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What inspires you?
Published September 3, 2010 | 
When you are writing in your journal tonight or meditating or taking your walk, consider what inspires you. When are the times that something within you just lights up? Focusing on inspiration really puts us in touch with the good stuff: the things that matter and bring us to life and serve ours and the world’s greater good…
Perhaps write a list of things, people, or times that pop into your mind when you have been inspired.
For example, this would be my current “inspiration list”:
- When I am not thinking about anything in particular but then something just “hits” me. A light bulb turns on out of seemingly nowhere…
- Photographs, images will inspire me
- People: particularly kind, loving, selfless acts from others or a beautiful smile or gentle touch
- My young students (I am a second grade teacher)
- Nature and animals
- Books and blogs
- Newspaper or magazine articles
- An energy that wells up within me and nudges me to be my best, live my best life
- My friends and family
- Walks on the beach
- Moonlight
- Poetry and literature
You never know when you will get your next inspiration. Be open to inspirational sources. They are all around you.
Debra 
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Working on the physical, mental, and big picture paths to restful sleep: The Mission of the Warm Milk Journal
Published August 8, 2010 | 
The mission of The Warm Milk Journal is to offer support to live your best life possible and sleep as restfully as you can at night.
I see three areas in dealing with insomnia and fulfilling our mission: 1. The physical causes and symptoms of insomnia 2.The mental and emotional issues that cause or are caused by insomnia. 3. The bigger picture: the connection between how well we live our life by day and how well we sleep at night.
- Physical causes of insomnia: There are circumstances, some we can control and some we can not that may cause our insomnia. We may live near a train track or airport runway, we have a snoring partner, we are in pain from injury or disease, we work a night shift, etc.
- Mental and emotional causes of insomnia: Anxiety, worry, panic disorder, anger, resentment, fear, conflict, crisis, grieving the death of a loved one, going through a divorce, studying for the Bar exam, etc. are all things that can negatively affect our sleep at night as well.
- The bigger picture: the connection between how we live our life during the day and how well we sleep at night. I call this the bigger picture because we can have the most comfortable bed in the world but if we are not living a fulfilling life for ourselves by day we will not have the inner peace we need to sleep optimally at night.
The Warm Milk Journal recognizes and aspires to offer support in these three categories that are related to insomnia. That is why you may find articles about bed mattresses along with articles about meditation. You may find journal writing prompts and foods to eat to make you feel sleepy. You will be encouraged to find your life’s purpose and ways to deal with stress. At times you will be comforted, humored, inspired (I hope), and sometimes challenged.
We human beings are complex creatures. If we are not sleeping our best at night chances are it is not just one simple thing that will cure that. We can do many things to increase our chances of sleeping better but we also need to look at how we are living our lives.
I invite you to keep visiting The Warm milk Journal and following me on Twitter as we continue on this journey of living the life of our dreams by day and sleeping peacefully and restfully at night.
Thank you,
Debra : )
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Journal Writing: the benefits of keeping different kinds of journals
Published May 9, 2010 | The benefits of journal writing are many. The ways to use journal vary. Here are some ideas.
The Recording Journal: This kind of journal is where you chronicle your daily life. I kept this kind of “dear diary” journal most of my life (starting at about age 10). It is really interesting to look back on some of these journals you wrote as a younger version of yourself. You may find that some things don’t change much and you are still anguishing over the same issues you did as a teenager (finding the right mate, your weight, etc.) You may also see all of the growth that life experience has given you. That is most satisfying. You may find patterns from your life that can give you some kind of insight for your present life. I look back on many of my journals and just feel thankful for the rich life I have had thus far.
The Travel Journal: This is a kind of recording journal but warrants a special book of its own. There is something truly expansive and wondrous about adventure and visiting new places. Your senses come to life as you take in these new experiences. You are taking photos most likely with your camera- so why not record your experiences in writing as well? It will be a wonderful souvenir of your journeys years from now.
The Gratitude Journal: We mention this kind of journal quite a bit here at The Warm Milk Journal. What we appreciate appreciates. It is hard to stay in a negative state of mind if we are focused on the many things we are blessed with in our life. On a daily basis write down things you are thankful for. I started doing this many years ago on my own and also with the guidance of Sarah Ban Breathnach’s The Simple Abundance Journal of Gratitude (which is never too far from my bedside) . Giving thanks is a wonderful habit and practice to get into.
The Worry Journal: This is another kind journal that comes up a bit here at The Warm Milk Journal. Many of us are losing sleep at night because our minds just won’t shut off the worries. The idea here is to give our minds a place and time to get all the worries out. List the worries. Then perhaps next to each worry write down a solution for it. This can then get us out of that hopeless feeling state. If our minds go back to worrying, gently remind ourselves that we had our “worry time” for now. We can also remind ourselves in this journal that 99% of what we worry about doesn’t happen. We can also play out the “worst case scenario”: if what we are worrying about really happened, then what? Write it out. Would it really be as bad as our fearful minds have imagined it? On the top of each page of our worry journals we can write: This Too Shall Pass . Whatever is going on in our lives (good or bad) will pass. Life is dynamic. Is does not stand still. That idea alone has given me much comfort.
The Ideas Journal: You never know when you are going to get inspired and have a terrific idea. It is always a good idea to have a little notebook at hand to write down your ideas. I am using some notebooks I have kept to develop some business ideas. Some of these ideas are quite good and they would have been lost if I had not jotted them down.
The Spiritual Journal: inspirational quotes, affirmations etc. I believe that journal writing helps us connect to our higher power. I often feel the closest to God when I take some quiet alone time with my journal and write. I sometimes write to God or the universe and ask for guidance. Our intuition and inner voice really comes out with this practice.
The Creative Journal: poetry, doodling, stories, anything fun, wacky. No censoring here. Just let your creative and playful spirit come out. This is a really fun kind of journalling experience. To get inspired, check out any of Sark’s books.
The Dream Journal: This can be fun. Have a journal by your bedside and when you first wake up, write down any dreams that you remember. Our dream world is pretty fascinating. Many common recurring dreams that we have have been interpreted and it is interesting. There are may books on dreams. One good one I currently have is the second edition of The Dream Encyclopedia by James R Lewis and Evelyn Dorothy Oliver.
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