I am super excited to share with you this Q & A with Jennifer Lee, author of The Right-Brain Business Plan.  She is a fellow journal junkie and has been a huge source of inspiration to me!  Soak up what she has to say about journaling, creative business and what she does for her sanity!  Meet Jennifer Lee!  She is a certified coach, writer, artist, yogini, and the founder of Artizen Coaching. 
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I’ve heard that you are a journal junkie yourself...
Yes, I am a fan of journaling, especially in the morning just to clear my head.

When did you start journaling?
When I was about 7-years-old my grandma bought me a pink journal with colorful hearts all over it from a Hello Kitty store. I would write in it whenever I was excited or upset about something. At some point during my early teens and young adulthood, I stopped journaling because I was afraid someone would read what I wrote. And then it was probably around 1999 that I started to write in a journal again and did it even more consistently when I started working with my first coach in 2000.

How does journaling play a part in your life and business?
Journaling helps me get the junk out of my head when I first wake up. I don’t do it every single day, but for the most part, I’m pretty consistent. It helps me work through challenges or issues I’m facing by just writing out what I’m thinking or feeling. I also use journaling to help remind me of the things that are going well and I’ll tend to write a lot of affirmations. As for how it helps me in my business, sometimes I’ll get sparks of inspiration while I’m journaling or in the middle of the night and I capture it in my journal.

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Did you journal through the process of writing the Right-Brain Business Plan book?  If so, how did it support you?
Yes, I kept my regular journal as I was writing my book. The process of writing and marketing a book has certainly stretched me in ways I never could have anticipated, so journaling helped me work through those challenges.

I also did intuitive painting while I was doing my book proposal and writing. Having these larger-than-life images from my imagination reflected back to me was also helpful in working through different roadblocks during the writing process.
How can journaling help in the process of writing a business plan?
Dig through your journals to find nuggets that might be your next business idea.

Sometimes people get hung up with the formal writing style that they think needs to go into a business plan, but if you’re doing a business plan just for yourself, then hey, why not write in the same way you write in your journal?

One of my past e-Course participants, Tori Deaux of The Circus Serene, wrote a love letter to her perfect customers and that ended up helping her define her target market and gave her actual copy to use on her website.

What are the top 3 things you do for your sanity as you birth new business ideas?
1. Practice Self-Care Fridays – no meetings except with my inner muse, a masseuse or nail salon.

2. Lean on my Nurture Huddle for emotional support, brainstorming, and accountability.

3. Get as much out of my head and on to paper as possible in fun, visual, and tactile ways.
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What advice do you have for Right-Brainers who have a book idea of their own?
Start collecting all of your journal pages, chicken scratch, notes, e-mails, and documents you have about your idea. You’ll be surprised how much existing material you have to work with. Organize it and use that to start from instead of trying to start from a blank page.

I highly recommend working with a book coach to help you flesh out your ideas further and to hold you accountable to the writing process.

Keep writing!!

Where do we get all the juicy details about your book, etc?
You can visit http://www.rightbrainbusinessplan.com to see info about the book and other resources to help you with your business.

Thank you Jennifer!!  Enjoy, share and be inspired everyone!  Here's to the creative dreams that live inside you waiting to be revealed with pen and paper!
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Suzanne, a Journaling Lounge member posted this today and I had to share! Enjoy her inspiring and timely journal entry! Be sure to check out who she is and what she does - AMAZING! http://www.timeforu.net
I'm all about reflection and mappping this week, looking at where I've been and consciously deciding where I want to go next. Tonight I am meeting with a friend for vision boarding. First, we plan to have a review of each other's 2010 vision boards. It's enlightening for me to have a trusted friend inject her perspective into my perception of my experiences. Then, we will set out to create our 2011 vision boards.

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I've been playing around with how I feel about 2010. To put it as PG-13 as I can... it was a bitch of a year. At the close of this time, I can be in a place of extreme gratitude about how things turned out and where my life is in this present moment, but living through the last 365 was, at times, crushingly difficult. I almost wrote "soul crushing" but that's not right at all. "Ego crushing" would be more accurate, I suppose. Nevertheless, I've been doing a little journaling in my recently procured 2011 Goddess Guidebook (Big thanks to Syda, for turning me on to this amazing creation) and in the section Celebrating & Releasing 2010 at the prompt that read: "I know myself now more because...", I found myself writing:

I was stripped bare and all alone and I not only survived but thrived (at times). I played in my fears and everything really was okay.

Then, this morning I called SARK's inspiration hotline (as she posted on facebook that a new message awaited there) and something she said further clarified... no... solidified my thoughts and feelings about 2010.

IN THE LOST AND BROKEN PLACES, I FOUND MYSELF.

Big thanks to SARK (I so love her).

Moving on to 2011... My Numerology has me moving into a three year which I'm fairly excited about and I've decided that I shall endeavor to exude and bask in joy... to feel exuberant and supported... to invoke and create in sacred space over and over and over again. It's a tall order for me and I am committing to supporting myself on this journey.

This week, in preparation, I changed my ringtone to Three Dog Night's "Joy to the World"

JEREMIAH WAS A BULLFROG
WAS A GOOD FRIEND OF MINE
NEVER UNDERSTAND A SINGLE WORD HE SAID BUT I HELPED HIM DRINK HIS WINE...AND HE ALWAYS HAD SOME MIGHTY FINE WINE

JOY TO THE WORLD
ALL THE BOYS AND GIRLS
JOY TO THE FISHES IN THE DEEP PLUE SEA
JOY TO YOU AND ME

So fun!!! I think it's a good start.

SARK also talked about the New Year and traditional thoughts about New You. She thinks it's just as important to focus on the Old You. The terrific parts of you that you bring forward into the New. I love this. There are certainly things about myself I want to work on... improve... grow into AND I am willing to recognize there are many things about who I am inherently that I cherish and now am prepared to fully acknowledge.

All my newness (new ideas, new projects, new plans, new aspects of myself emerging) are all supported and enhanced by the parts of me already here. I honor the old and the new.

Happy New Year Loungers!
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Suzanne Wigginton
Time For You...Wellness Experiences
http://www.timeforu.net

Thank you Suzanne!

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I experienced a moment of pure, raw self-expression the other night and was actually quite shocked after it happened...I experienced being so fully in the moment that there were literally no, zilch, nada thoughts of consideration or worry about what others might think - note...it felt nothing short of a miracle.

I was sitting under the stars with dear friends...something had me get up and walk somewhere in the yard to do something (don't remember what that was ;-) the next moment before I even realized what I was doing I was on my 6 year old's bike cruising back to the gathering of friends with a huge smile on my face...showing up in pure, raw expression of me! We all had the biggest smiles...and someone said "you should show up that way more often!" It was pure bliss and I am still basking in the glow of it - and joyfully anticipating more moments like this!

What are your thoughts about or moments of pure, raw expression of YOU? Share them with us! Explore this idea in your journal...In what ways do you like to have fun, express yourself, be creative or play? How often do you give yourself permission to play? Often enough? Look to your childhood and the things you loved for clues! I can't wait to hear from you!
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