As an avid journal writer since the age of eight (I currently have two trunks full of my scribblings), I’ve seen how this practice has not only helped me forge through personal trauma, but also learn to meditate, analyze, purge, and ultimately heal. Drawing on sixteen years of combined experience in the classroom and publishing, in my Journaling for Busy People self-paced course I will share the various ways I’ve used journaling with students, in teacher trainings and with authors. I have witnessed the deep emotional impact that focused journaling can have and how immersive exercises help a lackluster practice burgeon into a steady practice that brings a renewed hope to writers from all walks of life. The best news about journaling is that the act of putting your pen to paper makes you a writer!
“Whether you keep a journal or use a notebook, when you notice your thoughts spiraling, writing it down can help…Writing is emotional processing. Writing, by hand, helps to shift a feeling into a thought, which lowers the physiological arousal, and helps to functionally reconnect the emotional centers of the brain with the rational, reasoning areas of the prefrontal cortex.”–Dr. Kimberley Wilson, psychologist and founder of Monumental Health. (Featured in Breathe Magazine, The Self Care Special 2020.) My goal in this course is to guide you through a variety of exercises for journaling and self-awareness via writing. These are not prescriptive but are meant to be modified to suit your circumstances and busy life.
You can work at your own pace, but the structure gives you anywhere from a month to six weeks worth of exercises to explore so that you can walk away with a journaling practice that works for you and an established routine of showing up for yourself on the page. Of course, all of these exercises can work well with also establishing a writing practice for yourself, but the focus here is on you, your self-awareness and using journaling as a tool without any judgement. You’ll have access to this course for an entire calendar year, so feel free to dive in and give yourself the gift of more peace and internal harmony through exploring on the page.
JOURNALING FOR BUSY PEOPLE COURSE FOCUS
In this self-paced course I’ll focus on immersion exercises that will give individuals a methodical and purposeful jump-start on their journaling practice.
This course will cover:
- Techniques and methods for getting started with journaling (or re-starting)
- Methods of “flow-writing”
- Creating a non-judgemental sounding board for your thoughts, emotions and experiences
- Organizing all your thought patterns and slow down your thinking in one central place
- Reflecting on memories that you want to recall, analyze or even dispose of
- Brainstorming a new idea that doesn’t yet feel like it’s come into formation
- Listening to your writing voice and honoring it without judgement
- Having a safe relationship with your mind
- Working through ongoing life difficulties, trauma and anxiety
Who should take this course?
- Individuals wanting to use journaling to work through a variety of emotional states
- Individuals looking for a creative outlet focused on self care
- Creatives looking for a non-industry related writing course that is not deadline-driven
- Individuals wanting to write more, but aren’t sure where to start
What does the course include?
Each unit of study and exploration will have a text, video & audio component so that you can learn in the modality that best suits your learning style. You can watch this video overview here.
Deliverables for Course Attendees
- Full access to the course text, video and audio modules for a year from the date of registration.
- Downloadable digital workbook.
- Certificate of completion.
- Opportunity for one-on-one coaching or feedback (for an additional fee).
Units of Study
MODULE ONE: Honoring self, voice, and emotions
MODULE TWO: Drawing on nature and examining your inner voice on the page
MODULE THREE: Drawing on the senses: taste and smell
MODULE FOUR: Drawing on the senses: sound and touch
MODULE FIVE: Integrating exterior and interior worlds
Price
$55 (Britta Jensen’s newsletter subscribers receive a 20% off coupon code in the classes/event section of her newsletters). Registration closes at midnight CST, December 5, 2020.
About the instructor:
Britta Jensen has spent seventeen years in the literacy education and publishing space. She is the award-winning novelist of the Eloia Born series. She has also received numerous awards, including the General Sharp Award, for her teaching of creative writing and literature. Many of her stories explore themes of persevering through disability, parental separation and the intersection of various cultures in new worlds. She holds a BA in Acting Performance from Fordham University and an MA in Teaching of English Literature from Columbia University. Friends often refer to her as a polyglot—which is a product of living twenty-two years overseas in Japan, South Korea, and Germany before settling in Austin, Texas. She enjoys mentoring writers and editing books with The Writing Consultancy and Yellowbird Editors and teaches first-year writing at St. Edward’s University.
Testimonials from Previous Students
“The class was so rich with ideas and wonderful exercises…I also loved the advice to not focus so much on rewriting the beginning (which is something so many of us do!) but instead to try to finish a draft and then go back to rework the beginning.”-Maureen Turner Carey, author & librarian
“I like the way you provide a mechanism to explore what a character might do, not necessarily in the context of the story, but just behave if I extracted them from the story and watched them go.”-Sam Ritter, author
“So much revealed in so little time!”-Roanna Flowers, author of Dramedy Au Contraire