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Archive for the ‘Journaling Prompt’ Category

Journaling Prompt – The Sound Of Silence

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009
The Sound Of Silence
[Photo by: Amparo Torres]


People talking without speaking,
people hearing without listening,
people writing songs that voices never share
and no one dared disturb
the sound of silence.

silence like a cancer grows.

Taken from “The Sound Of Silence” by: Paul Simon, 1964

Paul Simon has brilliantly described what the sound of silence means to him. I , however, have a different take on it. These words make me think about what happens in my head when the outside world is completely quiet.

Whereas the outside world is still, there is an absolute mayhem inside. When my mind is clear of any external interruption then all my doubts, self criticism and panic creep in with an uproar.

While everything outside is silent – the inside is shouting its lungs out. When I’m weak and vulnerable – I’m crumpling up at the self-bashing turmoil. But when am feeling strong and potent – I’m talking back, which makes the inside of my mind even louder…

For this week’s journaling prompt tune in and write down how does the sound of silence resonate with you?

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What do you hear when there is silence?

What organ reigns supreme when everything around is on mute? Is it your heart or your mind? (or another one altogether, perhaps your ear?)

For the hearing impaired – how do you deal with the silence you are living in? I’m in awe and very anxious to learn about your way of coping with the sound of silence.

Share your treasured thoughts by leaving a comment to this post.

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The 10 Best Journaling Prompts Of 2008

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

Best Journaling Prompts
[Photo by: Bob AuBuchon]

With the turn of the year I would like to list the best Journaling Prompts of 2008:

  1. Journaling Prompt #7 – Write a Fairy tale
  2. Journaling Prompt #9 – Precede The Words To The Photos
  3. Journaling Prompt #18 – I am
  4. Journaling Prompt #19 – Affection
  5. Journaling Prompt #21 – Failure
  6. Journaling Prompt #24 – Remember Your Teachers
  7. Journaling Prompt #25 – Get Inspired By The Fall And Shed YOUR Leaves
  8. Journaling Prompt #26 – Give Thanks To Yourself
  9. Journaling Prompt #28 – Observing The Holiday Season
  10. Journaling Prompt #30 – New Year’s Resolutions Series – The Clairvoyant Way

I hope this list inspires and urges you to start documenting your life, thoughts and figments of imagination on paper!

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What was your favorite journaling prompts?

Which type or types of journaling prompts would you like to see more of in 2009?

Do you keep a journal?

Leave a comment, I really want to hear what’s on your mind!!!

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Journaling Prompt #32 – A Year In Review

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

Year end
Today, on the year end, just before you are about to embark on achieving your new year’s resolutions, it is the perfect time to review the past year. It is time to look at 2008 under a magnifying glass and take notes.

Leave criticism and self bashing out of this report! Only constructive inspection is allowed and for every fault you can find – add at least two admirable achievements you’ve had during the past year.

This week’s Journaling Prompt is to thoroughly review the year 2008 and to put your little trip down memory lane in writing.

The following questions may offer you some guidance:

  1. If you’d sum up the year 2008 in one sentence – what sentence would it be?
  2. What is your most joyous memory from 2008?
  3. What event has been most remarkable for you in 2008?
  4. Which of your 2008 goals did you meet?
  5. What resolution was the hardest to keep? Why? Which was the easiest resolution?
  6. In which ways have you developed and which were your setbacks?
  7. If you were able to change one thing in the past year, what would it be?
  8. What would you not have changed, had you given the opportunity (Despite some harsh circumstances)? Why?
  9. What decision or decisions you’ve made in 2008 were most influential?
  10. Who were the main players in your life in 2008?
  11. Which new friends have you met in 2008? Have you let a friendship get loose? Why?
  12. What book was your 2008 favorite? What song? Which movie?
  13. What new things have you tried in the past year?
  14. What traditions did you keep in 2008? Which traditions did you miss?
  15. What was the most important lesson you’ve learned in 2008?
  16. What new things have you learned about yourself in 2008?
  17. What were the greatest challenges that ran across you in 2008?
  18. What/who motivated you throughout the year?
  19. What major change has 2008 brought to you or do you feel you’re at a status-quo?
  20. If you’d sum up the year 2008 in a single word – what word would it be?

Hopefully these questions has assisted you in your year end review. You might have a clearer view of what your 2009 is about to be (your BEST ever).

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For me 2008 has been blissful albeit challenging. I have lived most of 2008 in Dublin, Ireland – a country I had not been to before. I have come to love the friendliness of the Irish people and to admire the bright green slopes in the Irish country side. Fresh out of my wedding, I moved to a place far away from all my family and friends and have established the strongest relationship with my amazing husband. I have visited beautiful countries, including Iceland – a mesmerizing land. On top of that, I have left a job I was good at (being a lawyer) and started this blog and authored a great book on creativity, with both I am very proud.

2009 has a pretty big pair of shoes to fill…

How about you? How was your 2008? Share bits and pieces from your year end review by leaving a comment to this post.

