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Journaling Ecstasy (Originally Published 9/17/2021)


Almost without fail if you ask someone if they journal the response is “not in a long time” or “I have a journal I just haven’t started journaling yet.” Most people think of a journal as a record of events of a personal nature chronicling vacations, a love affair, personal feelings, etc. There is great resistance in taking the time to journal but the rewards can be well worth it.


People journal in a myriad of ways they don’t consider journaling. My favorite is the checkbook – a list of what money came in and what money went out. A photo album is a journal. Photo albums archive many events: weddings, graduations, a growing family, specific topics (I photo bird and insects) – the list is endless. Even a tax return is a journal of one year’s financial picture. Emotional journal writing can help one see deeper into themselves. By logging events that trigger undesirable responses one can often recognize specific patterns and triggers that can lead to roads of depression, anxiety or anger. Emotional journaling may be one of the oldest forms of self-help.


It wasn’t until I started writing books that I realized how many journals I actually had going on. They were scattered all over the house. I have a travel journal and a dream journal. I have seven “paper blank” journals that contain interesting facts from the number of facets of a dragonfly’s eye, to a list of fairytales and their metaphysical meanings. Every time I read a book there is usually some byte of information that finds its way into one of my many journals. I never have writer’s block because all I have to do is open any journal and something jumps out at me that I can write about complete with facts and even an occasional visual aid that I glued into the journal or made a drawing of myself.


I remember attending my first Native American pow-wow and was fascinated by the deep cultural ancestry still practiced by the tribal community. The notes I kept after attending the even have initiated many a blog or book chapter.


Journaling can be great for one’s health. Sometimes getting things off your chest in private not only can save a relationship but quite often when revisiting one’s previously written words, a new insight about a situation can cause a change of heart or at the very least provide closure to an open wound.


I have a lot of research journals. When I am storing facts on a topic, I typically just grab a journal and start writing in it. Now, I number the pages in my journals and keep an index in the back with the page number of each topic notated. I might have six different journals with different notes on the same topic.


I have angel number journals, gratitude journals and affirmation journals but my favorite journal is one I have been keeping for my son. There was a time when we were estranged. Being estranged in my family seems to be DNA encoded. Being estranged from a child can be very painful to a mother. To assuage my pain and maintain a connection to my son, I began writing intimate, dated messages to him about what I was doing, what I’m learning as a result of our relationship, how much I miss him. I included photos of the present and photos of him growing up. I even included the recipe for his favorite dish. In reviewing the log to my son for this article I notice that I also preached a little about life and love; even including a magazine article on forgiveness.


One day I opened on of my journals to discover that my thirteen year-old granddaughter at our house had drawn stick figures of her and I with the word love between us. I never mentioned to her that I saw it but I have her name on that journal when I leave this planet for the next adventure. I wrote on the page of her drawing how much I love her and how much joy her drawing has provided me over the years. I’m sure that journal will live in perpetuity.

You don’t have to be a writer to journal. In fact, spelling and punctuation matter not because your journals are just for you. I challenge you to dig out that journal that has been collecting dust and just start writing whatever comes to mind. As for me, I see a few blank pages in my son’s journal that are calling out to me.


Happy journaling!


AFFIRMATION:  Journaling is my happy place.

“I'm Catherine Wilcox, working to help others see that God is in all things, all the time, through conscious change and self-healing.”

If you have found this message enlightening, please send it to one friend.  This action will help my vision of a more enlightened species to help usher in the new healing Age of Aquarius.

Catherine Wilcox is a Conscious Change Coach, Mentor, emotional intuitive and Writer. If you like what you read here, then you may enjoy one of her Published Books:

**Catherine’s latest Book, The New Stone Age, Crystal Data for the 21st Century, contains ten chapters of information designed to help the novice and intermediate crystologist obtain the secrets to working with crystals to help the four mind-bodies balance chaotic energy.

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