the creative notebook: 100 journals
Filling creative journals has become, well, my thing. Here I talk about why I've stayed with them for my entire adult life so consistently, and give you some ideas for ways you can fill your own.
Yesterday, I finished filling journal number one hundred.
Addiction? Maybe. Obsession? Possibly? But let me tell you something.
Without those 100 journals I would surely have lost my little mind. There’s something about dumping everything out onto the pages that makes it all smaller, and bigger at the same time, somehow, like enlarging my view beyond myself. But it always makes life more sort-out-able. Not left stuck in my brain, not stuck in my body. OUT. Out where I can assess it more clearly.
Without these 100 journals, I think I would have lost touch with my creative self. No matter what access I had to time or materials or space, there was always room for a notebook, a pen, and a glue stick. I always had a space of my own in these journals for personal expression, play, experimentation. I always had a place to stop, slow down, breathe. I always had a place to land.
I don’t have many constants in my life as an adult: careers, homes, interests, they are always shifting. But these 100 journals? They have been my constant. My life’s work in some ways, small and large.
Without these 100 journals I am not quite sure how I would have navigated this crazy life, and this crazy world.
These journals are my place for release.
My place for ideas and dreams and plans.
My place to be messy and loud and slow and, well…me.
One hundred down, endless possibilities to go.
So now it’s your turn. How will you fill your creative notebook this week? Here’s some ideas to get you started.
Writing prompt: Take 10 minutes every day that you can to make a list: a list of the beauty you’ve noticed in the last 24 hours. Small, things, big things, seemingly inconsequential things that have made you smile. Writing lists helps us re-focus and collect our thoughts. Writing lists of beauty? That’s a re-focus I would highly recommend.
Visual play: Fill a whole page with ephemera and papers. Go through your office, your recycling bin, your purse for little bits. Put them all on one spread. Not a single square millimeter of your two-page spread of your journal should still be peeking out. Fill it all. Stuff it full. Get messy.
This week, you could also:
Catch up on Instagram: l’Artesania retreat center, the creative notebook, and me.
Plan a visit to L’Albi
Schedule a creative journaling workshop or plein air session
Missed a post?
Last week:
the creative notebook: week 3
Last week, I got you set up with your supplies and a couple ideas to get you started in your creative journal. This week, we’re going to build on those assignments, so if you haven’t collected your notebook, supplies, and…
And you can find all the creative notebook entries here.
And don’t forget to subscribe to these letters- I’ll continue sharing with you my own creative notebook while giving you ideas to fill your own, and about once a month I’ll catch you up on some thoughts about living in spain or share a story about what’s happening around here. Maybe a good spanish sunset or food picture or two.
