Journaling Then and Now

At the beginning of the sheep year I found journaling to be difficult and even a little scary at first. I've never been much of a writer and organising my thoughts into words does not come easy for me. Sharing my private thoughts and emotions has also always been difficult for me.

 Initially I viewed journaling as just one of the many requirements. A box to check each week, but I pushed through and with out even realising it, at some point it became so much more than just another box to check. There are still weeks that thinking of something to write takes a  lot of thought and effort and then there are weeks that 2 or 3 ideas come to mind. Ideas usually come to me when I'm laying in bed trying to get to sleep and I end up getting out of bed to write out ideas so that they are not forgotten.

I'm not sure how much my journaling has progressed over the year, but I do know that it is not as difficult as it was in the beginning and I think that I'm actually enjoying the process. I have found that journaling really pushes me to contemplate and reflect on my thoughts, feelings and events of the week and helps me organise and express those thoughts and feelings. If we don't take the time to reflect and journal, then days, weeks, and months can go by in a blur as we go about our busy lives. And isn't that a type of mediocrity if we allow that to happen?

If you think about it we actually have the ability in a sense to slow down time when we reflect and journal regularly. A greater sense of awareness of ourselves and everything around us occurs naturally through this process. While all of the requirements are important and each has its own value, I really see journaling as the core of the I Ho Chuan.

Michele Ward