to attract visitors, but it’s not working. Your stats are totally miserable. It’s like setting up your home for a great celebration, getting the food, the balloons, the streamers, and sending out great invitations to everyone in town — but nobody comes to the party. Here you are with all the goodies you have to share and nobody cares. So negative thoughts arise and in some weird way they are strangely comforting.

As Seth point out, negative thinking feels good. It gives us an out. We don’t want to do the hard yard, so let’s just get negative.

What’s the answer

We set up a great place for a party, but perhaps now it’s time to really work at getting people interested. Maybe if a few show up that will give us enough stimulus to think positively and keep at it. Then gradually we’ll get to party with the whole town.

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This week’s guest post is from Journaling Instructor, Catherine Franz. She shares 8 helpful tips that are sure to improve your experience of journaling.

Mix a martini, don’t forget the olives, or pour yourself a tea, relax and enjoy!

There are no hard-set rules for keeping a journal. How often you write, time you spend, and how rigorously you maintain a regular journaling schedule are matters of personal choice and circumstance. Therefore, it is important to find what works for you. Here are nine guidelines to assist you.

1. Allow for regular writing times. Find a time of day that works well for you and use this time every day. As much as possible, control interruptions during this time.

2. Give yourself an inviting writing environment. If you need quiet space, find a time that you can write without noise and interruption. If the hum of the world around you is soothing rather than distracting, plan to write during a time when other people will be engaged in their own work and not looking over your shoulder.

3. Develop a centering ritual. Associating journaling with another pleasurable habit can guide to strengthen the routine and create an atmosphere of self-nurturing. When you are ready to write in your journal, consider pouring yourself a cup of tea or coffee. Play relaxing music. Take a moment for meditation, deep breathing, or prayer.

4. Prompt your writing with a routine self-reflection
question: Triggers such as “What are you feeling right now?” or “What’s on your mind?” Anais Nin suggests asking “what feels vivid, warm, or near to you at the moment?”

5. Write because you desire to write, because you know it’s a comfortable place to be you. Don’t allow journaling to become anobligation or chore. Remember not to demand more of yourself than you can give. If you have missed a day, or several days, accept that journaling, like life, is imperfect and go on. Write the next time you have a chance.

6. Create a positive feedback loop. As you continue to use the journal as an opportunity to be with and learn about yourself, you will find that the practice gains a momentum all its own. Discovering your own hidden depths piques your curiosity and stimulates you to continue, setting up a positive feedback loop between your conscious and
unconscious mind.

7. Emphasize process rather than product. An important purpose of journal writing is simply expressing and recording your thoughts and feelings. Concentrate on the process of writing — keeping the flow of words rather than worrying about the result. If your goal is to have specific audiences read your piece, go back to it later and edit it. Use your journal as the raw material for more polished writing.

8. Learn from your own experiences. It is always good to reread your entries a month or so down the road. It demonstrates your growth — a nice pat on the back for all of us. Look for patterns and correlations. What improved, what stayed the same? Learning from yourself is so much more gentler on the self-esteem. Use objectivity to review your life from a different perspective with hindsight.

Relax, have fun, and don’t forget to laugh! Journal writing is its own reward. Once you get started, your journal will become another one of your good friends — one who is always available and never presents a deafening ear. Your journal loves you for being you.

Catherine Franz has taught journaling for the last 15 years, including two US Presidents and First Ladies, and hundreds of workshops internationally. She currently has two informational documents available on journaling at:  http://abundance.blogs.com

Article Source:   http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Catherine_Franz

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Journal writing can be used as a tool for reflection and a source of inner wisdom.  Ira Progoff reminds us that this source of wisdom is available to us all, if only we can find the means to access it.

Ira Progoff developed his Intensive Journal system as a result of his experiences of traumatic world events during the Second World War. Reflecting on the massive burning of books that took place during the Hitler era, he asked himself what would have happend to mankind if the Nazis had continued their practice of burning books ‘until all the recorded wisdom of humankind had been destroyed’.

The conclusion he came to led directly to his development of a journal writing program. He first considered books on science and technology and decided that this knowledge would be retained if humankind was to continue to produce goods for survival and weapons of war. He then considered spiritual books of all traditions. What would happen to civilization if all this accumulated knowledge was to suddenly disappear? It was a moment of powerful insight. His conclusion was that we would simply draw new spiritual scriptures from ’the same great source out of which the old ones came’.

The Day Book journaling system

The Day Book system  I discuss here is a method for developing insight into our deepest worries or preoccupations. The therapeutic and creative benefits of the system are as varied as those who use it. Here’s a list of some of the rewards journaling in general can provide:

• Personal development through reflection and positive action
• Clearer creative goals and solutions to blocks
• Time management
• Better personal relations and outcomes
• Higher awareness of spritual needs
• Clearer understanding of how to set and achieve reasonable goals
• A way to take responsibility for your life
• A place to record and analyze your dreams
• Solutions to problems through clearer understanding
• Coming to terms with change
• A private place where you can have fun with inventive and creative ideas.

These are just a few of the advantages of keeping a journal. Once you start out with a journal the benefits become obvious almost immediately.

How to begin and keep going

Read Start a Journal if you haven’t already, and try the free writing exercise. The important thing to remember is that you need to give yourself time to allow the process to work. Make a promise to yourself that you will make daily entries in your journal for one month. It may take that long, but certainly no longer, before you begin to see the results of your journal writing. After that time is up I can guarantee that you will want to continue and make journal writing your system of choice for finding your way to your own heart.

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