It’s the last week of the year. And a perfect time to write letters of thanks!

“Almost nothing feels as good as expressing our thanks to some­one we appreciate and who has made a difference in our lives. The simplest letter can be one we'll want to save forever in our journals.”*

If you haven’t visited here before...see below for some other ideas about techniques to use ....

Ways to journal...techniques to use

There are many paths into the unexplored territory at the heart of your life-journey and as you explore the possibilities of journaling, you may want to try out different journaling techniques, approaches, methods that others have found valuable to capture your life experiences.

Letter Writing‑The Art of Connection

“ You open your mailbox. Advertising, donation solicitations, "Cur­rent Occupant" mail, bills. And---wait! A personal letter! In a hand-addressed envelope, the handwriting of someone you cherish. You pick out this letter, tossing the rest of the stack aside, and sit down to relish the next few minutes. Special words written especially to you. You celebrate a sense of renewed togetherness. As you carefully open the envelope, your thoughts do a quick flashback over the last letter you wrote, the last news you heard, the last time you spent together. Each letter strengthens your ties to each other. You share who you are.

You start to read. Suddenly, you are there. Picked up and trans­ported to another world. Immediate, real, visual, perceptual. "Yester­day I sat watching the way the water laps so softly and peacefully upon the shore. You would love it here, and I wish I could show you these beautiful palm-lined beaches."

How wonderful, you think, a view of tropical splendor fleeting across your mind's eye. You read on: "But you can't come now. We are so heavily guarded, they have spiked all the roads. No one can come or go. This island paradise is shrouded in fear. Lately I can't be sure whether I'm being kept in, or I'm keeping them out. Jerry's life has been threatened several times . . .”

       You are gripped by a new reality. You have joined the writer in her experience, so tense and so real. The TV news stories about the coup were impersonal before, and so far away. Now you are person­ally in touch. You forget the sink full of dirty dishes. You want to know more. You are involved. You imagine what it might be like to be a foreigner sequestered in the middle of a revolutionary coup. Your own reality has been suddenly and irrevocably altered. You survey your suitable surroundings with renewed gratitude. Your life goes on, but you are somehow different. Broadened and expanded into a wider, big­ger view of the world.

You pick up your journal and fasten the letter in place in it. Then you write a few words, as you often do, to acknowledge the feelings raised by receiving this letter.

You might not think of letter writing as having a place in your journal. But the letters you write and receive are a vital part of your life. They communicate what was important to you in a particular time and place, and what you wanted to share.”*

If you are already a letter writer this is going to be a journaling practice that is so comfortable and easy for you to do! Start off by making a list of letters you want to write. (A good question to ask yourself, to get this flow going is who are the people I want and need to communicate with?)

IT'S THANKSGIVING WEEK so...Reread the list that you made and choose one or more of the people on your list and tell them why you are thankful that he/she as been in your life. (Don’t limit yourself in anyway—I’m going to write to my parents, who are no longer living.)

Have you ever said..."I never write letters---it's a family joke," someone will say. "Don't hold your breath waiting to hear from me. I can't ever seem to find the time . . . It's not just the writing I resist; it's sitting down and scan­ning all the recent events, getting everything in order in my mind­ that I must do before I even begin to write! That's probably the main reason I put off writing."
Yet letters are sometimes the only means we have of keeping a relationship alive. As a friend of mine once wrote, "Friendship, like gardening, requires a high level of maintenance. Attention must be paid or people tend to drift away, lose interest, or start a new life when you^'re not looking." Your journal is a good place to list notes about what you want to communicate in future letters. When you have a list of events and ideas as they have occurred to you, you have the basic outline or content for a letter. And when you use your journal as a cen­tral clearing system for your written correspondence, it unifies many disparate aspects of your life into one central location. What fun it is, too, to have such a record available at your fingertips, whenever you want to remember and recall special moments from the past!

Wonderful letters nurture and connect us. They are an invest­ment of the heart, paid off in value that accrues over time. How often do people put reading the Sunday paper into their schedules every week, but "can't find time" to write to the special people in their lives? When we use our time to write letters instead of automatically turn­ing on the TV, we feel rejuvenated and our energy is restored.

        Who are the people you want or need to communicate with? To stimulate the dormant letter writer inside yourself, begin by making a list of these people. Give yourself permission to choose the letters you really want to write and the relationships you really want to invest greater energy in.

When you think about people you would want to write to, remem­ber to include yourself! By writing love letters to yourself and saving them in your journal to read again and again over the years, you can take responsibility for giving yourself the love you may have missed out on and deserve. "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways ..."*

Make it time to write some letters for release!

“One of the most valuable results of writing letters is to free up buried energy, allowing you to think and feel things through. This may not lead to immediate resolution or inner peace, but it will lead to change. In relationships, what is left unexpressed has a tendency to preoccupy us subconsciously. Simply expressing our thoughts and feelings, even without expectation of any response, can be very therapeutic and healing.”*

If you need a hint...here’s what I like to do: Make a list of anything you want to get out of your mind...yep anything! Then start writing letters that will free you!

 

This week, write some letters that may fit into your Unsent Letter files!

Here’s an excerpt* that you can be thinking about “When we have difficulty communicating our needs and wants, writing a letter we never intend to send is an excellent way to organize and clarify what we really want to say, without having to edit our thoughts to avoid hurting or offending someone.

An unsent letter allows you to say whatever you feel like saying, uncensored, right out. Afterward, you can always revise your message for tact and sensitivity. You can decide how you want to communicate after you have specified what you want to communicate.”*

Because it’s almost the end of the year, and a great time to unclutter your mind...start off by making a list of people that you will have something to say to before 2011 is here.

* Excerpt from: Journaling For Joy: Writing Your Way to Personal Growth and Freedom~Chapter 7-Letter Writing‑The Art of Connection

Want To Know...

How-why-what-where-and when journaling can help you be more aware and capture the Joy? Please join with me today by adding any ideas or questions you may have so we can prepare and begin a new journaling journey together!

Why Journal?

To find the missing pieces; say the unsaid; understand your life process; reach into the hidden recesses of your self; achieve clarity, direction, and certainty in your life; move forward out of chaos and confusion into focus and balance. Keeping a journal will reveal the patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in your professional and personal life. Why journal? To do what makes your heart sing!