Spiritual Journaling: Writing Your Way to Independence [Paperback]

Julie Tallard Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 6, 2006

A guide for teens and young adults on the power of creative journaling and its role in enhancing self-discovery and self-awareness

• Provides encouragement for creative writing, self-expression, and self-dialogue

• Includes journaling exercises to inspire creativity and cultivate self-esteem

• By the author of Teen Psychic and The Thundering Years, winner of the 2002 Independent Publisher Book Award for multicultural juvenile nonfiction

Most teens and young adults search for ways to express their individuality and to discover who they are, without being judged. In Spiritual Journaling Julie Tallard Johnson shows that journaling is an informative and supportive outlet for the joys, frustrations, and questions that arise for those making the transition toward their own independent ideas and lives--and a powerful tool for awakening creative potential.

Johnson encourages young people to discover their own unique voices by offering guidance on writing and other forms of self-expression and self-dialogue and on learning how to listen to inner wisdom. As readers move through the book and write in their own personal journals, they gain insight about themselves--knowledge reflected in their own words and the writing of other young people included in the book. The journaling tools provided include meditations, consulting oracles, writing poetry, visualizations, writing rituals, and problem solving around spiritual questions.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up–Having been a journal-writer most of her life, Johnson offers teens this guide to self-discovery. Her advice is to stop seeking the illusion of what is real and instead find the reality within. The book covers 15 topics, including nature, spirit, school, death, and love. Each chapter has inspirational quotes, poems, stories, and discussions and asks questions to encourage personal focus through journaling. The order of the chapters is irrelevant; readers are encouraged to select those that best suit their personal needs. Though this title initially appears religious in nature, it is more specifically about the spirit. It might also interest teachers, parents, counselors, and youth ministers who wish to help young adults find their internal flames.–Jodi Kearns, University of Akron, OH
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Review

"Throughout the book are stories, discussions, and exercises, all aimed at showing us how, through the tool of journaling, we can gain a clear view of our past so that we see where we came from, how we got where we are today, and how we can stay on our individual paths for the future. This book is meant to tear away the illusion of what we are hungry for, and allow us to discover what the real thing is, and how we can get it for ourselves."
(Angelfire.com, April 2006 )

“. . . written with the young adult in mind . . . . Its inventive, different journaling techniques use meditations, oracle consultation, visualization rituals and more to aid the writing process, providing a satisfying mix of new age technique and writing advice.”
(Diane Donovan, California Bookwatch, May 2006 )

“What a wonderful book to help a teen or young adult gain insight into their identity and life's purpose! Lots of writing exercises, but this book is constructed to make these a joy instead of a homework-type chore. . . . Spiritual Journaling: Writing Your Way to Independence is a great book for a young person interested in self-exploration or going through a transition.”
(Galina Pembroke, New View, May 2006 )

"This is a powerful tool for awakening the imaginative voice in any young adult and helping them realize their very own creative potential, truly a priceless gift."
(Vision Magazine, May 2006 )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Bindu Books (March 6, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594770565
• ISBN-13: 978-1594770562
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #176,687 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #48 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Personal Health > Teen Health > Mental Health
  • #70 in Books > Teens > Education & Reference > Social Science
  • #89 in Books > Teens > Education & Reference > Language Arts

