“One thing I k now for sure is that to be a successful artist, you must start with the simplest proclamation: I am an artist. It’s a basic assertion, but seeing yourself as an artist—legitimate and genuine—can be transformational.“– Lisa Congdon
With life being stressful and causing anxiety, like it is these days, let alone adding personal stressors and anxiety that comes from emotional longings and wounds, we can feel like we are in crises mode all the time. Even having days that are boringly everyday and we have little to stimulate us, or we see little to inspire us, to uplift us, to give us reason to feel like life could be easier, mor adventurous, more filled with joy, we can turn to creative processes. It is one of the reasons that I do some kind of art every day. Art journaling is one of the best ways to start a day and make sure we control the lethargy factors that lead us to feel unfulfilled and sense a lack of purpose.
A Junk journal is a great thing to have on hand for those times when you need a boost and will help get creative juices flowing. It is also an emergency lethargy-inhibitor. A junk journal is a handmade book of recycled materials where you can ‘play’ with bits and pieces that we collect along the way. I keep one going all the time for those moments of some kind of creative despair. For June, I will be using an easy homemade junk journal made out of old cards, magazine pages, used art papers, and sharing those processes and pages with you.
One of the benefits of Junk Journaling is that you are practicing creating, allowing free-flow inspiration to make sense of emotions, of daily happenings, of memories…no competition, no foreseen outcomes, and the benefits of play that we so seldom seem to have time or take time to have happen. Since the journal is one that is for play, it is absolutely not about perfection or competition.
Side benefits of Junk Journaling is that it, alone, can draw us out of lethargy or negativity. (I suggest to do it first thing in morning for a few moments, or to leave it open and ready throughout the day … and, me, all through the night… so you can slip to it ad do a bit of work on a page.) Just a few minutes will start the change.
Another benefit of Junk Journaling is that, as you work on a page, or pages, you begin to realize that you begin to learn new things about yourself, your feelings, and how to express them without words.
As the days go on, you will sense a sense of personal growth in that your focus expands and learning new thigs, new ways of expression, begin to heal and stimulate personal growth. You will begin to feel life and self as more vibrant and you will be drawn more and more to do some creating in your junk journal. Learning new things, experimenting, and the inner thought processes that happen as you are working begins to open up a whole new world of possibilities to you in your everyday life.
Junk journaling is all about using the ordinary to create what can be extraordinary insight through types of meditation, declaration, contemplation by having no allowance for a critical voice to say you are not doing it right. It is a JUNK journal. Anything goes. Your journal can be about whatever you like, whatever comes up, and there is something empowering about taking short bursts of time to allow for expression.
Start a box of junk papers. Grab some old magazines and an old book of some sort that has interesting text or old drawings, etc. That box is your treasure trove for a junk journal. Mail slips, receipts, napkins, suddenly the world is full of things you can recycle.
Beware! It is addictive and you may feel like you have become a hoarder. But, when you sit down, there is a whole world of possibilities sitting in your box of collect junk.
Let’s get junky for June!
©Carol Desjarlais 5.24.23
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