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Journaling Prompt #31 – New Year’s Resolutions Series – Part 3

Wednesday, December 24th, 2008

Pencils and moleskines
[Photo by: Paul Worthington, @Flickr]

This is the third (and last) prompt in a series of journaling prompts dealing with New Year’s resolutions.

By now we have covered the traditional way of forming new years resolutions and the clairvoyant and more inspirational way of going about it.

This week’s journaling prompt suggests a third method of laying down your new years resolutions, which is the Action Way.

The action way is very effective for a more visual person (like myself) who needs to actually see a picture that stands behind a word in order to get to the bottom of it. This method is also fantastic for anyone who finds it difficult to follow a strictly formed resolution (like myself…) as it yields more amorphous goals, which can be interpreted and changed as life changes through time, but still provide general guidance.

The principle of the action way is to compile a list of “words to live by“, which is a short list of single action words that you would like to do more of in the coming year. The next step is to pick a corresponding picture for each action word and make a vision board – other digitally or on a hard-copy – of your action words and corresponding photos.

I have used Flickr’s mosaic tool to make a mosaic out of my corresponding photos and then downloaded it to my computer and added my action words to each picture with Picasa 3. I printed the edited image with a laser jet printer, cut out each individual image and made a vision board, using Decoupage.

This is my vision board for the year 2009:

New Year's resolutions - the action way - my vision board

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How are you going about making your New Year’s Resolutions?
Which method of the last three journaling prompts did you find most effective for you?
Have you prepared your own vision board for the year 2009?
What is your most prominent resolution for 2009?

Leave a comment and share your thoughts!!!

For all of you celebrating Christmas today I wish a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

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Journaling Prompt #30 – New Year’s Resolutions Series – Part 2

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

Reach [Photo by: James Jordan, @Flickr]

This is the second prompt in a series of journaling prompts on forming your new year’s resolutions.

Last week I have laid down the basics of the traditional and more straightforward way of coming up with a list of goals for the year 2009.

Today I am going to suggest a new way of going about making your new year’s resolutions. As I am a “big picture” kind of a gal, who is not always sure what her next step is going to be but knows exactly where she wants to get to, I have come up with an original way of planning the year to come and I call it: “The Clairvoyant Way“.

This week’s journaling prompt is about how to embark on making your New-Year’s Resolutions, the clairvoyant way

Like its name suggests the clairvoyant way is calling you to foresee your future. Try to form a vision of where you want to see yourself in a year from now –

What accomplishments have you made? what major milestones have you had? How do you feel? Where do you live? Who do you live with? Do you look differently? and so on and so forth.

The more precise and detailed your vision is, the more effective you are going to be in achieving your new year’s goals.

Write down your vision as a short story and read it over and over again during the next year. This story is going to provide you with the inspiration and the motivation you need for actually getting there and live up to your short story.

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Are you thinking of giving the clairvoyant way a try? Do you find it helpful?
If so, what is your visionary story? If not, what faults do you find in it?

Leave a comment and share your very appreciated thoughts with me.

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Journaling Prompt #29 – New Year’s Resolutions Series – Part 1

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

Out of time
[Photo by:Orvalrochefort @ Flickr]

It is that time of year…

As directorates of corporations all over the world are busy preparing the annual reports and forecasts, we too are pondering on the year that has elapsed and the year that is coming. We too are preparing our annual reports and our forecasts, only we call it: “New Year’s Resolutions”.

In preparation for the year 2009 I have come up with a series of three journaling prompts, each one suggesting a different way to go about our new-year’s planning process:

  1. The traditional way – preparing a catalog of resolutions.
  2. The clairvoyant way – foreseeing the future.
  3. The action way – compiling a list of words to live by.

You may choose any of the above methods, all of them together or a different way altogether which works better for you.

This week’s journaling prompt is about the traditional way to embark on making your New-Year’s Resolutions.

The traditional way is the most straightforward of all methods and is best for people who know exactly what they want to achieve (i.e.: getting fitter) in the coming year or which things to avoid (i.e.: eating junk-food) etc.

Some pointers on how to compile an effective catalog of New-Year’s Resolutions:

  1. Write your resolutions on paper. Putting your goals down to paper anchors them. It gives you a sense of accountability and also gives you something tangible to go to when your resolutions will fade away as time goes by.
  2. Narrow the span of your resolutions. One of the glorious things about the holiday season is the great spirit it casts all over us. The sensation of a new beginning is exhilarating. One of the downfalls of the omnipotence feeling is the tendency of making unfeasible resolutions. Make sure that you choose goals that you can actually reach in the scope of a single year. “Becoming a Billionaire” is sweet, but start with “saving/earning at least [such and such] per annum”.
  3. Focus. This is just a different facet of how to deal with the “New Year’s Omnipotence Syndrome“. After you have narrowed down the scope of your resolutions, reduce the number of goals you wish to achieve. Our lives are hectic enough, don’t overfill your plate. Choose the 10 most prominent goals you are going to achieve in 2009.
  4. Share. The accountability factor is up again. After you have written down your list of resolutions, share them with your significant other, friends, parents, siblings, children or your internet friends – anyone who can make you accountable, and moreover, can support you through thick and thin and make sure you achieve your goals.

