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Journaling as a Garbage Disposal
By Zura | June 27, 2008
Journaling is a great way to get rid of the garbage in your head. Everyone has some - worries, deadlines, to do lists, “I’m too fat”. This brain garbage keeps us from being able to reach our creative thoughts.
It’s hard to be creative when you have all that chatter going on. And it’s often not just one “voice” that’s chattering. It’s a din of voices all vying to be the center of attention. If a creative spark does break through the noise, it’s hard to remember it later because of the junk that’s happening.
Journaling allows you to get all that garbage out of your head an onto the paper. I don’t know how it works, but it really does clear your mind. After you’ve written it down, your mind will be quieter, cleaner.
The results last a while, too. Your mind will be clear for a while after you’ve written all the junk in your journal. If you journal regularly, you’ll find that your mind becomes clearer and clearer just from writing the garbage and getting it out of your mind on a regular basis.
I find that when I clear my mind in this way, I am then calm and can find my creative ideas and keep them. In the past, I have kept a “junk journal” where I wrote nothing but the buzz going on in my head just to clear it out. Now I have one journal for everything. The junk goes right in there with the art and all my profound thoughts 
Try doing a brain dump. My friend, Kristina, calls it “spiritual vomiting”. Declutter your brain and make way for your beautiful creativity to shine through.
Topics: Art |
June 27th, 2008 at 7:59 am
I find that journaling is so important to get rid of the “garbage”. I have filled pages recently just to empty out the thoughts in my head. I’m sure that by doing this, I am helping heal the depression that is affecting my brain and body. I like Kristina’s explanation too. Now, it’s time to go and do my morning journaling session, I have dreams I have to write in it.
June 28th, 2008 at 2:03 am
*waves hello to Holly*
I think that’s where the power of morning pages from “The Artist’s Way” must lie, in that whole brain dump thing. Personally, it works better for me to do it at night, after a day’s worth of buzzing thought, than in the morning, but my buzzing tends to happen before bedtime and not after I wake-up. I know for others, the “To-Do” list of the day starts the minute they wake up, so I can imagine it working better to do morning pages then, just to clear your mind.
June 28th, 2008 at 2:04 am
PS. I love the idea of the journal being a Garbage Disposal.
June 29th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Man…I miss you guys. You are all so funny and smart and I love you so much.
Spiritual vomiting. Fanfreakingtastic phrase.
Z, I love catching your blog postings when I can. I thought Dork The Explorer was one of the funniest post titles I have ever seen, and the post itself real fun to read. I am glad you had such a nice trip!
June 29th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
The phrases “spiritual vomiting” and “brain dump”
are so right on! doesn’t matter which end it comes out, getting rid of all that cosmic shite is so healthy! Darn! Kristina, I miss you girl! I’m sorry we’ve lost touch!
big hugs to you both!
xoxoxo
June 30th, 2008 at 6:01 am
Hey Nici and Luna! Big hugs and kisses for you both.
Luna, lol, I had never thought about that, coming out of both ends, lol. Does that mean that Zura has an anal fixation, and I have an oral? Oh man, Freud must be rolling over in his grave.
June 30th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Wow! Look at all my comments! Woo hoo! I just love when y’all are commenting to each other here! It seems like this is becoming more of a community, which is my dream. Thank you all for taking the time to write out your thoughts here, I so appreciate it!
July 1st, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Zura;
Holly got me reading your blog (again) after quite a hiatus. I’ve been up to my eyeballs in school and then the BIG MOVE. I loved this post. And I hope everyone here stays connected. This IS a wonderful community (as is 14 secrets). But I have a thought that is an add-on. Jeff and I have been doing some research and it is (imnsho)[in my not so humble opinion] that if is just being discovered by the rest of the world community what our original peoples knew…that blood memory is real. So it follows if we have blood memory then we not only have our own day-to-day garbage to dispose of, but our parents’, our grandparents’, and so on. Well, then girl, some of us have a heap of garbage that needs composting, so I’m going to suggest that our journals are composters turning that “garbage” into beautiful gardens. And you know how healthful and health giving a garden is. Yeah journalling!!
July 1st, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Wow Susanna, that is a really interesting thought! I’ve heard of “genetic memory” but “blood memory” seems so much more profound, more closely tied to the life we live, some our family “memories” conscious or unconscious (as in blood memory or genetic memory) sure add a lot of shite to the pile of compost that fuels new life and growth! But I think that it can’t be only the shite that we get in blood memory, mabye we get some really “good stuff” too that way that helps to nourish the gardens we make of our lives. I can’t help it, I’m an eternal incurable optimist!
xoxo
July 2nd, 2008 at 6:51 am
Susanna, thanks for commenting. I’m glad Holly sent you over here
I appreciate your thoughts about blood memory. That’s some powerful imagery to think about and use in a healing process. The idea of a garden is perfect as a goal to think about healing.
July 2nd, 2008 at 6:51 am
Luna, love the way you took Susanna’s thoughts and added the “good stuff” to them, you wonderful optimist, you