Journal yourself

The cove of personal wisdom may be closer than you think. As close as your nearest pen actually. That's because the single most essential instrument for nurturing your spirit is penning your own journal.

Journaling is an amazing means to help you uncover the wisdom you already possess. This hidden wisdom will surprise you at times. Other times, it will question you, challenging you. Always, it will come out from you, empowering you to trust yourself and to take action by giving you the deep-seated knowledge that you know more than you think you do.

This feeling of power and self-trust will translate into a more confident you. You will already know where to turn when faced with challenging decisions. Answers will be found within yourself, and you will return there for further instruction.

Note that there a few rules to the game of journaling yourself. You should pen quickly, and as soon as possible, allowing the words to freefall from your subconscious. Allow your writing to flow, no matter what. Don't edit, erase or cross-out any words. If you're heading in a direction you would rather shun, start a new paragraph. Put your date in each journal entry. Note the time, location, and any details regarding your mood, emotions and thoughts that will be necessary for context when you read back on your work.

After you have finished a journal entry, take a walk or get up for a glass of water, give your mind and spirit a breather, before you reread your entry, and remember to reread this entry with compassion. Followed by, write an Insight Line - a short phrase or two about what you think the piece is trying to tell you.

Get creative with the techniques you apply. Our subconscious mind usually communicates to us in a different way. If you are experiencing writer’s block and have nothing to write, try recording snippets of conversations, facts, feelings, fantasies, descriptions, impressions, quotes, images, and ideas. Draw pictures. Make a collage from cutouts. Use the technique that best suits the needs to express yourself.

Clustering is another method that works well in journaling yourself. Put the central idea in the center of the page and highlight it by circling. Then, without pause, make relations to it, placing them in new bubbles and linking them to the main idea. The result is a complex matrix of ideas mapping, many of which you didn't even know you had. This is another form of mind mapping.

Be it you set a time for writing each day or doing it on the fly, make sure the time you spend writing in your journal is time solely devoted to you and your task. Your journal is customised and designed to nurture you.