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.

“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.”
~Ernest Hemingway

I believe that it’s important to look into our past to find clues that will help us live better today.  Finding the causes of some of our behaviors gives us information we need in order to change those behaviors.   Understanding how I adapted to my environment as a child has given me valuable insight and allowed me to choose how I respond in most areas of my life as an adult.

But where is the fine line between using the past as a tool for growth, and dwelling in the past?  The key difference is whether we are living in the past or just visiting it long enough to get what we need to heal.  Recognizing patterns in our responses requires that we find the first time we had that response.  Taking that trip back to childhood is necessary but we don’t have to pack a trunk and make it an extended stay.

If I can tell you how my childhood affected me in some way that I don’t like, and I can also tell you how I’ve used this knowledge to be closer to who I want to become then I’m healing the broken places and becoming stronger.  But if I just want to tell you how hard I had it, that’s not helpful to me or you in any way.  It actual weakens us to relive, over and over, the hurts we’ve suffered.

Forgiveness of those who hurt us, and of ourselves, as well as gratitude are the best tools for living in the here and now.  This is what makes us able to be strong in the broken places.  Resentment, self pity and staying in the role of victim hold us in the past, rob us of our joy and prevent us from spreading love.

Journaling about past hurts is a wonderful tool to help us move from resentment and anger into forgiveness and release.  Try writing about a past hurt when you feel ready.  Write all the details you need to write until it’s all out.  Only then should you move to work on forgiveness.  It may take a whole journal to get it all out, but once you start you are on your way to becoming stronger.

Twitter, if you don’t know about it, is a fun little application.  You type in a short message about what you are doing or just some thoughts you’re having.  You choose whose twitters you want to see and other people can choose to see yours.  It’s difficult to describe so go to http://twitter.com and check it out.

I really like it but not a lot of my friends are on Twitter, so I’d love it if more creative people joined in the fun. It’s a cool way to keep up with what’s going on in your friends’ lives throughout the day.

If you want to join and follow me go to http://twitter.com/zura and choose “Follow” after you’ve set up your Twitter account.

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.

The idea is to use the items that cross your path during the day.  By using ordinary items from your daily activities, you create a page in your journal that tells about your life but isn’t necessarily colorful or well constructed.

This image is a page out of one of my gluebooks.  You’ll see some torn papers from some bills I got that day.  THe brown sack is from Cracker Barrell where I bought a candle (the drawing).  In a catalog I got that day was an advertisement for a book (?) called The Wilder Sister (the image in the lower left) and I identified with that title.  The other words and images are things that I came across somewhere during the day that resonated with me.

If you’d like to look at some more professional gluebook artists, check out these sites:

http://www.squidoo.com/gluebooks

http://www.flickr.com/groups/gluebooks/

http://www.gluebooks.com/index.html

http://www.behance.net/Gallery/gluebook-2002/50481

Go glue something! 

Walk through the different rooms where you eat, sleep and live. Bless the walls, the roof, the windows and foundation. Give thanks for your home exactly as it exists today; sift and sort, simplify; and bring order to the home you have. Realize that the home of your dream dwells within. ~ Sarah ban Breathnach

Being somewhat displaced, I’ve been very aware of what the word “home” really means lately.  All but my most personal belongings are in a storage building 600 miles away.  It has taken me several months to develop a sense of home where I live.  It has, however, given me the opportunity to look at what it is that makes a home.  It’s not the furniture I own,  nor any of the items used to adorn.  It’s the heart of the person who resides there and how they express themselves in their dwelling.

I recently saw Mister’s home for the first time.  It told me so much more about him than anything he could say.  It’s a fantastic old home with all sorts of nooks, crannies and possibilities for creative expression that blow the mind!  But, more importantly it told me that his priorities are faith, family and fun…with a bit of being well organized on the side.

Our homes, in many ways are an exact symbol of our lives.  If we are waiting for someday to appreciate our home – til I get new furniture, til I get it painted, til I get a new home – we are unable to be truly grateful for the heart of it now.

One of my favorite quotations is “Home is where they love you.”  That, and that alone, is what makes a home a home.   The physical objects in the home are not important, but what dwells within the soul of a home is.  What does your home say about you?

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.

Because I was working at Artella at that time, I got very busy and didn’t have time to lead the group the way I wanted, so I just offered to course as a download and you could go through it at your own pace.

Now that I have more time, I’m starting it again as a group course.  This session will begin June 30th.  Everyone who signs up will be taking the course together.  We will all participate in my Fun Journaling yahoo group, along with the people who have taken the course in the past. To read about the course and sign up, go here.  The course will not be offered again until this group finished the course.

If you’ve taken this course before, and would like to sign up again for only $5.00, you can re-take it with us!  Just click here to sign up.

I’m writing an eBook of techniques that can be used in art journals.  If you have any techniques you’d like me to publish in my book, please send them to me.  They don’t have to be specifically journaling techniques, but they do need to be able to be created on paper and on a page that will at least somewhat close.  If I include your technique I’ll add your name and a link to your website.  Feel free to include photos if you have them available.  I really need them within a week, but if you need more time let me know and I”m sure we can work something out.

I just got back from a wonderful trip spending time with my kids.  I didn’t get to bring the grandsons home with me as I planned but I had so much fun with them while I was there!

I’m thinking a lot about our gifts, talents and pursuing our dreams.  I compiled quotations quite a while ago that deal with dreams and goals and the importance of pursuing them.  I’d like to share with you, my readers.

To download the eBook, go here and choose File > Save As.

I hope you enjoy it, and that it inspires you to follow your dreams!

I’m leaving town today.  I’ll be going to my ex mother-in-law’s memorial service.  Sad to mark her passing, but good that my whole family will be together.  I’m taking my great-niece (6 yrs) with me and we will pick up my two oldest grandsons ( 5 and 6 yrs) so it’s going to be a great time!  We’ll all hang out a couple of days at Laddans (my son’s) who lives on a ranch right on the Brazos River.  There’s horses and bulls and a fishing hole.  A perfect spot for the little cousins to run and play.

If you’ve read my blog a while you might know that I have a tendency to get lost. lol  A couple of trips ago I went 150 miles out of the way by taking a wrong road.  So, there’s no telling what I might get to see in my travels today!

See you Monday when I return!

How cute is this?  The Washington Post hosted a contest for dioramas using Peeps.  Go look at all the entries. So clever!