How Journaling to the Heart Began

Hello fellow Travelers, 

Last week I shared with you how Journaling to the Heart Began...the full story is below for those who missed it.

This week I will share with you why, after 10 years is Journaling to the Heart still going strong and why you might want to add the healing art of journal writing to your sacred tool box. The reasons are many, I will write about a few here...

Reasons to Journal...

Writing in a journal  may be used as a place for catharsis. Writing down your thoughts and feelings in a non judgmental place where you can say whatever is on your mind and heart is imperative to living a healthy life. Keeping those thoughts and feelings bottled up, or suppressed within is sure to wreak havoc on your physical body and energy system. Writing unsent letters to people in our lives, situations, and even God, will and does clear out our chakra system like a good cleanse! It allows for us a place to just be real, even when those feelings feel ugly and raw and incredibly dangerous! The journal will just hold the energy and that in and of itself is healing.

The blank pages are inviting you to dare to be real!

Writing in a journal may be used as a place to connect to the divine in you and give voice to your soul. It is a place where you can listen and learn about yourself in an intimate and nonthreatening way. You may ask ~Who am I ?  And receive answers.

Your soul is the timeless part of you that is wise and yet may remain elusive if you do  not give time and space to call it out. Journaling is a way to give space to all aspects of yourself. Your soul, your emotions, your feelings, your thoughts, your hopes, your dreams. It is truly a tool of intimacy. Into Me I See!

The blank pages are inviting you to know yourself!

Writing in a journal is a way to connect. Time and space combine with the physical act of writing provide a true connection between your body, mind and spirit. It is a way to give form to your unique human experience and find a place of connection within yourself, as you listen to your thoughts without judgment and write them down and perhaps read them later. It is a place where you may discover never before uncovered truths about yourself, latent talents, process fears, and feel the depth and breadth of your spirit as it communicates to you through your pen.

The blank pages are inviting you to dive in.

Writing in a journal is a homework assignment I often give to my clients. For a variety of reasons, your spirit usually LOVES when you take pen to paper and give the blank page your thoughts, feelings and expressions. It is a tool that is available to all who can write and find paper and pen. So it knows no prejudice, no boundaries and you do not have to have any special pass to journal. The journaling experience is cathartic, communicative, connecting, healing, inspiring, encouraging, scary, challenging, intimate, soul seeking and it is a place where you are eternally honored for being YOU.

For me personally journaling has saved my life, over and over again. It has been a place for me to process my life journey. It has been with me through all of my life's ups and downs, twists and turns. Always present and always available. It is a trusted friend and therapist and has led me into myself in ways that are exceedingly priceless and eternally valuable. Journal writing is a spiritual practice and a healing practice. It is the way I connect with my spirit and my emotions and find the interconnectedness of my whole being. It started as a way to keep note of the daily activities, then grew into a place to reflect, pray, be in gratitude, cry, grieve, complain, encourage and commune. It is all of that and more still.

Would you like to try it? I have put together a pdf of some journaling rules of engagement and a few writing prompts~ check it out if interested. You can access the file here. or you may go to www.marydagostino/journaling to the heart page here and access the pdf by clicking on the link half way through the page. 

I encourage you to use this sacred tool. 

Please let me know if I can be of assistance in sharing this tool with you!  Forward questions here marydagostino@comcast.net.

Blessings for a week of introspection and LOVE!

Mary

2015 Important Updates! Read on~

NEW JOURNALING CLASSES STARTING IN APRIL~ Begin Again Create yourself ANEW

Journaling to the Heart Class is looking for a few good Journalers!!

What is Journaling to the Heart? And is it for you?

Journaling to the Heart weekly class is a small intimate class group who gather to support each other in self discovery via journal writing. Mary holds sacred and safe space in which you may explore various themes related to your personal growth, insight, self discovery, and joy. You may attend each week or drop in. We start a new series each month with a new theme. No writing experience necessary at all!! Each class you are given writing prompts that assist you in connecting to your inner voice, heart and soul. 

TWO ways to join in. In person - Tuesday evenings in Fort Collins OR on line via your computer Wednesday evenings.

Journaling to the Heart in person is held each Tuesday from 7-9 pm at Heart of Gaia in Fort Collins.

Journaling to the Heart on line is held each Wednesday 5:30-7:30 MT via google hangouts. 

Currently our Tuesday evening class has 3 openings and our Wednesday evening class has 2 openings. We meet each week unless there is a holiday. 

