Don't Write!
by Nan Fischer

This idea originally came from a workshop I attend regularly.  It is one of my favorites!

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If you journal every day, pick a day to not write. If you don't journal daily, pick a day ahead of time and make yourself write. This sounds easy, but it's a challenge. I write daily, and I chose a Sunday to not write. It was hard to not put that pen on paper and spew my thoughts over coffee! The day wore on and I wanted to write SO BAD!! But I couldn't. Here's the journal entry from first thing the next morning.

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2/14/00 I picked Sunday not to write....

Well, it sort of picked me. With 2 kids here at 9:30AM visiting for several hours, I couldn't even think, let alone write. But after they left and took my kids with them in the afternoon, and I had decided to let Sunday be my no-write day, I had a hard time staying away from the paper and pen. My mind, with the sudden silence of no children playing, was reeling, and I desperately wanted to write. Today I'm not sure what all those thoughts were, but I needed to express at the moment. So I decided to do some artwork. Collage wasn't appealing. But, and I found this interesting, I needed to DRAW. I needed a pencil and paper, since I wasn't writing. It felt so good to put numbers and words on an 18"x24" pad of paper in colored pencil. Very free - expressing what there may not even have been words FOR! I've added to it since then, like I do with all my artwork. But after getting the initial words on the page, I felt I'd expressed and I could move on to something more external, like watching a movie. Hard not to express when I'm home alone for many hours.

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If this sounds like I was writing, rest assured I wasn't. I drew the words "Hawaii" and "butterscotch" on the page and spent much time coloring them in. Then I added appropriate numbers in the same way, and some triangles. These were all pertinent to a situation in my life at the time that I had been extensively writing about. As the situation changed, I added phrases and questions. I hung it on the wall over my desk. It was quite colorful and pleasing to the eye, and a reminder that I don't always have to write to express eloquently.

Other ways to "not write" are to draw, sketch, make a collage, sing, dance, go for a walk and bring back three things to meditate on (such as a rock, a leaf, a thought about the air or scenery), cook, remember a dream, read a published diary, read something inspirational. The list goes on. Be sure to write about your observations the next day, as that journal entry is the end of the exercise and can be very insightful.

So....... pick your day, and don't write until the following day.

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