Expecto Patronum
Dr. Barbara Frederickson studies the science of positive emotions. As we know, experiencing positive emotions is one aspect of flourishing and wellbeing. She identifies the “big ten” positive emotions:
Category: Journaling
One Thing
I’m reading about hope, and wanted to share a hope-building exercise. In a notebook, date the page for one year from today and write about your life as if things have worked out as best as possible.
Labels
In a therapeutic writing class I am taking, one of the members shared that she did a Cluster of labels that were given to her from a young age. A Cluster is a writing technique also known as mind-mapping or making a brainstorming web. To create a Cluster, you write a key word or phrase in middle of the page, …
Six Word Memoirs
Have you ever tried this fun writing exercise? A six word memoir tells a story or expresses an idea in exactly six words. It’s so satisfying — the constraints really stimulate your creativity. Recently, I used this prompt in a writing group, and I’m thinking of some of my own. Here are a few:
Five Senses Portrait
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 …
List Your Life
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 …
Alphapoem (And A Poem on Prayer)
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 …
Alternate Careers
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:
Questions and Answers
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 …
Making Peace
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 …