7 helpful tips to help you capture life: in thought, picture & word

Ask yourself this question.  Would journaling enrich your life?
Great. Then I will share some of my secrets, how-to; and benefits which will spur you on and challenge the creative thoughts that already exist within you.  I value and hear your brave decision to begin,  maybe  improving on what you have already started or just increasing the perspectives in which you already are working.

 Let's get started.  
Yup. You got it, you need something to write with.  I started with a pad and pencil next to my bed over 10 years ago and it all blossomed from there.  Down the road I added pictures to help me create thoughts and musings. I purchase colored notebooks before every New Years day and thus started a more extensive library.   

 You can also find blank journals at many places.  Your local gift card shop may have some that  will cost you and arm and leg.  Maybe you received one from a a friend years ago and it's been sitting in a desk drawer - get it out.  One of the best places to find journals is your local thrift store or garage sales.  That's right- maybe one or two pages have been scribbled on with good intentions.  Read them and then rip them out and make it your own at a very affordable price. Currently you find me writing to you from my iPad.  I have had it for 3 years and love it.  E-readers have writing apps available. Sorry. I do not advocate texting for journaling, Yes, I use my iPhone to make notes of a thought, notion or dream I want to remember, but we are trying to keep alive the value of well expressed beautiful words and sentences.   

Here are some of the apps I use on my iPad

Evernote is my app of choice, I love it's tagging feature, affordability, photo save use and ease of sending a note out if need be.  I do a lot of mentoring in which I take notes. With Evernote you can make convenient files and share them with those in the group. It has great word processing features too!  

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 I'm sold on it.  I also use an app called "Pages" & Keynote which help me to write and present what I've have written for teaching purposes. Dropbox is great for storage and is convenient to move it around the net and Google docs is a good support but there files aren't as fluent as I prefer.  You might ask why would you share your journal?  Mostly for mentoring purposes.  Journaling is your voice in written form and your voice has something to say to the world. Your journaling is the "Hallmark" card of your heart.  Let's get to the 7 helpful and insightful tools.

I couldn't live with out a keyboard.  This is the exact model I have.  I'm very pleased with it, it holds a charge forever, and helps protect my iPad in my purse.

Graham Jones said
"Pursuit is the proof of desire".   Your beginning a journey of prioritizing you. Any parent can relate with how that can get lost in the care of little ones.  Journaling keeps sanity at bay and gives you a friend always willing to listen to your point of view.
The things that captivated my life had drastically changed when I met Holy Spirit. Relationship with Him transformed me on the inside, healing me from fragmented parts that life and bad choices had left me with.  I recognized myself again and found refreshment  to my likes and dislikes. 

Gods hand in the making of me was unique and that uniqueness was making its way to the top as I desired God more than the shallow affections of the past.  Sounds emotionally weighty I know but when you have been given a fresh set of eyes on life, wisdom and understanding push way to make a place of DESIRE in your innermost parts.  DESIRE costs you something, it cost HIM something as well.  

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​​I found a great article written by Bridget Murray (Writing to heal) with America psychological Association.  
She writes: “The cornerstone of therapy is engagementinthe therapeutic relationship that addresses the individual’s process - especially the interpersonal, interpersonal affective and symbolic dimensions of experience".                
Researchers are only beginning to get at how and why writing may benefit the immune system. 
When I started journaling it was a lifesaving tool to help me improve, heal and remember who I am.  After time, praise and encouragement outweigh the emotional traumas and your "pen" begins to change. Desire brought forth being willing to pay the cost of time set aside and getting there created a treasure you value.
Now I have a well-oiled machine that catalogs words like:
My best friend shared with me on the evening walking by the river.  With Evernote I can find them and they are used to encourage me again and again.  
Its stories told to me from my dad about his mischievous pranks on his neighbors screen door when he was a boy.  
The special date my husband thought of all by himself where we ventured to the local park for "Movie in the Park" watching a dear favorite the Wizard of Oz. 
Life is screaming to be remembered in an age of 3 word conversations via texting.
I didn't start journaling because of these applications, these applications were the result of journaling.

If God were the only one that ever read my blog that has to be enough for me.  Journaling bears the same value.  It’s like a conversation with musical notes. A bird sings not knowing that anyone is listening but he sends forth a sound with great care, strategy & excellence calling into the wind declaring to his mate, offspring, territory & joy in his heart. I value the thoughts that have been shared with me, realizing that I do not own them, they are shared. If circumstance opens up a window to voice them I see the value I have placed or sown being returned to me.  Many call that fruit.

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I employ my thoughts to think, create, problem solve and remember. You have 24 hours in each day, whether sleeping or awake were involved in a conversation. Sometimes I chuckle within myself because it seems that God can hardly wait till I shut my eyes at night and turn off the me, myself and I tool and I magically drift into being a captive audience with Him. 

Writing it down functions as a discernment tool. How am I thinking about me, my husband, what's at the root of those thoughts? Good or not so good! Journaling applied can improve your where with all of the community of relationships around you.

If I can't write it I draw it. It I can't draw it (Evernote has a slick white board in its app) I find a picture that makes me feel the same way. You're the director of the movie. I do not waste time with every detail when it's mundane. The detail I go into depends on the questions I have been asking? I want to capture the "mood" of the moment and how I learned or heard it. It's priceless!

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If someone said it well, use there wheel! Copy the link! Give credit where credit is due and build an integral heart. Who said? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I use dictionaries, dream dictionaries, Google, the bible, my tags from former entries, memories, photos, what others have written to aid my journal. Photo's become quick words copied and pasted. 

 I know that God said something about who to "Imitate"! You can google a thought, copy 3 pictures and journal 5 words in less than five minutes and have successfully journal-ed your day.
It’s not quantity it's quality.

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These pictures say something to you!
Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought. Pope John Paul II

Makes you feel or share convictions. It's a banner I care about enough to keep it at hand. In my journal, Iv'e written what the ladies comments in the grand stand when she learned that that was my Father who was part of the only air born unit who parachuted into Japan. My husband and brother inside the cab, my eldest son, niece and nephew are saluting.  

Journaling has given me a freedom of speech, speaking to whomever I choose to entrust with its content.
Journaling is a measure-er of my heart and what freedoms I treasure.
Journaling reminds me to be thankful, careful and considerate 

These pictures tell you what I think of my country and the sacrifice my family has partnered with to uphold its freedoms. It shows what my family "collects" old International trucks, and how we share those "unique" antiquities.
​ The iPad tool I'm using can connect me to the world or lock me in a room with no use for people. Freedom to choose how I spend the hours of my day and what future I'll look at tomorrow.

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I applied myself to journal over 10 years ago and it has assisted in the altering of the future I’m writing you about today.  Time and time again I have found my journal entries enriching the lives of people I love.  A well placed word, laced with life application can melt the problem of your child.  Entries can remind you of a trying time in your life and that that test now has a testimony. My faith has grown, my spelling has improved.  Well, it’s getting better.  I more confident and can express about what I believe and what core values are behind those beliefs. From laughter to tears and pictures I never want to forget.  Journaling has created a framework that can be encountered far past my own life, should my children want to know.  

The tools and tips I shared with you can’t be purchased online or locally.  They come from within you.  My desire is that the value I have placed on written “life”, motivates you to an application and personal form of copy & paste the found freedoms that will speak in your future.  I bless your adventure in journaling.