The Writing Shed

About The Writing Shed

http://jessicamaggiebrophy.com

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One Word as Journal Entry

 

I love what Elizabeth Gilbert asks us as women creators in _Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear_: “Do you have the courage to bring forth the treasures that are hidden within you?”

A “moment,” a “rebirth,” a “nest,” a “cocoon.” These words all come to mind when I think of the “seed I planted” for this shed shortly after my marital separation. 4 years later, and it is a real thing.

The shed is having a moment! The roof trusses are on and all four walls are standing!

And the “one word” journal entry is actually a thing. It’s not just the Zen Buddhist who gets to simplify! Try this for your next journal entry:


One Word (Beginning of Day Matin): Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and be still. Write one word on your wall, desk, or computer describing the feeling, energy, or task you would like to have in the foreground during your day today. Share here as a comment if you would like.



or



One Word (End of Day Vesper): Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and be still. When the day has come to an end, write one word describing the outcome, method, or process you achieved in your day today. Share here as a comment if you would like.

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Fake it Till You Make It?

What’s in a photo? What’s in a moment to get the perfect shot? Let me fix my hair, let me get “on my good side,” let me take off my hat, let me point my toe to make my legs look longer. Let me fix my posture. Are my tits up?

What would your body say if it was acting as if it were on stage?

Would it “fake it’ til you made it”?

Glib advice, suggesting that inauthenticity is key to success.

But what about just acting as if you were already successful?

Here’s a journaling prompt to celebrate someone you are becoming–

Write a letter to your future self who has already accomplished ___________ (fill in the blank):

–Praise your future self.
–Congratulate her on the specific steps it took.
–Acknowledge how she overcame the challenges.

Brain Fact: Behavioral rehearsals are excellent ways to mentally and emotionally prepare yourself for positive change. By imagining your wins in the future, you’re on your way!

–Journaling prompt taken from _Journal to the Self_ card deck by Kathleen Adams

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What Happens at a Women’s Journaling Group?

Maybe you are wondering what to expect when you come together to journal with other women. You think: Will I have to share? Will I get writer’s block? Can I make a new friend? Do I have to bring my own paper and pen? Will it be like writing an essay in high school (the time where I procrastinated until hours before the deadline)?

Trying to describe the magic that happens when women get together to journal together is difficult, but I will do my best:

First, we get cozy with each other. We break the ice. We talk in a circle. We “show and tell” our lives.

You should bring your favorite pen and notebook. 

Me move on to journaling warm-ups together (2-5 minutes) to release our nerves and whatever has built-up in our brainbodies for that day already.

Then we write for longer stretches (maybe 7 – 15 minutes) to uncover something a little deeper about ourselves.

Sometimes, we learn a new journaling tool to add to our toolkit (e.g., the time capsule tool; the captured moment tool).

Then we share. If you want to read your writing, you can. If you want to keep it close to your heart, that is perfect too.

Either way, you will feel the power of journaling together. You will feel seen and heard. I don’t know if it’s the sound of the pens scribbling together, or hearing your story in the story of another woman, or just being intentional about doing something good for ourselves, but a powerful alchemy swirls once the writing happens!

After a natural pause of sharing, we close the circle.

We take the feelings of connection and belonging with us.

We end by sharing a drink or meal. We take the newfound self-knowledge with us into our everyday lives. We give thanks for doing it with other women who supported us, even if it were for that brief hour or so together.

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On the [Pleasure] Bias

I’m excited to share a shift in focus at The Writing Shed. I will still offer journaling workshops, but they will be geared towards women who are done feeling guilty and want to write themselves out of a world of “shoulds” into a world of “I’d love to’s.”

The English language does not have a word like the French do—joie de vivre—joy of living. I think ebullient, afterglow, and delight offer a similar spirit to joie de vivre. But maybe you’ve heard that enjoying life can also mean you are somehow abandoning reality or sitting on a bed of roses in a delirious state?

I am a women who believes in food, the body, nature, travel, and relationships.

At The Writing Shed, pleasure is an “8 letter word.” We will write about the things that delight us and use writing as an act of deviant playfulness. We will also explore why guilt is a first-response, rather than what feels good.

Future workshops will be on the pleasure bias. Wonder fortifies us in tough times; connects us to our inner child and children; makes us content with the everyday things; fights the tyranny of boredom and monotony; helps us express our full earth-bound humanity.

A friend’s Instagram story asked me: Are you torn between changing the world and simply enjoying it?

What if you could change the world simply by enjoying it?

I believe in the power of writing to bring us pleasure, emotional ease, and authentic expression. If this new focus speaks to you, please send me a quick note on IG or in the Comments below.

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She Wants More Beauty

She is an overworked woman, that professional, who is a mom, and a wife, and a daughter, and dog parent, and the PTA treasurer. She feels selfish for taking time for herself. She thinks that self-care does not apply to her in this busy season of her life.

She scoffs at the idea that she should take time to reflect, sit down, and open up to herself. She doesn’t know what it means to speak softly and sweetly to herself. To even say the word soft feels strange and forced, definitely forced.

She is okay with using the word should. Actually, the word should feels so satisfying to her. It is clean and efficient and linear. She can get from A to B. But to wander? To move in a spiral around something that is important to her over and over again? No. she thinks she doesn’t have time for that.

