Welcome to Refresh Journal!

For a Fresh Perspective in all of Life's Dimensions


January 1, 2013

In This Issue
Be Refreshed with Dawn Herring
My Blog Post: Competition or Complement?
The Artist
#JournalChat Pick of the Days
#JournalChat Pick of the Week
Highlights from #JournalChat Live


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The Birthday Wall: Create a Collage to Celebrate Your Child
by Dawn Herring
I'm excited to share with you my new e-book, The Birthday Wall, which is a detailed, step-by-step instructional book I've written that shows how to create a multi-dimensional, colorful visual collage to help celebrate your Child's birthday! As creator of this family tradition, I share how to research, plan, gather, create, and display all the elements of your child's Birthday Wall, which can enable you to validate, affirm and show appreciation for your child with who they are right now. You can buy it here on Amazon or here on Smashwords for just $2.99
 
**A BIRTHDAY WALL STORY, FEATURING SARAH JOYCE BRYANT AND HER SON CODY**: 
 
Quick Links...





Be Refreshed with Dawn Herring 

Refresh Your Kids

Celebrate the small things you and your child discover together, whether it's a butterfly at the park, a funny joke you tell to each other, or seeing them do something for the first time. It's these small moments that solidify a bond, that love connection, between you. This helps create the memories they will look back on when they are grown. Make this new year a memorable one with precious moments.

 

Refresh Your Self

 With this new year, refresh your perspective on what you love about yourself. Take the time to review your best moments and align your mind with what you did right. Start this new place with a new vision of what you want to accomplish personally, to nurture, love, and validate yourself. Set this as a deliberate intention to keep yourself in a loving and wise center. And when you feel yourself deviating from it, look carefully at what pulled you away and then regain it quickly to ensure continued nurture and care of yourself. You deserve it. 

For Your Journal 
 
Journaling Tip: 

Enable yourself to be relieved of worry on the pages of your journal. Expect the Wow as a result. 

 

***

 

Q: Do you benefit from writing down what you're worried about or do you find it more overwhelming to detail your worries on the page?

 

When I have a situation I'm worried about, I find detailing it to be a relief as I gain insight and understanding with what I can do in the midst of it. It helps me see what action to take and empowers me to move forward with confidence.
 
***
 
You're welcome to reply to the weekly journaling question; I may share it in a future edition of Refresh Journal.
 
My blog post: Competition or Complement?
 
 You're welcome to subscribe to my blog Refresh with Dawn Herring so you will always get my latest posts in your email to read at your convenience. 
THE ARTIST
What are your artistic plans for the New Year?

Have you tuned in to your place of creative energy to see where you want to go, what you want to express to yourself and, perhaps, to the world?

What message is resonating in your artistic heart?

A list of your ideas may make a wonderful visual and reminder of what direction you want to take, one that is authentic to you as an artist and creator.

Bring a sincere focus to your artistic purpose.

Then Have Fun!
 
 "Be you...the world needs your energy, vision, love and sense of purpose. The world needs you."
 

Special Thanks to:
#JournalChat Live guest and Pick of the Week author, Juliet Platt, for her kind words:
"The Chat [JournalChat Live], beautifully hosted by Dawn Herring...was awesome--heartily recommended."
Greetings! 

Welcome to Refresh Journal: for a fresh perspective in all of life's dimensions! 
 
Ok, so you have this situation that's driving you crazy with worry; you feel powerless to do anything about it since you can't control the people or the circumstances. 

So, what do you do?

Relax. Yes, I know that's probably the last thing you want to be doing. If you relax, something else just might go wrong that you can't control. 

But, in reality, if you do relax, you may find yourself getting closer to your center, where the golden nuggets of inner wisdom reside. 

Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in freshness, stability, warmth, positive change; breathe out fear, anxiety, tightness, negativity. 

Now, once you have yourself in a centered, more relaxed state of mind, it's time to do some dissecting. 

I recommend writing down the issue you're grappling with and detail it as much as possible, including your emotions, feelings, point of view, the worst of your fears, and what you want to see happen and why. 

Once you get it down on paper, you will begin to see the possibilities of where you can go in this situation from where you are now. 

Write down any possible steps of action you can take to make the situation better, for you on your end, what you CAN control. Recognize your personal power in context with it. You will begin to see what moves you can make that will benefit the situation from the ground up. 

Then take the first step forward. No longer worry. Look into the Wow of what you have just discovered and move forward with confidence. 

We need not worry but rather write down our wow insights in our journals. We touched on this subject during our final 2012 session of #JournalChat Live with our topic, Your Journaling: Why Worry? Highlights are below. 

Also included are refreshing tips for your kids and your self to start out the New Year right; plus a great song pick by Journey titled, "Oh Sherry." 

I want to wish you all a Terrific, Refreshing and Vibrant 2013!!

The next time you find yourself worrying over something, be sure to recognize the Wow Wisdom you can access from your Creative Center and walk in confidence into your New Year. 

That's something worth celebrating!

