My journey and fascination with journal writing began in my mid-twenties. I’m glad I started then because I didn’t yet know, I’d need it to save my life years later.
The century-old practice of writing in a journal is one that sustained me when times felt impossible. In the dairies of our youth we write about others; in journal writing we tell the only story we can tell… one’s own. In later years, it became the grounds for deep transformation.
Over the past 4 decades, journaling was the place I grieved, processed and made sense of a tubal pregnancy and the sudden, tragic death of my father, forgave myself for a marriage that crumbled, dealt with the deep stress from a work that drained me of everything I had and made my way through panic attacks and health issues.. to the other side of life and living.
In more recent years, it gave me permission to decide how I would approach the diagnoses of a breast tumor and the strength to say what I needed and was right for me. Over time, each journal writing added to a sense of peace that settled into my heart and accumulated over time.
I know without a doubt, that I would have slipped from this life some 25 years ago had it not been for my writing. My physical health was faltering and my spiritual flame was flickering. I had hit the end of the road.
Since then, I have traveled through many journals to a deep sense of aliveness and discovery that fascinates me to my very core. Life exists as it is now because I sorted though the compost of life and created a garden. Tending to the secret garden of life, I have watched it sprout, grow and flower, feeling the winds of change blowing fresh and strong, finding paths and choices I did not know existed.
Journaling can come at the prompt of one’s own inner voice, from life itself or through the direction of a Private Journal Guide, who opens doorways to the journey of discovery, insights and the ah ha moments.
It comes with permission and space for reflections and times to nurture one’s own life… and in the end it nurtures both our voices and our spirits.
In 2002, seeing the power that JW had brought to my life, I became a guide to this intimately personal adventure, this quest to the heart and soul of oneself, to the meaning of one’s own life.
I’ve walked alongside many, offering intuitive suggestions and prompts to facilitate finding the true path that is theirs.
Having seen the transformation and healing over and over again in my work with women and First Nations communities and organizations, I am truly grateful for the path that writing offers the hearts of those who feel called to it’s invitation.
Pat Robinson has been an Expressive & Healing Arts Facilitator since 2002. Her new work In The Soul of the Woods (Expressive Arts), will be making it’s debut on Instagram in the near future. If you have any questions or feel called to journal, you are invited to reach out to Pat at inwardboundjourney@gmail.com
Feather Redfox says
Lovely Pat I so agree with all you said. Journaling helps me sort out the impossible from the difficult and sometimes points the path to make the two become one. Its my way of making sense of things and then being able to see beyond the automatic responses I might other wise have. It is a wise and important tool for many. I am glad that you will be sharing your wisdom about using it to create better solutions for ourselves,
Marsha says
Thank You Pat.i too have used journaling over the past 40 years of my journey. It is priceless in helping sort and make sense of turmoil. Blessings.