My Love Letters to God: Journal Writing

My love letters to God from 2009-June 2014. 

Journal Writing, or the act of recording one's thoughts in tangible form , is one of my assortment of therapy.
It also happens to be my simple way of conversing with God.


HOW IT BEGAN

My earliest record of starting a diary was in 2000. My penmanship was horrible and my entries had no sense. I wrote intermittently, mostly to document my achievements in Legend of Mana. But I didn't pick up the habit of writing until late 2009.

I had troubles with creativity, and that problem led to me to try Julia Cameron's Morning Pages.
Morning Pages are 3 pages of stream of consciousness longhand writing. Morning Pages claimed to recapture your creativity and provide the solutions for your problems. Since I also had problems about my love life, I immediately found a notebook and jumped right in.

Honestly speaking, writing morning pages in the morning wasn't easy. So I changed my schedule to write in the evenings, and it became a breeze.

Every evening, I would sit down and dump my thoughts. Some were useful, some had no sense, but I persevered.

My initial morning pages had no addressee, and it felt awkward to immediately pour my thoughts into the poor defenseless notebook. So I decided to add "Dear Diary".

True enough, that "Dear Diary" morphed into "Dear God" and "Dear Jesus".

And a series of love letters was born.

WHY I WRITE

Initially, I wrote for the purpose of improving my creativity. My head is rich with ideas, stories, concepts that it's a must for me to write them


Next, I wrote for self-expression. I have difficulty in expressing my thoughts to people, so I turned to journal writing. At least the notebook wouldn't judge me. It would only listen. My notebooks are privy to my frustrations, my happiness, my heartaches etc. I also prefer writing my concerns rather than sharing it with other people, though there are times that I will seek counsel from selected people.

I also wanted to grow in faith as a catholic. I wanted to share my thoughts with God. To have a personal relationship, as my born-again friend mentioned to me. So I addressed my entries as "Dear God and Jesus", hoping that they will share my burdens and help me in finding solutions. And yes, I can say that in writing, I discovered the answers I was seeking.

Problem?
Write it. Write all the details. Write to God for a solution . Write the solution.

Something good happened today?
Write it. Write it all. Express gratefulness.

New projects in mind?
Write it. Write all the details. Write how to bring it to life.

WHY I ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO WRITE

It's life changing.

Seriously, if you have never tried it before, or you tried but you didn't sustain the habit, I highly encourage you to give it a try.

You won't lose anything, except for a few pages and the ink from your pen. I might even say you will gain a lot.

Self-discovery. Hope. Happiness. Gratitude. Love. Acceptance. 

Look for a notebook and grab a pen. Sit down and let your hand move across the pages.
Something marvelous awaits to be discovered.