Barack Obama becomes our 44 th president on January 20, and in this transition period he is beginning to transfer power back to where it belongs—We the People. As we have voted for him to help us reclaim our country, a vote for journal-writing helps us reclaim ourselves and use our power (YES WE CAN!) to create a better life than what we've had. We will now learn how to be responsible for our behavior rather than placing blame on the outside world. Keeping a personal journal helps us change the way we've always lived and create the future we want. In writing down our thoughts and feelings, we understand the internal origins of FEAR (False Evidence Appearing Real), like our fearsworrystress over Money. And what better time to confront and choose to eliminate our financial fears also known as MONEY PROBLEMS than now that we are in the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression?

Writing a personal journal is free. A journal is a notebook, an 8 ½ x11 pad of paper or computer paper 3 hole punched into a binder or any writing paper you want to use.

I recently gave Magic Journals to two seniors who were worried sick about their finances. Anne started her therapeutic writing by setting a goal of doing one page at a time. She was surprised to see how freeing the journaling was, how costly worrying has been and that she rediscovered her sense of humor after only one page. Linda uses her Sunday mornings for her personal journaling. She looked at her retirement money, came up with some ideas for how to live more simply, and then met with her broker to tell him what she wants him to do.

Remember: there is only one right way to write journals…your way!

An early Christmas present! Send me your snail mail address and I'll give you a Magic Journal write now!

In preparing to perform a song, Sinatra had a personal sound system. He spent hours and hours handwriting and rewriting lyrics. No wonder when you hear him sing, you believe he experienced every word of that song's story. His next step was to take a sheet with just the lyrics. No music. At that point, he said, “I'm looking at a poem. I'm trying to understand the point of view of the person behind the words. I want to understand his emotions. Then I start speaking, not singing, the words so I can experiment and get the right inflections. ” His journaling system enabled him to record songs like “My Way” in one take!

Many of us get a song “stuck in our heads” and we drive ourselves crazy trying to get rid of it. But what if we worked through it like Sinatra? In your journal (notebook, Staples pad, whatever) write down those lyrics from that song you keep hearing. Write, write, write...following wherever your journal-writing leads you. Which of course reminds me of a song, “Where you Lead, I will Follow” by…Carole King (thank you ITunes).

How about that? I'm gonna use that as a journal entry today.

Well, Their greed and egotism and arrogance have really created a financial fiasco big time (I’m so tired of hearing about the Perfect Storm!). Based on the Dow’s reaction, there is not going to be a quick fix. While the great financial whiz kids figure out what’s going on….

Now is the time for us to come to the aid of our country of Y-O-U. Rather than allowing our fears to overwhelm us again, how about taking some time for ourself and working through our @#$% emotional stuff so we can come up with our own solutions and action plans. Yes, stop selling yourself short. Grab a pen and a notebook and just start FreeWriting. Please don’t stop to think. Just do it for yourself write away.

We can take a page from Obama’s book—continue eating well, exercising and writing. My bet is that he is a journaler as he writes his own books and speeches. It shows. His writing helps him maintain his legendary cool, and communicate confidently and compassionately. BTW, Obama’s campaign song is “Slow Hand” by the Pointer Sisters:

I want a man with a slow hand
I want a leader with an easy touch
I want somebody who will spend some time
Not come and go in a heated rush
I want somebody who will understand
When it’s time to lead, I want a slow hand

Today’s Guest Journal-Writer, Carol Ohmart Behan is a published novelist as well as a pilgrimage and labyrinth facilitator.

On my writing room shelf is a set of a dozen or so pocket-sized books that I treasure, a set of journals kept by my Great-great Aunt Mary from 1908 to the late 1920s. The short entries, written faithfully each day, are full of the doings of her life on a small farm. Again and again she writes, "A beautiful day". She passed this journaling habit to her niece, my mother, and this special legacy came to me early on at the age of 12.

Both women lived in bustling households and that they made time to write almost daily has been an instructive image for me. For one, I learned that making time for writing is not indulgence, but necessity, and yes, deeply pleasurable. I've always pictured each of them sitting down, likely at day's end, opening their journals, and with a grateful sigh entering a space apart from all that was going on about them, a place of quiet and reflection, a still point. It is a place that I've come to know as a blessed and sacred space.  

For those of us drawn to writing, the clamor and rush of our 21st-century lives makes journal writing all the more vital. And without such quiet reflective time how otherwise could we plumb our hidden depths or sail the vast seas of our imaginations? My book shelf now holds many years' worth of my own journals, testament to countless hours spent between their varied covers, pen in hand, my creative spirit happily engaged. This daily, nourishing ritual of writing is a gift of grace that I cannot get along without. May each of you reading this be similarly blessed in your writing lives and if not, don't go another day without embarking on this marvelous journey, journal and pen in hand.

"As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way"
Ralph Waldo Emerson

I now admit I had a childhood! The most amazing thing is how I have been living my life over and over again as the scared, shy child I was 50 some years ago. I now see that who I am today cannot be blamed on mommy, daddy, the St. Bernard School nuns, or the crotchety neighbor across the street.  I am responsible for who I am, what I say and what I think. If I am not happy with my life then I can do something about it. That’s why Journals were created: to help clear out the clutter we’ve accumulated and get into living life from who we really are using all the gifts we brought into this life with us.

Before Journal Writing, “Suffering was the only thing that made me feel I was alive”.

When a wintry MS (Multiple Sclerosis) episode kidnapped my body’s right side, I wanted to teach myself how to write with my left hand. Right on time, the universe presented me with “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron, a book about reconnecting with my creativity (yeah, right) which included Morning Pages--three daily stream of conscious handwritten pages of whatever. NO thinking, NO old English class rules. So I wrote and I wrote and I wrote. For weeks and weeks and weeks.

Then, strange things started happening. Interesting words, phrases and rhymes appeared. I began to write poetry for the first time. I started remembering pieces of my childhood. I began to FEEL I was alive. My writings gave me courage to investigate my early life (Pandora’s?) box of essays, report cards, letters, first diary, prize ribbons, clippings from my first real job as a weekly newspaper editor. What I couldn’t understand was why I had repressed such awesome events. Curious…I kept writing.

I modified my Morning Pages practice, making it more a dialogue and less a data dump. I asked my pages questions: "Where do these (no confidence, hypercritical, frustrating…) feelings come from?" "Who told me that?" "How did I ever think…?" With journal writing, I get answers not only in my notebook but in the shower, at the supermarket, in my sleep.

As my mood swings, I invent different types of writing methods, like Ten Minute Missives or Night Notes. No matter what routine I use, I write every day. Today, I’m using the Morning/Mooring/Moaning/Mourning Pages to bring my right hand back home.

Journal-Writing helps me make sense of my personal universe: accomplish my goals, solve problems, and cure my diseases. With journal writing, I transform my life--I explore my past, expand my present and envision my future.

And I (drum roll, please) “Haven’t got time for the pain”!