She thinks that she can keep moving at the pace she is.

But oh how she longs for a happiness that she defines. How she longs for a life with less to-dos. She longs to be in her body, her heart, but right now it just feels tense, like an ox carrying a yoke, doing all the work for the family. She wants more beauty, and the pleasure that comes from doing nothing. The softness of her own insides.

At The Writing Shed, we believe in the power of writing to bring us pleasure, emotional ease, and authentic expression. 

Want to join the community? Check out details about the next journaling lunch here. 

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What Brings You Pleasure?

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What do you take pleasure in? How have you transformed? Tell us in the comments 👇.

Maybe you enjoy the peanut butter and jelly aisle, whenever someone says “rose water,” or when someone asks a really good question? Or maybe it’s the moonbeam on your mattress last night, a freshly baked scone, or a new pair of panties?

Or Is it in, as Anais Nin shares, in your own evolution–from one woman to another or one woman who takes pieces of herself and keeps coming up with some new version of herself? Or a woman who looks recognizable to outsiders (as someone they can understand), but inside is an eclectic composite of many selves (not tied in a neat bow for others to figure out)?

I have been a Jessie, a Jehoshaphat, a Marge, a Maggie, a Brophy, a priss, a know-it-all, a doctor, a darling.

I have known transformations–from a compliant daughter to the clan’s pattern-breaker; from a woman who self-loathed her face to a sensuous woman who loves herself with and without makeup; a late bloomer to a blooming mother; an abused wife to a bad-ass partner; a stiff poetry writer to a spilling out journaler; a fierce single mom to an energized co-parent.

And to know, I will keep changing and birthing new things, that brings me delight. Self-transformations, Anais Nin? I am in awe of those.

Name what brings you delight below or name one of your transformations below 👇 !

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Softness and Getting to Know Ourselves

Women tell me they want more softness in their lives.

They tell me that practicing yoga, saying “no,” or  connecting to their feminine energy can help them. 

I affirm these practices, and I say . . .

What if learning more about your censor could also bring softness?

What if you attuned to that voice inside of you that says, “Don’t do that. That is wrong. You should be doing this.” 

What if learning about this censor helps you notice those conflicts that cause stress or hardness?

This state of mindful awareness can bring silence, clarity about what is true, and order to the chaos. 

Here is a journaling prompt to help you observe conflict:

Any time we actively like or dislike something about another person, it’s likely because it’s mirroring something we like or dislike about ourselves. Write a brief description of someone with whom you’re feeling conflict, describing the behavior (opinions, attitude, worldview) of the other. Then reflect on what you see in the other that you deny in yourself, or how the other echoes something in you that you have grown beyond, or where the other is representing something that goes against your core values.

Prompt taken from Journal to the Self Card Deck by Kathleen Adams

 

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Meditation on Love

I feel selfish when . . .

I am doing something fun for myself, like journaling, listening to records, or getting a massage.

I feel selfish when . . .

I am taking a swim and my kids are getting mac and cheese again from Papa.

I feel selfish when . . .

I sign up for an art class even though my child expressed interest in it too!

Does this sound like you?

AND are you done feeling guilty and want to write yourself out of a world of should’s into a world of I would love to’s?

Here is a journaling prompt on self-love: Choose a gentle ringtone for your phone time (I like piano or the harp), and then set it for three minutes. Close your eyes, take deep breaths, and meditate on love–in the abstract, in the particular, in the past/future/present. Immerse yourself in loving thoughts, memories, aspirations. When the timer rings, re-set it for seven minutes, and then free-write a meditation on love.

This prompt is taken from the Journal to the Self card deck written by Kathleen Adams.

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Mending Plates: Building to Repair

The Writing Shed floor is under snow and hibernating for the winter, but we are managing to still get a little work done in the workshop. We are building roof trusses and securing them with mending plates. I am banging away in the video to secure the mending plates on the seams of the roof trusses. Andrew is turning over the trusses so we can put mending plates on both sides of the joints. We made 6 and have 1 more to go!

A truss is a framework, supporting a structure. A truss is a support. Mending plates secure the joints of the trusses. Mending plates secure the aches, the depressions, the vulnerable places. Trust me. Homemade is best.

As I spent time in the workshop with Remi and Andrew, I couldn’t help but think about what love isn’t. It doesn’t tear down the joints. It does mend. It doesn’t leave the vulnerable places open to collapse. It supports a structure that wants to exist in the first place.

It feels so good to be included in the physical act of building a roof that will support my love of writing and to help create a family where we make each other feel safe, soft, and cared for. It has not always been this way. I have known the tearing down of all that was good in me. I was in a marriage that swatted away my thoughts and feelings like dead flies. I was a young woman who used to hate her face. I kept going back to family relationships that were no good for me. I know what the good life is now. This is the homemade life. This is the slow way. This is the mending place.

How do you mend?

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Student Wellness & CNM News Article

It was fun being interviewed by CNM News! We discussed my partnership with Wellness CNM and facilitating journaling workshops for student wellness.

Thank you to Director Mia Mendoza for partnering with me and writer Alaina Africano for a great article!

Our final workshop of the semester at CNM is next Tuesday at noon on Zoom!

You can read the full article at:
https://www.cnm.edu/news/how-this-cnm-instructor-uses-journaling-workshops-to-help-students-manage-stress

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