Journaling as a Garbage Disposal

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.
In the Fun Journaling yahoo group, we have been discussing gluebooks. Gluebooks are a certain style of visual journal. They are fun and take away the pressure to create “pretty” pages. So, if you’re struggling with that inner critic in your art journal you might want to try a few gluebook type pages.
When I first wrote the Fun Art Journaling e-Course, it was designed to be taken as a group where I facilitated and everyone shared while taking the three month course.
How cute is this? The Washington Post hosted a contest for dioramas using Peeps. 