Open Door Retreat

One of the many daily recovery activities women engage in at the Open Door Retreat is daily journaling. This is something that anyone can do anywhere, any time, and at virtually no cost that can have a dramatic impact on your life.

Many people feel intimidated by the idea of writing daily, but I promise, daily journaling can be tremendously enlightening and can help you work through problems that you may not have even realized were plaguing you.

You don’t have to be a great writer or even a good writer to see benefit from journaling. In fact, you never have to read your journal entries after you write them. You don’t even need to have something to write about. Julia Cameron, author of “The Artist’s Way” is a firm believer in doing 3 pages of free-writing daily, a process that she calls “the morning pages.” In fact, it’s the very first thing she talks about in her best selling book and something recommends to every person who attends her workshops.

She recommends writing anything – anything on your mind, even if it’s “angry, whiny, petty stuff.” If not vented somehow, this “stuff” rolls around in our subconscious, muddying our day and causing us unnecessary stress. It doesn’t matter what you write, but that you write it.

Whatever comes out on that paper is something that must be important enough to be at the top of your mind. Writing about it is like opening a pressure release valve that allows us to go through the day with a clearer mind and a more balanced sense of self.

Can you commit to writing daily?

All it takes is a notebook and a pen and the faith that this can make a difference. Even if you’re skeptical, I suggest that you try this technique for at least a week. If you don’t feel centered in your life and are looking for a way to make a change now, daily journaling is a powerful first step