Category: Creativity

How To Create A Positivity Journal

I am a journal addict.
I have a journal for every reason you could imagine— lists, notes, diary entries, story ideas, and so on. I love to take notes and keep memories alive on the page. I also like to use the written word to help me focus, motivate myself, and inspire myself to reach my goals.

One of my favorite journal projects is my positivity journal.
I use this journal to write down my goals, dreams, affirmations, self-love reminders, and other positivity prompts that help me stay focused, motivated, and feeling good.
If I ever find myself discouraged about reaching my goals, I like to pull it out and reflect on how far I’ve come and reaffirm the positive things in my life.
I think there is something about seeing your dreams and accomplishments on the page that helps to keep it all in perspective.

Here is the layout of my personal positivity journal.

MANIFESTATION

Self: What are some things that you want to accomplish in regards to yourself? This is all about ways that you would like to improve yourself as a person, or to focus on who you want to be.
My example: “I will love myself”

Health: I am personally a rather unhealthy person, both physically and mentally. Sometimes dealing with my health can feel too overwhelming. So I set goals and intentions for where I want to be in my health journey.
My example: “I will reach a healthy place with my body and body image”

Family: My family is very dysfunctional, but also very important to me, so I set intentions for how I will handle the family dynamic and how I can bring positivity to it.
My example: “I will make my family proud”

Relationships: By this I mean all of the relationships in my life— romantic, platonic, work related; any and all relationships that I have with others.
My example: “I will accept that some days I cannot give as much to this relationship, and remember that there are days when I can give more”

Career: These are career goals that I am truly focused on achieving through hard work and dedication— but I don’t think some manifestation would hurt.
My example: “I will have my writing published and positively acknowledged”

GRATITUDE

Moments from the past year that made me feel thankful: Most of these for me revolved around little magical things that happened unexpectedly that made me smile.
My example: “A good friend came back into my life when I really needed some support”

Little kindnesses: These are little things that the people around me did to brighten my life. Being thankful has a lot of sources, but I find that when you are surrounded by the right people, there is so much to be thankful for.
My example: “When my friend gave me a hand-made gift”

Successes: I’m the sort of person who finds it easier to focus on my faults and losses than my successes. That is why I have a section in my positivity journal for this, though it falls between gratitude and self love.
My example: “ I went on a trip to Europe and really grew into myself”

SELF LOVE & HAPPINESS

Reasons to love yourself: Sometimes I need a reminder that I’m not some terrible human being.
My example: “You always do the best that you can in life”

Good things that you’ve done for others recently: This may seem a little self centered, but sometimes it is good to remind yourself of the effect that you have on others.
My example: “Gave a book to a fellow poetry lover”

Things that make you happy: I like to look at this list when I’m feeling down and even that makes me feel a little happier.
My example: “Books, the ocean, leaning new things, seeing someone reading a book that I love, deep discussions, remembering my dreams after I’ve woken up…” (and many others)

Things that you should do more to make you happy: This sort of ties in with the prompt before it, but focuses more on the actions of happiness. What specifically can you actively do to promote more happiness and positivity in your own life?
My example: “Go to the ocean, visit farmer’s markets, try new foods, believe people when they compliment me…”

Things you should do less to improve your happiness: I often have a tendency to do things that I don’t really want to do but either feel obligated to do or can’t help but to do… and who has got time for those sorts of things?
My example: “Putting myself down”

Acts of self love and self improvement that you’ve accomplished recently: This is a big one for me because I tend to just put self love on the back burner.
My example: “Going to therapy regularly”

POSITIVITY

Philosophies to remember in times of distress: These include thoughts or quotes and reminders that the world isn’t a terrible place (all the time).
My example: “Every time that you put something good out into the world there is just a little less room for the bad”

Notes and reminders: These are random thoughts and notes to keep me feeling positive.
My example: A note from a friend who was thanking me for buying her a book for our book club

There is no one way to make a positivity journal.
I actually plan to expand mine for this new year, so if you have any ideas for how to improve and expand a positivity journal, drop them in the comments!

Sending good vibes out to you all!

Image is of a page out of my positivity journal, accompanied by my 2019 motivation journal and Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way Every Day: A Year of Creative Living”.

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Three Ways to Live a More Creative Life

Since childhood, I have been a creative person.

In kindergarten nothing thrilled me like the opportunity to play with finger paints and other craft supplies and adding to our daily doodle journals, which we started every class with. The only exception to that was coming home at the end of the day and doing my homework, which consisted of writing two sentences and drawing an accompanying picture.

