Gretchen Rubin shared a writing exercise to capture a person or place, called the Five-Senses Portrait. For each of the five senses (hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling, touching), you write a list of five associations to create a sensory snapshot of that person or place. I decided to write a five-senses portrait for my childhood summer spot, but once I got …
My new fun journaling technique is list-making. I have been finding it cathartic and a lot of fun to pick a topic and dump out whatever comes to mind. List-making is an easy entry into journaling — we know what to do. Below is a list of list-making prompts for your journal. Before you begin, a few guidelines to keep …
I recently wrote an alphapoem for my current writing course and want to share the process with you. An alphapoem is similar to an acrostic in that you write a word or phrase vertically down the left side of your page and use it to write your poem. However, whereas an acrostic purposely begins each line with the next letter …
A fun journaling prompt from The Vein of Gold by Julia Cameron had me writing a list of five alternate careers. I used the prompt twice, a few months apart, and here is my list in total:
At one of our pizza gatherings, a friend asked if I could text her writing prompts to help her get into journaling. I’ve sent her dozens of prompts over the past few months and it’s been a lot of fun to read her feedback and hear how beneficial writing has been for her. Among other kinds of prompts, I have …
Recently I finished another course in my therapeutic writing training, and I found the exercises to be particularly deep and moving. For one of the exercises we had to make a list of intersections in our lives, moments when we chose to go in one direction and not another. Then we explored one of those intersections more in depth and …
Two years ago, I wrote about a book I had read which provided journaling prompts about dating/love that were helpful and inspiring. Tonight I created a list of 30 journaling prompts for your Soulmate Journal, if you’d like to explore who you are, what you want in your life, and embrace optimism and possibility! Before writing, take a deep …
A few months ago I took a poetry therapy workshop where we did a number of exercises based on various poems. We read the following excerpt from “In Blackwater Woods,” by Mary Oliver:
Sometimes you have the itch to write to get something – niggling thoughts, nervous energy – out of your system. Here is a bank of topics for when you’re casting about for something fresh to write about. (Apparently I wrote this list about three years ago and haven’t read it since, and now I’m itching to work my way through …
If you go to an art museum this Chol Hamoed, here is an article to read before you go. (I am a fan of art museum therapy as a thing.) You can buy one or two postcards at the gift shop and save them for after Y”T when you can journal, and write about them. Ekphrastic writing is writing …
