Practice: Journaling

This is one of the most popular and accessible personal enrichment tools. Writing regularly in a journal encourages you to see life experiences and emotions more clearly, to better understand your own behavior, and explore your attitudes. Here are some journal exercises to get you started exploring love.

• Write or draw a tribute to a love of your life. It can be a person, a pet, a place, or a time you felt loved. Use colors, symbols, and metaphors to convey your feelings for and experience of the object of your love.
• English poet Rupert Brooke once cataloged all the things he loved most in life. Among those on his list: "white plates and cups, cleaning-gleaming, ringed with blue lines; wet roofs beneath the lamplight; and hair that is shiny and free." Make a list of people, animals, things, and qualities in yourself and others that you love most. Ask family and friends to share things they love with you.
• Describe a moment when you felt truly loved. What was it about that experience that made you feel loved?
• Describe something you witnessed that showed you the meaning of love.

This practice was developed for the Fetzer Institute by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, directors of Spirituality & Practice.