5 Tips for Joyful Creative Journaling
Do you have a stack of barely-started, tightly-bound journals – each promising a new journaling habit?
Would you like to explore easy-breezy creativity that doesn’t require a lot of artsy skills or expensive materials
Joyful creative journaling to the rescue!
There are endless low-stress creative journaling exercises that can —
kindle creative expression,
tune into intuition, and perhaps
spark glimmers of insight.
The Power of Creative Journaling
with Creativity, Mindfulness, and Neuroscience
Creative journaling engages many more dimensions of your brain-body than purely written journaling.
By activating multiple regions of your brain, these holistic creative practices produce a host of benefits from new perspectives and wisdom, to greater joyfulness, pleasure and ease.
Did you know that only 5% of our experiences make it to our conscious awareness?
Creative journaling has been proven to gently unlock some of the invaluable 95% of experiences stored in subconscious thoughts and feelings. I call it your “Activate Subconscious Creative Brain Superpower©”.
Creative journaling gives you the keys to your unique below-the-surface castle.
Grapple with a learning challenge like dyslexia or a neurodiverse condition like ADHD?
Creative journaling provides you with alternative “language” that is visual, tactile, and somatic (based in the body). So your brain doesn’t have to exert all that extra effort trying to pull thoughts out of your thinky prefrontal cortex. Instead you can relax into your “Play and Let Go Creative Brain Superpower©” and get even more insights and joyfulness!
When you journal with creativity, you tap into all of your Creative Brain Superpowers©! Click here to learn more about your Creative Brain Superpowers©.
5 TIPS FOR JOYFUL CREATIVE JOURALING
Pattern Play
> Draw a favorite shape. Repeat until your journal page is filled.
> Vary the shape’s size from gigantic to teeny, or keep uniform.
> Create a pattern with a sequence of shapes. Draw it again… and again!
Chance It!
> Roll the dice to invite the unforeseen!
For example –
Roll a “3” → Doodle 3 circles
Roll a “5” → Sketch 5 squares
Pro tip – Making creative decisions can be fatiguing. The dice game provides playful pattern parameters, reducing stress.
Wisdom Revealed
> Tear a page from a recycled book.
> Without reading the text, scan each line and circle words that spark a smile. Don’t overthink it!
> Color the page except for your circled words.
> Read your revealed wisdom!
Pro tip – While 95% of our experiences are stored in our subconscious, we can mine bits of this buried gold!
Open Sesame!
> Glue down small cards with special messages
> Add an envelope for a pocket of private thoughts.
Pro tip - We humans delight in glimmers of surprise.
Acts of opening and revealing give us little hits of the feel-good neurotransmitter dopamine.
Paint Chip Particulars
> Journal on recycled papers like paint chip samples!
> Note a little detail in each of the cascading color boxes.
Pro tip – Keep blank ones in your wallet or purse.
Check out my companion blog post, “5 Creative Ways to Nourish Self-Kindness” for more easy, quick practices you can implement today.
Thank you for exploring Art Well 4 Life. Whether you’re —
• looking to move towards joy and fulfillment, just a smidge… or
• itching to recalibrate your identity and move into a new phase of life… or
• grappling with executive functioning issues/ ADHD…
I’m here to support you! When you’re ready, schedule a 15 minute complementary chat. It’s free with no strings or hard sell. Here’s my calendar link.
In creativity and service,
Suzanne Wright, MA
Artist • Certified Life Coach
ADHD and Creativity Coach
Educator for Visual Arts and Wellbeing
Founder, Art Well 4 Life, LLC
Schedule a complementary conversation
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