Journal to the Self: Twenty-Two Paths to Personal Growth - Open the Door to Self-Understanding by Writing, Reading, and Creating a Journal of Your Life

I've tried many times to start a journal for many reasons, therapy, just because I love to write, maybe I'll write a book someday, or just to leave behind a little history for someone to read after I'm gone-the good and the bad of what made me, me. I was never really able to get any direction. This book really helped me get started...so well that I bought another copy and a blank journal for someone I know going through a rough time hoping it would help my friend too.

Some people seem to have the natural ability to spill their thoughts onto paper without feeling self-conscious. Others, like me, need a little direction when putting pen to paper, and this is where JOURNAL TO THE SELF comes in.The book presents many ways to express yourself in a journal including: character sketches, captured moments, dialogue, lists, unsent letters, and stream of consciousness among others. Using these methods, you will work through problems and gain greater self-awareness as well as purge yourself of any problems in your life that you feel you can't talk to anyone about.For those who think they can't fit journaling into their day, all of the exercises in the book can be done in as little as 15 minutes a day or expanded into writing sessions as long as you need them to be.Journaling is truly one of the best and least expensive ways to get to know yourself better, and maybe solve a few problems in the process.

That is what the author calls her journal, the 79-cent therapist. Nowdays, when even those tiny 3x2 memo notebooks cost nearly a full dollar, and when a regular notepad will go for almost three, calculate the cost of therapy: the price of this book + shipping + some paper & pencil = ...? Compare to $150 per hour at the local shrink.This book helped me overcome the misery of a sad breakup. I was in college. After the heart-break, I spent my free hours between classes hiding in a library cubicle, crying. Then I found the book by mistake at the local bookstore, and added a journaling time to the crying and hiding. Using just a few of the techniques in the book, it only took me a couple of months to get over the guy who broke my heart. My self esteem improved. I recommend this book as a Self-Help tool. I am into writing anyway, but I'm sure that the tricks will work even if you're only a beginner or can't even spell well.Sometimes you feel like you can't tell anyone what's going on. When no one else will listen, paper will. Paper can handle even the craziest thoughts. I recommend this book to you.

This is a great book for begining writers, writers with writer's block or people trying to move along in therapy. I find that most of the best self help therapy books are actually books written for writers. I have tried oh so many books on building my self esteem but find that the books on writing do a far better job. I don't mean to imply that this is a book on self esteem but when you learn to go beyond the blocks that stop writers, you also get beyond the personal blocks that stop you in your day to day life. This is a book of lists that you create and they are about you and your life or the lives of those around you. This book helps you move beyond someone else telling you how to live your life and gets you going on drawing your own path; it's about finding out which ways work for you; what you enjoy doing and what you would like to be doing. It appears to be just about making lists but while your left brain is making lists, your right brain is having time to create and see what it can do with all these different ideas. I would recommend this book to writers, counselors and therapists and people just wanting to get out of the parking lot of their life

"Journal to the Self" is a wonderful smorgasbord of ideas for personal journal writing and for writing in general. Taking proven journaling techniques from a myriad of resources and condensing them into a single tome, Kathleen Adams effectively gives her readers the opportunity to explore different facets of journal writing.Whether you have fifteen minutes or five hours, Kathleen Adams has an approach for you. From "Topics du Jour" to Dr. Ira Progroff's Steppingstones, both veteran journal keepers looking for clever methods of journaling and novices trying to find interesting ways to get going will find this book invaluable. Even if you aren't a journal keeper now, this book has a wealth of information to jumpstart your writing and will convince you to start journaling! As a veteran journal keeper, I have enjoyed a better understanding of myself and found a greater depth of writing outside of my journal using the different prompts and exercises in this book. Although the perspective is written primarily from a self-help journal "therapy" point of view, I highly recommend it as an excellent, "must have" resource for any writer's personal library.