Creative Play Day

I decided to today to do something totally wild and give myself permission to have some "creative play" time and not feel guilty about all the other things I should be doing instead.  And I'm so glad I did! I feel completely re-energized, and I'm actually looking forward to the coming week, something that I can't recall happening before.  Clearly this is something I need to do for myself more often (I'm thinking about making this a regular Sunday activity - can you think of a more fun way to end a weekend that by doing something fun and creative totally for your pleasure?).

I started by creating an idea file of prompts to help me when I get stuck in my journal writing (something that I've decided needs to be more of a priority in my life because of the benefits I gain from it).  I used a plastic index card case from Staples and created 5 sections: Unsent Letters, List-Mania, Personal Power (this section is to get me thinking about some of the issues I deal with in my life, and also to explore some of the facets of my personality that I don't usually look at too closely), Spiritual Growth and From Writing To Art (projects to help me take the learnings from my writing beyond my journal).  Once I had my sections made, I got out my list of prompt ideas and wrote them on 3x5 cards and filed them in the appropriate section; I'm using the coloured cards where you get 5 colours to a pack and I've assigned one colour to each section.  I already have 42 prompts in my idea file! I've been re-reading the books on journal keeping that I've had, and it's really stimulated my mind in terms of coming up with topics I want to explore further.

Then I went to http://www.franklincovey.com/ and used the Mission Statement Builder to craft my personal mission statement.  What a fun and fascinating exercise that was! It needs a bit of refining so that the language flows consistently, but in time I plan on adding this to my journal.  From that, I started to define what my core values are.  (By the way, both of these activities were inspired by prompts from one of my favourite scrappy books "The Book Of Me" by Angie Pedersen.)  Once I have my list defined, I'm planning on doing a scrapbook layout (or maybe a couple of them!) on these two activities.

Then I made a title page for my new journal.  I decided that trying a new book for my journalling my help to kick-start my mojo (which has been MIA for a while now).  After a great deal of indecision, I finally decided on my long-neglected tapestry day timer (a high school grad gift from my baby brother).  It has 3 rings, and works well with not only regular day timer refills and accessories, but also mini-binder accessories, creating lots of options for adding things to the journal.  Tomorrow I'm headed to Staples to get dividers for it, and I'm going to create a section for my regular journalling, and then sections for unsent letters, lists, personal power explorations and spiritual growth exercises...much like my idea file.  I also wrote a 4 1/2 page (we're talking regular-sized notebook pages here) journal entry which is now housed in a sheet protector in my journal.  I started it at like 1:00 this morning or some such ridiculous hour when I couldn't sleep, and as the day unfolded I just kept adding to it.  I also took a few minutes and added a few things to my gratitude journal.

So there you have it: my creative play day.  I have a feeling I'm going to pay for all that writing though - my wrist is already killing me! (Actually my whole arm is sore, all the way up to my shoulder - darn Carpal Tunnel Syndrome! Sigh.)

Until next time,
J.