And thanks so much for making Refresh Journal part of your Wow in 2013. 

Be refreshed,
Dawn Herring
JournalWriter Freelance
Host of #JournalChat Live and #JournalChat Links edition

#JournalChat Pick of the Day for week ending 12/21/12:   

 

Monday's Pick: Journal Joy by Rebecca Jensen

 

Tuesday's Pick: The Secret to Happiness and Productivity by Ken Makovsky

 

**Wednesday's Pick: Journaling by Rachel Thomasian

 

Thursday's Pick: Your Journaling: Why Worry? #JournalChat Live Transcript

  

Friday's Pick: #JournalChat Links Edition on Holiday

 

**This link has been chosen for Pick of the Week; please read about this week's #JournalChat Live topic in the box below.   

JournalChat Pick of the Week:  
We all have swirling thoughts at times, especially when we're under a lot of stress. It's hard to focus when we feel a tad overwhelmed or worse. 
Rachel shares the benefit of journaling when stressed, helping us to see how our thoughts slow down as we record and reflect. 
She also provides several prompts that help us gain a more positive point of view as we journal and gain purpose for our day. 
For our next session of #JournalChat Live we will discuss how we can use our journals to re-purpose our thought patterns, moving from stress to a positive purpose! Our topic will be Your Journaling: Your Thoughts Re-Purposed!
You're welcome to read this post prior to the Live chat on Thursday, and perhaps write an entry about how your journaling practice has enabled you to slow down your thoughts and re-purpose them for a more positive day. You're welcome to share any discoveries you've made during our chat. 
So join us on Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 5 p.m. EST (2 p.m. PST) for our first session of #JournalChat Live for 2013 on Twitter. Be sure to use the #JournalChat hashtag in your tweet! 
Highlights from #JournalChat Live
Our topic for #JournalChat Live this final 2012 session this past week was Your Journaling: Why Worry? as we discussed how we can use our journal to write away worry. Highlights are below.

 

Here are insights from Debra DiPietro with her post, Eleven Ways to Write Away Worry for a Better Night's Sleep:
Writing is taking action and you will feel like you are doing something rather than hopelessly worrying. Writing allows you to get some perspective. Troubles may not seem so bad once we write them down. Once on paper, you can give yourself permission to release [worries]. Writing enables you to turn a negative thought and recreate it into something more positive and constructive. 

 

 Here's my point of view and insight:

Journaling can help us get those worries down on the page; when we release them on the page, it brings relief from worry. Journaling does help us have peace when we become worried; gives us a place for purpose. When we take action by Journaling our worries, we feel more confident and centered. I make it a practice to journal my entry before bed; helps me settle my thoughts and relax for the night. Journaling our worry often helps us see the next action to take in the process. Empowering! Journaling helps shrink those worries down to size; we can see things more clearly. Journaling is a great way to validate how you feel about what worries you; then let them go! When we journal what concerns us, we can feel confident in our acknowledgement and then free ourselves of the heaviness.  

 

From Kathy Pooler:

[Journaling] helps uncover our writing voice-a mirror to see and hear our truths. Feelings can sometimes be put in their place-not right or wrong, they just are...Somehow they lose their grip on me when I can name what it is that's eating at me. And Journaling helps establish writing habits and plant seeds for stories. Amazing how words lose their power when you can look them straight in the "eye."

 

From Nathan Ohren: 

Journaling consistently helps me maintain a Peace of Mind, that I'm living a thoughtful, intentional life. I just feel better even Listing topics; helps me LET GO for a while; I can bookmark them for later. Journaling out what's behind the worry often leads us to open a new course of action and new results!  

 

 

From Hannah: 

It's also helpful to journal first thing and clear the mental clutter so you can focus on your day. Expressing what's on our minds is incredibly cathartic, even though it seems (and is!) so simple.

 

 And to Summarize: 

 Journaling is the perfect practice, no matter your approach, to relieve worry and stay centered and confident in the process.

 

The next time you have a worry in your mind, try journaling for a new perspective and for peace of mind.

 

Check out the transcript for #JournalChat Live on 12/20/12. Special Thanks to Debra DiPietro for her fabulous post, Eleven Ways to Write Away Worry for a Better Night's Sleepwhich was our journaling resource for this week's live chat.
Join us on 1/3/13 at 5 EST/2 PST for our first session of JournalChat Live for 2013. Topic is in the section for Pick of the Week.  (There will be no #JournalChat Live session on 12/27/12 due to the Christmas Holiday.)
Love can take you from worry to Wow.
Journey - Oh Sherry (Steve Perry)
Journey - Oh Sherry (Steve Perry)


As you work from worry to Wow, share your insights with a friend. Sometimes when you share what worries you have worked through and insights you have gained, it can spark new understanding for both of you. 
 
Then celebrate your Wow!
 
Be refreshed, 
Dawn Herring
Host of #JournalChat Live and #JournalChat Links Edition on Twitter
Author of The Birthday Wall: Create a Collage to Celebrate Your Child