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About Susan Brassfield Cogan
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Blog postWhere are we going with this?
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Blog postDeciding what to do next
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Blog postSelf-management and the Coaching Mindset
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Blog postWritten by Jim Crow to preserve the brutality of Jim Crow
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Blog postIf you ignore reality, it will eat you alive.
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Blog postThe police need to scrub their departments
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Blog postYour heritage can kiss my fanny
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Blog postYou only thought it was over
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Blog postThe text in this journal is a modernized version of very ancient verses originally attributed to the Buddha. The Buddha didn't mince words when telling people what they needed to know to reach happiness and these simple verses are very dear to the hearts of Buddhists everywhere.
How to Use this Journal
Of course, you can use this journal any way you like! You can scribble limericks, keep grocery lists, or review old television shows.
But! You can use each p -
Blog post“I don’t write. When I text, it looks like ‘C U @ 8.’ I’ll call somebody before I leave them a note. Journaling is not for me.”
Writing is talking on paper. You talk all the time. You probably talked during the above-mentioned phone call.
Handwriting is awkward until your hand relaxes and starts doing what you want without being told. That’s what it’s like after you get used to it and it happens a lot faster than you think. You think of something to say and the pencil or pen writes i -
Blog postFrom Tod Brison:
Journaling never felt like progress. I could never do it consistently, and if I had to write one more feeling about myself, I would have thrown up.
So instead, I tried something different.
If you’ve gone through a similar experience, I suggest something I call “micro-journaling.” It takes a lot less time and effort and still gives me the mental boost I need to get started.
read the rest here:
https://www.toddbrison.com/mi -
Blog postFrom the The Peabody Essex Museum blog:
Commonplace comes from the Latin term locus communis, which refers to a theme of general application, such as a statement of proverbial or familiar wisdom. Typically, creators of commonplace books would have one or several themes for which they sought information from a variety of sources; such information would be recorded, regularly reviewed by the owner of the book, and/or shared with others who had similar interests. An article in The New -
Blog postFrom QuinCreative Blog:
Journaling is something that heals. Writing lets you remember and lets you forget. Remember fading memories and forget old hurts by writing them down and letting them go. It’s not always easy to keep a journal, so why do it? Who cares? Who will ever look at all that writing? The answer is simple: this is your life. You are keeping track of it. Your journals are not for your children to admire, your friends to share, and strangers to copy.
The jou -
Blog postBook hand made with fabric and vintage ribbon and buttons by Molly Jean Hobbit. Her work takes my breath away!
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Blog postWhere would you like to travel?
Not just the location, but why. What do you expect to find there? What are you afraid of finding there? and most of all--what's keeping you from getting there? -
Blog postFive Things to do Less Often:
Everybody has bad habits. They have stuff they do that would be good in moderation but really bad when you do too much. Explain why you want to do less of each thing on your list. Remember to be gentle! -
Blog postWrite about your favorite place.
This can be a place from your childhood or a place where you hang out now. Write about it in such a way that you can taste it, smell it and feel it. Tell about the colors and textures, the background noises. And above all, explain why you love it. -
Blog postI could not find an attribution for this image or discover the name of the artist who made these little journals but they are incredibly lovely.
Hand-made journals are exciting and beautiful--and surprisingly easy. I'll talk about that more in the future, but for now, enjoy. These are a feast for the eyes! -
Blog postThe diary of William Viers Bouic, kept from 1867-1870 Having trouble getting started with your journal? You have a beautiful blank book. You have a splendidly blank page. You have a combination of performance anxiety and shyness. A sense of walking into a strange room where nobody knows you. Who are you? What are you doing here? How can you spoil those lovely white pages. What if your writing sucks?
Try free writing:Free writing is a prewriting technique in which a person write -
Blog postIn a previous post I suggested you use your journal to write a future biography.
A future biography can be difficult if you don't know what you want to do when you grow up. Finding your dream is a lot of fun ... once you get started. But how do you get those juices flowing? How do you prime the pump? I found a wonderful list of questions to help you get started over at Creative Dream Incubator:Creative Journal Prompts for Finding Your Dream:I feel happiest when:
I wish -
Blog postAn absolutely beautiful journal! I like to make journals but this is way out beyond my skills. You can find it and its brethren here:
ItsDesignsByJo -
Blog postA page from one of DaVinci's journalsI found the History Chanel's website called "On This Day" that delivered a wonderful surprise for today:On this day in 1980, American oil tycoon Armand Hammer pays $5,126,000 at auction for a notebook containing writings by the legendary artist Leonardo da Vinci. The manuscript, written around 1508, was one of some 30 similar books da Vinci produced during his lifetime on a variety of subjects. It contained 72 loose pages featuring some 300 not
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Blog postEmily Dickinson wrote the title of this post. I wish I was that smart!
