Writing In Your New Journal

Whether you have decided to start your own fertility journal, or are still thinking about it, this article will help you with writing in your journal. There will be days when you will have no end to the topics, thoughts, and feeling that you can write about, but there will be others when you know you want to write, but just can't seem to get started. Try looking for quotes that either match your feelings or that you want to expand on.

Books are great sources for quotes, and so are newspapers and the Internet. Here are a few quotes that can get you started either writing in your journal or looking for your own quotes to inspire you.

• I am a woman above everything else - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
• It is characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things - Henry David Thoreau
• The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time - Abraham Lincoln
• No person has the right to rain on your dreams - Marian Wright Edelman
• To go against the dominate thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform - Theodore H. White

I could continue listing some of my favorite quotes, but the above should give you enough to get you started writing, or looking for your own quotes to start. Quotes don't have to just jump start your writing, they can be used alone on a doodle page where you add your own drawings, stickers, or other artistic work.

Do you have an egg timer that you can use for this next one? If you do great, if not, you can use any clock or watch with an alarm. First, get out your journal, and make yourself comfortable. Meditate for a minute or two on what your day was like, any dreams that you have recent had, or your last visit to the doctor. Now, set the timer or alarm for five minutes and pick up your pen and journal.

Write about how you feel right now after meditating for a bit. Don't worry about where your writing is taking you. It is ok to jump from thought to thought, and to just let whatever comes to mind flow onto your paper. Your only goal is to write down everything that enters your mind, nothing is forbidden, nothing is wrong.

I shall share with you one of my free-writing sessions that I wrote shortly after my last miscarriage:
"Life is not fair. I work so hard and I wanted this so much. Why it was taken away, did I do something wrong, did I cause this? What is wrong with me?! How can I allow this to be so upsetting? I have a wonderful husband, and I do have a child, why did this baby, this time, mean so much? I hate needles, and I never want to see another hospital as long as I live. The cold metal, the "I understand what you're going through, but not really" looks from the staff. How can anyone understand!! I just want to curl up and sleep for a week. I want the pain in my heart to stop. Why can't I stop crying? I don't feel 'right' any more. How can I go back to work, there are pregnant women there! Women with children and babies in strollers! I bought baby clothes – what was I thinking! Why did I think that this pregnancy would continue? Why didn't I expect this to happen again. AARGG! I don't want to pack that stuff up, it was supposed to be a girl, we wanted a girl. I am getting tired now, I didn't realize that I was so drained. I am afraid of the dreams, but I think I can sleep now."

For me, writing has always been an escape, a release. I hope that with these two articles I have given to you the ability to escape and to release as you need to. Even if you don't want to create a complete fertility journal, do keep at least a notebook and a pen handy for those days when you need to vent to an understanding friend – yourself.

Author: Debbi Secaur
Published on: July 10, 2003 at Suite101.com

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