Journaling as a Spiritual Path

Journaling as a Spiritual Path. A new book by Jo-Ellen A. Darling who joins Pam to talk about the benefits and many reasons for journaling. One is to have a ritual that provides us with grounding and stability. Another is to create a place to confide our thoughts, and feelings, our hopes and joys, our struggles, fears, and disappointments. Maybe we journal to have a time to dream, confess without judgment, and contemplate all things….Yet another aspect of journaling is to show us our growth and the lessons we’re learning in any number of these areas of our lives.

There may be many reasons for journaling. One is to have a ritual that provides us with grounding and stability.  Another is to create a place to confide our thoughts, and feelings, our hopes and joys, our struggles, fears, and disappointments. Maybe we journal to have time to dream, confess without judgment, and contemplate all things….Yet another aspect of journaling is to show us our growth and the lessons we’re learning in any number of these areas of our lives. 

““I’m convinced that discovering the
divine and our truest self are two of the most amazing, grounding,
and life-changing choices we will ever make.”
~Jo-Ellen Darling, Journaling as a Spiritual Path

ABOUT:

Jo-Ellen Darling’s career includes technical writing, newspaper reporting and editing, and 10 years of freelance journalism while working in social services. She co-edited the book On The Journey for the Kairos School of Spiritual Formation in 2016 and occasionally leads contemplative writing retreats. Darling received a B.A. in English from the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and an M.S. in Communications Management from Simmons University. Journaling as a Spiritual Path is her first book.

“Darling was once asked in her thirties: “What is stopping you from having a friendship with God?” She was stunned – a friendship with God? Her heart had trouble connecting with religion and her life was caught in the briars of addiction. But in hearing that question, she suddenly found hope. Not knowing where it would lead, she picked up a pen and began to journal daily. Now in her sixties, Darling is still amazed at how journaling – and this simple timely question – changed the trajectory of her life, as each had arrived in a moment of spiritual bankruptcy – and a door through which she escaped a meaningless future.” ~ From Chapter 5, “Journaling as a Spiritual Practice“

The Benefits the Practice of Journaling can Provide: 

  • Insight into your life and who you are becoming

  • A place to share your honest and deepest thoughts and feelings

  • A regular practice of checking in with yourself

  • A growing conscious awareness of what is happening in your inner
    world

  • The discovery of our True Self

  • A way to honor what has happened in the past while planting
    yourself firmly in the present

  • A way to recognize and honor your deepest longings

  • A path to find compassion not only for others, but also for yourself

  • Encouragement to find the freedom and courage to be who you
    really are

  • A place to figure out what you need and want

  • How the practice of journaling:

    • helps you become committed to yourself and your own life

    • gives meaning to your life

    • helps you to release fearful thoughts, feelings and perspectives o can be used as a spiritual tool for life

    • helps you discover authentic spiritual experiences and a way to know a higher power in your life What this Book also Provides: 

  • Meditations, Questions for Journaling, and Exercises that enhance the spiritual path

  • Appendices for: Choosing a Journal and Protecting Your Privacy; Writing Prompts for Tending the Soul; Guidelines for Journaling Groups & Writers’ Groups; Time Tables for How You Spend Your Time & Energy

  • Purchase at Barnes & Noble online: here

JO-ELLLEN’S FAVORITE QUOTE

“Every moment and every event of every person’s life on earth plants
something in the soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged
seeds, so each moment brings with it, germs of spiritual vitality that
come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of people. Most of
these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because people are not
prepared to receive them; for such seeds as these cannot spring up anywhere
except in the good soil of freedom, spontaneity and love.”
~Thomas Merton 

CONNECT WITH JO-ELLEN:

www.journalingasaspiritualpath.com

Pam Rotelle RobertsonComment