Laying down words
From my soul to the paper
Secrets are written
Wishes are made
Sharing with Nurturing Thursday
Tag: Journaling
June moments
Can you believe today is the last day of June and the half-year is gone by?
Being at home has proportioned me with tiny pleasures that before were reserved only for the weekends.
ENJOYING – I’m spending lots of time in my backyard. I enjoy looking at the flowers and the insects that visit them, like butterflies and dragonflies. Lots of birds visiting my yard as well. We have a birdbath and I love watching them playing in the water.
CREATING – My creativity is low right now, I’m not sure what is going on, but I don’t have any enthusiasm to be in my art room. I managed to make a notebook and few art cards this month.
BAKING – I’m testing new recipes for both baking and cooking. Up to know they have been a success, like this apple cake.
READING – I’m reading a lot, all kinds of books. The library in my city has a great collection of books: old and new. I like to read 2 books at the same time, one fiction and another one non-fiction or poetry.
FOCUSING – On tiny things. Observing details that generally we are too busy to see and be grateful that I have the opportunity to be a witness of the magical nature around me.
Wishing you a lovely July!
“Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.” Buddha
My Art Journaling Practice
Hello,
It is a lovely evening here in my part of the world. I can see the trees, they have a luscious green, and listen to the birds while I write this post. It has rained for the major part of the day, the plants needed it, we had few days of heat and dryness this weak. I like to listen to the sound of the rain, it’s calming, and the smell of the earth after the rain is refreshing.
I shared with you my journaling practice last week, you can find it here. This week I want to share with you few pages of my art journaling practice. Sometimes it is easy to express ourselves through images and only a few words, or no words at all.
Thanks for stopping by,
Elizabeth 🙂
My journaling practice
Hello,
I’ve been away from this space for several months because of health issues. I’m back now, I miss this space where I can share my thoughts with you. I’m still recovering, so I’m planning to post once a week and I wish my posts can inspire you. My posts will be about my journaling practice, art journal, books I’m reading, my garden…, beautiful things around me.
Why do I journal?
I’ve been journaling, almost every day, since 2013. Generally, I write 2 to 3 pages in the morning before starting the daily chores. I need to lay down my thoughts on the pages of my notebook to understand my feelings, to answer questions that are floating in my mind and to discern between what is really important to me and the other stuff that I must let go.
I didn’t start to journal without any guidance, I read lots of books about journaling and writing until I settle down with my journaling style. Here, here and here are three books that I keep on my desk as a reference and inspiration for my journaling.
My Journaling style
It isn’t easy to transform our thoughts into written words, at least for me. I need silence and a pleasant environment, so I go down to my studio taking with me a cup of tea. I light one or two candles and I warm my wrists with essential oil. I take few deep breaths and I’m ready to open my notebook and decorate the pages. I use lots of washi tape and clips from magazines.
As inspiration, I use Oracle/Tarot cards or poems/quotes, generally from Rumi and Hafiz or any book I’ve close by.
I believe that our minds keep secret messages from us and writing is a way to discover these messages. I’m always surprised with the messages that come up while I’m writing.
Hope you enjoyed to know a little bit of my journaling practice.
Elizabeth
Nurturing Thursday # 15
“No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.”
Virginia Woolf
Sharing, with Nurturing Thursday, another page of my #365project, a quote/a thought per day.
Nurturing Thursday # 14
“For your beautiful vows to flourish, it’s necessary to silence that critical voice”
Soul Vows – Janet Conner
I’m using my Hobonichi Techo for quotes. Before I was writing them in pieces of paper and of course they disappeared after a while, now I’m being more organized and mindful when writing them, like for this one I painted flowers using watercolor pencils.
Sharing with Nurturing Thursday
Happy New Year
It’s difficult to believe but 2018 is almost here. What has happened with 2017? It was like yesterday I was wishing happy 2017.
I don’t like to make resolutions for the new year, generally, by February I’ve already given up on them.
But I do choose a word of the year, I’ve been doing it since 2014 and it really makes a difference for me. A tiny work helps me to be focus, to always bring me back to my real self.
My word for 2018 is EMBRACE. I’ve been doing a brave work of discovering my true self, a journey of self-love and respect. It’s time to accept myself and be my true friend. I painted this canvas and I’ll place it on a wall in my studio. The symbols on it are Angelic Zibu Symbols: On the top left – nurture yourself, left side – listen within and on the right – embrace life. My 2017 word was BRAVE, I painted a canvas for it as well. Looking back I see that I was really brave in relation to figure out stuff that was hidden deep inside me.
I painted a wheel of the year with words for each month, so I can narrow down and work month by month on each intention. On the left side are my intentions and on the right side I’ll fill up after each month with the what really happened.
Here are my new notebooks for 2018:
The one with flowers is a Christma gift from hubby, it will be my journal for morning/evening pages, under it is a large sketchbook that I’ll use for art journaling. I have the We’Moon datebook and the tiny one is Hobonichi Techo, Japanese compact daily planner, that I’ll use for poetry and quotes. This last one is a quite expensive notebook, but I decided to give it to myself as a treat because I deserve it!
And you? Have you chosen a work for the new year, set few intentions, or are you going to let things move according to the flow?
Happy New Year!