More About the Author

AAbout the Author

Julie Tallard Johnson is a licensed psychotherapist who maintains a private healing service, Healing Services Overlooking the River, established in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, in 1995. Here she offers the Wheel of Initiation course, spiritual journaling classes, and one-on-one transpersonal counseling. Her studies and investigation into cognitive-behavioral therapy, mind training, Buddhist philosophy, transpersonal counseling, and group dynamics lead to her development of the Wheel of Initiation and a year-long Initiation course, which she has facilitated since 1998. She employs a multicultural approach in her work, knowing that each person has to find a spiritual practice that is personally relevant for them. In 2008 the land adjacent to her practice was opened up so that others could enjoy its Three-jewel labyrinth, one-acre prairie spiral, and 40 acres of nature paths as a place for meditations and writing retreats.
Julie obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison where she had a double major in sociology and social work. In 1982 she began her career as a social worker and case manager of a program in Minneapolis for those with chronic and persistent mental illness. She soon became supervisor of a new program where she designed and coordinated "friendship circles" for the mentally ill.
While in graduate school at the University of Minnesota at Duluth, she researched self-help and support groups and could not find one that was set up for siblings and adult children of the mentally ill. As a result, she designed and authored The Eight Stage Healing Process for Families and Friends of the Mentally Ill. This book was published by Doubleday in 1989 and Julie toured the United States, Canada, and Australia teaching the eight stages and offering instructions on how to set up a healthy self-help group. She founded the National Siblings Network in the United States through the Alliance of the Mentally Ill, and Australia adopted her eight-stage protocol, incorporating it into their primary national program for families of the mentally ill.
Julie has studied neurolinguistic programming (NLP), cognitive behavioral and rational emotive therapies (RET), as well as mind training. Through her continued studies she came to value narrative therapies (storytelling) in helping others to heal, and she has integrated this dynamic into her own work.
In addition, she is a teacher of Vipassana meditation, which she has also practiced for many years. She took instruction in Rebirthing Breathwork as well as Shamnic Breathwork, Bindu Breathwork™. Along with this she studied and applied mandala work and the healing power of circles, wheels, and mandalas in the transformative process.
Julie is the author of nine books, two for adults and seven for youth.
They are:
Hidden Victims Hidden Healers: An Eight-Stage Process for Friends and Family of the Mentally Ill
Understanding Mental Illness: for Teens Who Care About Someone with Mental Illness
Celebrate You: Building Your Self-Esteem
Making Friends Finding Love
The Thundering Years: Rituals and Sacred Wisdom of Teens
Teen Psychic: Exploring Your Intuitive and Spiritual Powers
I Ching for Teens: Take Charge of Your Destiny with the Ancient Chinese Oracle
Spiritual Journaling: Writing your Way to Independence
The Wheel of Initiation: Practices for Releasing Your Inner Light

Julie has also self-published a manual for group facilitators of the Eight Stage Healing Process. She has received many positive reviews and awards for her books including three Roundtable awards, Best Youth book from New York Library, and the Independent Book award for best multicultural book for youth for The Thundering Years: Rituals and Sacred Wisdom for Teens (His Holiness the Dalai Lama wrote a piece for this book). Her Teen Psychic: Developing Your Intuitive and Spiritual Powers book received a Star Review in Publisher's Weekly and remains one of her most popular books with young readers.
Julie has a monthly blog that she updates regularly, offering readers a means for spiritual inquiry through journaling and meditation. She also writes a column on spirituality for a local newsletter, From the Spirit. She lives with her husband, Bill, and daughter, Lydia, in Spring Green, Wisconsin.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Just for Teens/Young Adults, June 25, 2006

By 

Laurel Reinhardt, Ph.D. (Asheville, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spiritual Journaling: Writing Your Way to Independence (Paperback)

Though Ms. Johnson's most recent books have been aimed at teens (an those adults who are in relationship in some way with teens), this book (though it has a teen on the cover and several writing entries by teens and young adults) is for spiritual seekers of all ages. Neither is it necessary to be extremely comfortable with the process of writing in general, nor journaling in particular, in order to make use of this book's wisdom. It is so accessible, so rich with visual stimulants, quotes, suggestions, and examples that I would defy anyone to open it to any page and not be inspired to move deeper into themselves, be that through writing, "dreaming," ritual, movement, or seeking connection with others, nature, or All That Is. I have personally used and professionally recommended many spiritual journaling books over the years, and this one brings fresh energy and new life to a rather staid genre. Bravo! Kudos to Ms. Johnson and all of her contributors.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A satisfying mix of new age technique and writing advice, May 22, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spiritual Journaling: Writing Your Way to Independence (Paperback)

If you wish to find ways to express individuality without being judged, SPIRITUAL JOURNALING is for you: SPIRITUAL JOURNALING: WRITING YOUR WAY TO INDEPENDENCE is written with the young adult in mind - but it's reviewed here because many an adult won't want to miss its message. Its inventive, different journaling techniques use meditations, oracle consultation, visualization rituals and more to aid the writing process, providing a satisfying mix of new age technique and writing advice.

Diane C. Donovan, Editor

California Bookwatch

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Journaling for teens at its best, June 8, 2007

By 

Orchid Woman (Council Bluffs, IA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Spiritual Journaling: Writing Your Way to Independence (Paperback)

I loved this book and have used it to assist with stimulating teens who are stymied in self-expression. The material presented in this book is comprehensive and includes more themes and open-ended questions for journaling than I can chronicle. In addition, quotes of famous people are inserted to support the themes of each chapter. The book is an excellent tool to be used for assisting teen to till the soil of their lives and unearth blocked feelings that they have been unable to express or were unaware even existed. In addition, the material is presented with a multi-cultural format that honors our global connectedness. Gift someone with this book or use it as a teaching tool with groups. Adults looking for a way to embark upon a desire to journal their feelings would also benefit from its use.