"The closest thing to magic is kindness and the written word." - Bijan

I am always looking for new ideas and philosophies that I'm willing to stand on as foundational principles in their applicability. The above quote is one that has been sitting with me for the last several months and still feels true and useful.

Another of my philosophies which I will get into in a separate blog post is around slowness.

"Anything worth doing, is worth doing slowly" - Bijan

I've been writing poetry and journaling since I was very young, it has allowed me to gain a greater understanding of my experience and an outlet for expression.

Towards the end of 2021 I found these wonderful vegan leather journals from a local artist in Austin called Pigsey Art. I think I may have first encountered her journals at the Austin Blue Genie.

It feels good to me to pick up my journal to write or read that I know was created by a fellow artist who live in Cedar Park, a place I have spent a great deal of time. It helps that the journals are beautiful and have a great feel. Recently I ordered a few more empty journals for the future months and into 2025.

What to write about?

Ah, this is the challenge for every writer.
Beginner, advanced and professional; we have all had that feeling staring at a blank page and wanting to get started and not sure of how to start.

Gratitude List

For me of the most effective ways to improve my attitude, mood and outlook is to start with a gratitude list.

Its been a daily morning practice of mine for the last several years of simply writing fifteen things I'm grateful for. I have witnessed myself go from a grumpy mood upon waking to one of being less grumpy, simply by leaning into all the wonderful aspects of life (big and small) for which I am grateful.

This is not just some hippy nonesense either. According to expert Brene Brown,

"Gratitude is correlated with better sleep, increased creativity, decreased entitlement, decreased hostility and aggression, increased decision-making skills, decreased blood pressure - the list goes on".

Lets go a bit deeper into gratitude for a minute as an aside as it is a really fascinating subject.

Research on emotion shows that positive emotions wear off quickly. Our emotional systems like newness. They like novelty. But gratitude makes us appreciate the value of something, and when we appreciate the value of something, we extract more benefits from it, we're less likely to take it for granted. We spend so much time watching things - movies, computer screens, sports - but with gratitude we become greater participants in our lives as opposed to spectators.

Instead of adapting to goodness, we celebrate goodness with gratitude.

Gratitude is an emotion that reflects our deep appreciation for what we value, what brings meaning to our lives, and what makes us feel more connected to ourselves and others.

Per Brene, "over the past two decades, the research has taught me that, despite the catchy phrase 'an attitude of gratitude', gratitude is a practice. It's tangible. An attitude is a way of thinking; a practice is a way of doing, trying, failing and trying again.

Back now to how writing is magic and writing what you are grateful for as a regular practice being medicine.

Anticipation, Excitement and Measuring

I also like to write five things that I'm excited about for the upcoming day in my practice.

It gives me a positive outlook and sense of joy in knowing there are these five things I'm looking forward to doing. I'm unsure if it would be good to pretend to be excited about something that you are not really excited about, but for which you wish you were.
My instinct tells me it could be beneficial as the saying goes "fake it until you make it" has had validity in my book as we often are self sabotaged by our doubts and ambivalance. Trusting the process and that things might turn out better than you think has been a helpful perspective for myself.

I also find it helpful in discerning how I'm feeling. If I can't find five things I'm excited about in the upcoming day then this is a useful measuring tool to see where I'm at.

Journaling is also a great tool for measuring ideas and behaviors. It can add a level of accountability with ourselves as we commit through writing our codified expression on paper. It doesn't mean things can't change, or that we should feel bad if we don't live up to ambitions but a powerful step towards fulfilling our desires can be to express them out loud, possibly to others or even simply to an empty page.

"Paper is more patient than people" - Anne Franke

The planning of a trip, the excitement of upcoming adventure and the simmering of all those potentially awesome experiences can be just as rewarding as actually being on the trip. Writing your anticipations, when framed as potentially positive, can be very rewarding. It could also set yourself up for disappointment if things don't turn out as you expected but I don't find this a good reason to hold back on embracing anticipation.

I remember often when I was young that my mother would say "this many days till the trip!" and her excitement and the expression of that anticipation brought her a lot of joy. I think this may be part of where I get my excitability from in reflecting on those memories from my past so if you are reading this Mom, thank you.

Reflections

The most recent aspect of my journaling practice has been to start leveraging something that I heard on a podcast and which was suggested to me from a mentor.

What is working

What is not working

What is something small and tangible I could do differently

These prompts for daily reflection are so helpful as they have allowed me to look back on the day and see what's going well and what could use a bit of improvement. My intention has been to do this daily reflecting at the end of the day but I haven't yet developed the habit muscle to do so, which has led me to instead do this as a practice in the morning.

In the past I have had a practice of journaling both in the morning and in the evening and I have found that very beneficial. For now, I'm ok with keeping my writing practice in the morning but know that if I want to get a boost writing in the evening is an option.

Of course you could and should write whatever you want to write about.

A story, a poem; yes!
A song, a message to someone you won't ever send them but for which you write to yourself.

Here is a fun one, write with your non dominant hand (its much slower and messier) from the perspective of your inner child to your adult self, expressing how much you appreciate how well you take care of that inner child.

Whatever you decide, keep writing.