Today's journal prompt is to write about the moments you enjoyed in the last week, as many as you remember.
Every week, every day has moments that we were uncomfortable and moments that were happy. Tiny moments like the first sip of coffee or a funny commercial on TV. Noticing little moments like that is what makes life rich. Things like that slip by unseen. They are so tiny. But tiny things are impo -
Blog postThe Diary of Samuel PepysThursday 27 November 1662
At my waking, I found the tops of the houses covered with snow, which is a rare sight, that I have not seen these three years.
Up, and put my people to perfect the cleaning of my house, and so to the office, where we sat till noon; and then we all went to the next house upon Tower Hill, to see the coming by of the Russia Embassador; for whose reception all the City trained-bands do attend in the streets, and the King’s -
Blog postby an unknown artist who is not meI love art journals. I'm a huge fan of mixed media collage, especially with a liberal sprinkling of words. On the other hand, I find art journals to be completely intimidating. I like to draw, but don't do it very well.
And I know that the journals that you see on Pinerest are not first efforts. Those books are by professional artists and they are not showing you the pages they did when they were first learning to draw or were having an off day. It' -
Blog postWrite a future biography.
"If you don't know where you are going, you are going to arrive there anyway." I don't know who originally said it and I'm not sure I'm quoting them accurately. It's a meme I saw somewhere, probably on Facebook. But, goodness gracious, it's true.
Drifting through life is very easy and comfortable. There isn't really anything wrong with it BUT (and there's always a "but") it's not juicy and exiting. It d -
Blog postDear Diary:
Today I did the laundry most of the morning, had lunch with Mom and then shopped for shoes. Jack called and reminded me about Saturday.
Journal Entry:
I've been so focused on work I realized this morning I haven't done laundry in two weeks. The laundry basket has been sitting there, stuffed to the gills, and staring at me accusingly for days. So I did that.
I had lunch with Mom and we had a great talk. The lab tests were all negative so we had c -
Blog postDiary of Henriette Dessaulles, 1874One of the best reasons to keep a journal is finding out how you really feel about something.
Journals don't give advice, frown at you or lecture you about how you OUGHT to be feeling. Pick a topic that's been bothering you lately and really air it out. Too often we just bury things we're guilty about feeling. We bury our stuff in television, work, video games, or high-fat, high-sugar food. Your journal isn't going to be disappointed in you or argu -
Blog postI have to admit I'm partial to the spiral bound versions of the journals. I like a journal that lays flat, especially when I'm drawing. Lulu.com handles all the spiral bound version of the journals.
Lulu.com is offering free postage until Nov. 4! enter code USMAIL11 (case-sensitive) at checkout to get free mail shipping -
Blog postSudarshan V"When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky." ~ Buddha
Of course, Buddha said nothing of the sort. This appears to be a sort of rephrasing of part of a Buddhist poem:Since everything is but an illusion,
Perfect in being what it is,
Having nothing to do with good or bad,
Acceptance or rejection,
One might as well burst out laughing! from chapter 1 of The Great Perfection’s Self-Liberation in -
Blog post"Commonplace book mid 17th century" by Beinecke Flickr Laboratory Commonplace books are almost journals but not quite. They are filled with anything you want to remember, quotes, lists, pictures, recipes. They are almost but not quite a scrap book.
They reason commonplace books don't quite make journal status is because they were almost never used to discuss the entries. I might throw a recipe in my journal but I'll talk about it, why I like it, what I'd change about -
Blog postAn eleastic band is vital to any good working journal. Many journals come with them and most do not. Mine don't (darn it!) so here is an instructional video.
Why is an elastic band vital?
Because it's extremely important to trap a pen or pencil inside the journal. Nothing kills the journaling urge like ransacking your house looking for something to write with! -
Blog postIf your great grandmother had kept a journal what would you have liked to read?
These ladies were born sometime between 1910 and 1915. One of them could be your grandmother, your great grandmother or your great-great grandmother. If you could phone the past and ask one of them to keep a journal so one of their descendants could read it, she would probably giggle and tell you she had nothing to write. She lives a perfectly boring and ordinary life. She cooks and sews, cans fruit and
Titles By Susan Brassfield Cogan