As I got older, I expanded my love for creativity and have attempted almost every art form I could get my hands on— writing, poetry, painting (watercolor, acrylic, and oil), drawing (graphite, charcoal, ink,), wire twisting, ceramics, acting (as well as my fair share of behind the scenes theater work), singing, a bit of dancing (hula dancing to be more specific), photography, various crafts (such as collage, beading, sewing, and finger knitting, and other childhood favorites), very minimal and terribly done web design, and others that I am failing to recall, I am sure. I still want to ( and plan to) try silk screening, glass blowing, and wood work, as well as crochet. My drive to create is a cornerstone of my personality.

It’s said that one of the most important elements to happiness is growth. We need to feel that we are growing and that our lives are changing and improving. One of my favorite things about being creative is the ability to see your growth. All skills can be improved upon with practice, and being able to visually prove to yourself that the growth is indeed happening is one of the greatest feelings. Creative endeavors also create a lot of opportunities to try new things, as there is no shortage of creative avenues to pursue.

I wanted to share three of the most important elements to living creatively, and happily:

Make Time For Creativity

This may seem rather obvious, but how much time do you make in your day-to-day life to pursue your creative endeavors? Between work, school, family time, and other obligations, it can be more difficult than it should be to find the time to commit to just creating. Everyone’s creative process looks a little different. For me, it’s quiet, preferably in a private place outdoors or in a comfy corner of the house with pillows and blankets and a hot cup of tea. The primary elements of my ideal creative time are privacy, silence, and comfort. For others it may be putting on reruns of their favorite TV show or going for a hike, but whatever gets your creativity brewing is worth taking the time for. It also helps me to create this time on a sort of schedule, if it’s once a day or a couple of times a week. Knowing when that time is coming around is helpful (to me at least) to get the creative juices flowing before I even begin the process of making my tea.

Here are a few thoughts to ponder when figuring out how to create your most fruitful creative time:

• What is your creative passion?
• What kinds of resources and/or space do you need? (This may differ between say a writer who may want a desk in a corner somewhere, and a painter, who may need a larger studio space to not feel cramped.)
• What makes you feel relaxed, inspired, and creative?
• What technical steps do I need to take to create this time and space for myself? (If you have children, maybe have someone take them to the park for a while. If you work all day, make a point of setting aside some time during your evening rituals to do something creative. Look at what is technically sitting between you and more creative time and tackle it that way.)

Immerse Yourself

Ask any highly celebrated author what the key to their success is and you will hear two things— “Just write!” and “Read as much as you can!” One of the wonderful things about creativity is that it is contagious. So if you like to write, then read! If you like to paint, then visit an art gallery! If you want to act then watch plays, TV, and films! The world is so full of amazing creators in every field, you are sure to find artists and works that inspire you. There are a million ways to immerse yourself in any creative passion, including:

• Books— You can read about any subject and get ideas to inspire your own creativity
• Magazines— Subscribe to your favorite creative magazine. It gives you a reason to get excited every month, and it’s nice to have images to accompany the articles you’re reading (especially for more hands on things, like beading)
• Films/TV/Videos— Documentaries, YouTube, and even Broadway; there are so many great visual resources for learning new hands on skills or taking inspiration from other creators (like acting, sewing and glass blowing)
• Podcasts and Audiobooks— Auditory resources like these have really been becoming popular recently, I assume because it is easier to listen to something during your morning commute for example rather than always focusing on a video or a book

Surround Yourself With Creative People

There is something to be said about the people that you surround yourself with. I find it difficult being around my immediate family because none of them have any artistic or creative passion. As I spend most of my time with them, this puts a massive drain on my creativity because I have no one to bounce ideas off of or to do fun, creative projects with. This is why I am so happy to have so many creative friends. I actually cannot think of a single person that I consider a friend who is not creative in some way. I have friends who are writers, bloggers, photographers, poets, painters, ceramicists, jewelers, and many more. This is wonderful, because when I need advice or a creative boost, I have these people in my life to inspire me. A couple of ways to bring more creative people into your life are:

• Reaching out to people who inspire you— Is there a blogger that you really enjoy? Send them a message. Or is there an artist whose work changed your life? Tell them. I know that this obviously doesn’t apply to everyone (I would love to tell Sylvia Plath what her work has meant to me), but if there are people who inspire you in your day-to-day life, reach out to them.
• Take a class— I think there is no better or more obvious way to meet other people who share your passion than by taking a class. I thank the universe every day for my decision to join the English program at my university (I was eyeing up the Psychology department with interest,) because it has allowed me to form some of my strongest and most inspiring friendships.

Lately I have been spending almost every day doing something creative. Though I am in the process of trying to find a job, moving, and valuing time with my family, I always do my best to find that time to write, draw, sing, and read, just a little, each day, because I find that when I do, I am happier.

On my other blog titled “I Am The Arrow”— which details my struggle with mental illness— I discuss the connection between depression and other mental illnesses with creativity and the archetype of the tortured artist. Though I still believe in the observations that I made there, I am now able to look at the creative process in another light. Maybe much of my creativity has grown out of my sadness and adversity, but it brings me happiness every day.

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