So what is the difference between keeping a journal and keeping a diary?

 

 

 

They are both methods for recording events of the day and perhaps how they made you feel, although journaling takes it a small step further by offering the opportunity to explore the why. Why did something make you feel the way you did?

 

The act of writing it down is a great way to analyse those thoughts. Looking back on actions and conversations of the day, if you could, would you have done some things differently? Maybe next time you find yourself in that particular situation again you might, because you have consciously explored how that felt, because those subtle, flyaway feelings have become more solid, through the use of a pen and now you are more aware of how that past experience made you feel.

 

Keeping a journal lets us explore our thought processes. Writing regularly helps us spot any patterns or habits that might be stopping us from achieving whatever it is we have been struggling with. A journal is a safe place to let off steam, explore ideas and worries, and gives us the permission to pat ourselves on the back when things go well. Unlike a diary that tends to be a record of events, this is the place to be yourself, and learn a little more about yourself from those pages.

 

It is not a bit of wonder that life coaches and various therapists will introduce a journal as a tool to help you work something through!

 

Journaling in nature

 

Whilst I was training to become a Forest Bathing Guide, we were encouraged to keep a journal. A daily dose of nature. There were days when I had no idea what to write about, to draw, or record, there were other days when I needed to write an essay!

 

That journal is a wonderful keepsake now and leafing through the pages, I can see how my relationship with nature grew. How, regularly making a conscious effort to do something for my journal, brought me closer to the nature surrounding me, and helped me appreciate and remember the little things as well as the bigger things in life.  

 

So, if you have had a little wonder through my website and found my bookings page, you will see that every so often there is a Nature Connection Journaling experience. A chance for you to bring your own journal, or start one, or simply put things down on a piece of paper and make your forest bathing experience something more of a solid memory - a memorable event.

 

Forest bathing lets our minds slow down to a more natural rhythm and pace. So, whilst we are taking a breather from distractions and the very chase of life, it gives us a moment for our thoughts to realign and become easier to understand. By writing those thoughts down, they don't so easily vaporise into the mists, they become more memorable, more substantial. Your experience, and how it made you feel, will linger a little longer. Perhaps the leaf that you might have tried to draw on a walk in the Autumn, will have a special place in amongst your pages, and the sounds and the smells of the forest that you wrote about that day, will be yours to revisit time and time again, your words letting your memory be jogged when a small dose of calming nature is called for and hard to find.

Often, there is an even deeper effect when we have an uncluttered mind: Ideas that have been bogged down by all our ‘busy thoughts’ finally find a way of coming to the surface! The problem nagging at the back of your mind that refuses to find a solution becomes solved! 

 

 

Painting from nature is not copying the object,

it is realising one’s sensations.

                                                                  Paul Cezanne                                     

 

 

A Journal Invitation: Hello Nature Friend!

 

So, I invite you now to pick up a stone, or pebble, or maybe a leaf from the ground, something that you are drawn to, perhaps from the garden or a plant pot, it can be small or large, it is entirely up to you. Then when you have found your nature-being I invite you to take a closer look at it. Maybe turn it over in your hands. Maybe you can imagine the journey it has taken. You might notice different colours within it. Perhaps you can feel different textures. Perhaps some of it is smooth whilst other parts are rough? Does it feel cool or warm? How does your new nature friend make you feel, does it inspire any thoughts or memories?

 

Now, when you are ready, place your leaf or stone down, so that you have a good view of it and pick up a pen and your journal, or a piece of paper. Without looking at the paper, trust your hand to draw in one single line your new nature friend, letting your eye, fixed upon the object, guide your hand, without it lifting off the surface, adding as much detail as you wish without looking. Notice how you feel as you work. Finally, when you feel you have completed your drawing, take a look at your masterpiece!

 

You have just got to know your nature friend on a completely different level. It isn’t likely to be a perfect drawing and may not look like your leaf or stone at all! But it doesn’t have to be perfect, allow yourself to accept the glorious imperfection, even the complete abstract! I hope it makes you smile.

 

Perhaps you might want to add a few words to your masterpiece, of how you feel about it, what it conjured up for you and perhaps you can explore those feelings a little more. Perhaps you would like to add colour to your drawing, and I invite you to consider adding a title: The day you got to know a wonderful leaf or stone! 

 

I now invite you to take a moment to check in with yourself. Did this invitation take your mind off of the troubles of the day? Do you feel a little more relaxed? And if you enjoyed this invitation, perhaps you might look forward to doing something similar on a guided Nature Connection Journaling experience.