Here is what present and former journaling to the Heart participants have to say~

“Journaling to the Heart has given me inspiration and tools to look within myself to find answers to my long sought after questions. Mary has provided a safe, sacred space for us all to come together and share our deepest dreams, desires, and challenges, a place filled with support and love. One of the best things I ever did for myself was to buy a journal and open my heart!”
-J.R.

“Journaling allows me to ground and center myself and reminds me to be conscious of my larger purpose. Journaling has opened up new worlds of expression, possibility and spirituality for me. I feel as if journaling has given me my life back, but a better, more complete life in which I see myself and everything around me in a completely new and reverent way.” JC 

“My participation in Journaling to the Heart has changed my life in significant ways.  One of the biggest obstacles in my life has been the ability to trust.  I have often felt alone and isolated, dealing with issues swirling inside my head with no perspective or relief.  Internally, learning to journal in various ways has focused my thoughts and helped calm the "noise" that gets in the way of honest feeling and choosing a healthy direction.  It has helped me become aware of my own inner guidance and wisdom that I had not ever really listened to.  Journaling to the Heart has truly been a key element in helping me create the life I was meant to lead.” L.S.

Come try it out! New Classes are forming now for a start date of March 31 for Tuesdays and April 1 for Wednesdays. Pass on this info~

go to my website for more info and to enroll or  call me!!

Mary

This is how it all began...CHECK OUT HOW JOURNALING TO THE HEART BEGAN 

Journaling to the Heart is truly near and dear to me, for it is the very first class/workshop I offered through my Healing Arts Business. Its conception was nothing short of destiny meets synchronicity.

As most of you know, my son George  (third of my five children) was born with a serious congenital heart defect. He required open heart surgery at 11 days of age and extensive hospital stays.

Over the course of the years, I knew I would some day give back, in my own way, to the community of devoted and dedicated medical professionals who saved his life. I would also give support to other parents who were going through the devastating ordeal of having a child in need of intensive medical care.

The way in which I am able to move through some of the most painful and trying experiences of my life is to keep myself grounded in how the experience is stretching me, opening my own heart and giving me an awareness of the precious and fleeting importance of life and love. I try to be present as best I could for myself during the trying experience and let it open me up. I've had to call in the power of my spirit and the power of the spirit of life as it weaves itself through my experiences. I've found a new faith and trust in the deeper meaning of life for myself.  This is no easy feat and it requires much fortitude and persistence as well as surrender and acceptance. I do choose to see life's varying experiences as learning and growing opportunities and one thing I have discovered is how both resilient and fragile life is, I am.
    

Sixteen years and many experiences after my son's birth and surgery,  I ended up living in Colorado and George began to see the cardiac specialists at Denver Children's Hospital. George was doing well and I felt ready to see where I could give back. I began the process of becoming a parent volunteer at the hospital. I signed up to help support other parent's of children with CHD.   I went to meetings to learn more, completed the various and sundry testing ( screening, background checks, immunizations), and waited. I was told I would get a call to be placed. I waited for the calls, but nothing happened.  Each time I called the volunteer department to follow up,  it seemed as if they didn't know I existed. The volunteer coordinator lost my info, didn't know who I was, etc. I questioned if this was the right thing for me to do, but I knew it was, so I held on to my desire to be of service and waited.  Then, one day months later I got a call from The March of Dimes. They were starting a pilot program at Denver Children's Hospital for parents of children in the neonatal intensive care unit. They were given my name (by someone, somewhere) and wanted to know if I would hold journaling classes for the parents while their children were in the NICU. They heard I was a novelist, writer and a journaling facilitator. I was a writer, yes and had journaled since I was 10 but never facilitated a journaling workshop or class. I have no idea how they got this info. 

The only explanation was divine intervention together with the yearning of my "entrepreneurial spirit"! When you are acting from your heart, your truth, your desire to serve and create, life will take you where you need to go!

I said YES to the opportunity of course,  and the rest is history. I held the group at Children's Hospital for just a short while and then started holding workshops in Fort Collins through the Senior Center, Recreation Department, at various health and wellness centers, at Women's Symposiums, Girl Scout Troups, Retreat Centers, and my Healing Arts Center. This offering started as my desire to give back and has truly created a container for many to be served and for my work to flourish.

Journaling to the Heart has been ongoing with a core group for over ten years and always has room for others to join in! Many journalers have come and gone and many return. I am dedicated to providing this sacred and inspirational space for a long time to come.  

The serendipitous way that Journaling to the Heart manifested has continued to support all of my endeavors and offerings as a Healing Arts Professional and business entrepreneur. 

This is my one of the ways I give back and one of the ways I assist you in coming home to yourself, to learn, grow and realize the truly unique and beautiful human being you are! 

Join in if you feel called.

Namaste, Mary