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How do you come up with your New-Year’s Resolutions? Have you any tips to share? Leave a comment and share with me.

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Journaling Prompt #28 – Observing The Holiday Season

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas [Photo by: Lin Kristensen, @ Flickr]

Everything is changing during the holiday season. Life takes a festive coat out of its closet and wear it for at least a month or so. Everything looks differently, the food is different, there is a unique aroma in the air and a one-of-a-kind mood – a jolly holiday mood. The best description I can find for the total effect of the holidays is: Merry Everything“.

For this week’s journaling prompt I ask you to open your eyes and register all the changes the holiday season brings with it.

Don’t let those fantastic changes slip by unnoticed. Don’t rush through that fantastic season, but take heed of every little thing that is different from your everyday life.

A while back I posted a series of journaling prompts designed to hone our observation skills:

Use those observation skills for recording the impression that the holiday season leaves upon you. If you followed the observation series before and wrote down your observations, you can also contrast and compare the everyday life to the festive days of the holidays.

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Leave a comment and share your observations of the holiday season with me.

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Journaling Prompt #27 – Record Your Favorite Playlists

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

music
[Photo by: Ira Mejías, on Flickr.]

Music is a powerful tool. It can change your mood. It can convey a message of love. It can walk you through memory lane. It can get you into the holiday spirit. It can make you dance or sing along. Music is powerful indeed. This is why I believe it is important to make a note of your favorite playlists.

This week’s journaling prompt is to jot down several of your favorite playlists.

You can break your journaling down by the following tags:

  1. 10 of your all time favorite songs.
  2. Your favorite childhood songs.
  3. The songs that most remind you your family.
  4. Your favorite holiday playlist.
  5. Top 10 love songs.
  6. Songs that makes you go ahhhhh… What do you listen to when you want to RELAXXXXX?
  7. Which were the most favorite songs you’ve listened to in the past week?

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You can learn some more about my favorite music from my Last.FM profile and see for yourself how eclectic a playlist can be…

Now it’s your turn to share, leave a comment and share some favorite tunes with me.

Feel free to copy & paste the above “tag-list” to your own personal blog, just don’t forget to mention this post for good measure 😉

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Journaling Prompt #26 – Give Thanks To Yourself

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

30 Days of Gratitude- Day 8 [30 Days of Gratitude- Day 8 by aussiegall, on Flickr]

Showing your gratitude is an important habit to incorporate in our day-to-day lives, rather than once per annum. Having said that, it is also very important to have a yearly reminder to stop our daily race and be thankful for everything that we have, taking nothing in our life for granted.

However, this year I suggest to go about it a bit differently. Use this year’s reminder to give thanks to yourself. You are often forgotten in the process of expressing your gratitude, let us fix that this year.

Have no doubt, I am not underestimating any higher-power you believe in or any of your friends and family or any of your heroes, that have helped you come thus far. On the contrary, you should never stop appreciating and being grateful to them. I am a great supporter of showing your gratitude, perhaps with a handwritten letter of appreciation or any other way that suits you.

Still, showing gratitude to the ones you believe in is easy and mainstream. Giving thanks to yourself – is not.

Therefore for this week’s journaling prompt I urge you to take a few moments and jot down everything in yourself that you are thankful for.

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What do you have to be thankful for? leave a comment and share your self-gratitude feelings.

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Journaling Prompt #25 – Get Inspired By The Fall And Shed YOUR Leaves

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008
the parade of autumn begins today
Image by Brian Hathcock via Flickr

The fall is a beautiful and colorful season. The leaves are turning a thousand shades of yellow and red and finally scattering around, getting blown by the wind of change. The trees are shedding their old leaves and getting ready to wear a new glorious foliage. You should do that to. Throw away your old “leaves” and make room for a new glorious coat.

For this week’s journaling prompt I ask you to list the leaves in your life that you would like to shed.

There are a few types of leaves you might consider to shed, hence several lists you might benefit from compiling:

  1. Memories. Some memories are important and should not be forgotten. Saying that, most negative or traumatic memories should be eliminated, as they are only weighing down on you. Make a list of all the traumatic memories you’d rather forget, then shred this list and make sure to shred your memories along with it (As far as it is possible for you. I would never assume it can be carried out in full and it’s definitely not going to be easy).
  2. Outlooks and tendencies. We all have lots of these poisoning thoughts and negative tendencies running around: self bashing, taking things personally, over analyzing, etc. Make a list of all of the outlooks and tendencies you’d like to shed out of your life.
  3. Frenemies. Do you have a friend that can be confused as an enemy? Do you hang out with someone that constantly makes you feel bad about yourself, your life or your friend’s negativity? This is the time to reconsider your friendship and make more time for your soul-mates.
  4. Material excess. List all the stuff that are cluttering your house and making your life more difficult. Strive for simplicity and make room for your new “coat” – make room for your life. While your at it, why don’t you try and think of a better home for each of the excess items and write it down next to it on the list.

After compiling these lists, you have already completed your first step towards a glorious new life.

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Do you have other list ideas? What is the first thing you’d like to shed from your life? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

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