Expression

Digital media is great for input. Drawing, poetry, humor, passion is pure creative output. These creative expressions are the products of our uniqueness. What would your personal daily comic strip look like?  

Journaling To Balance My Digital Obsession

I have to admit I’m a bit obsessed with gadgetry and all things digital. Plus, like many of us, my work is centered around my computer and phone. I’m on the computer 9 hours a day and on the phone 3-4 hours. I suppose too much of any good thing eventually can become toxic. Obsessions and addictions obviously wear on us physically, mentally and emotionally but perhaps the worst effect is that they consume us, rob us from experiencing the other joys in life. I’m not suggesting that social media and video games are toxic like drugs and alcohol. However, I have noticed them consuming so much of my time that I’m not getting out there; hanging out with friends, biking, hiking or pursuing any of my creative endeavors. I’m a pro-digital IoT tech nerd. I’m not it a position to go a “digital detox” of any length. I just needed a daily reprieve from anything with an LCD screen. I started journaling initially to unplug and take a break from the computer. My handwriting and drawing skills had become atrophied from never using them. I wasn’t looking for an intense new medium like metal sculpting. I just wanted an outlet for something raw, simple, uncomplicated, a non-tech form of organic creative expression that I could take with me anywhere. I found journaling as an ideal starting medium. It you look at people’s journal covers and hand drawn interior page layouts and handwriting on journalz.com or Reddit or Pinterest, it’s like looking at an animated cartoon of the author’s life. It’s like this vibrant and fun culture of urban-pop art. It’s not something most people get to see unless you really seek it out online. Albert Einstein said, “Creativity is intelligence having fun”. There is something unique about raw creative expression especially at the flash point, the spark of creation were the thought becomes the thing, mental becomes physical; the scribbles, the notes, the sketches. Everybody loves a masterpiece but there is nothing quite like experiencing the raw organic process of creation. Believe me, if I can learn to draw anyone can. Here is the epiphany; once I realized I had more inside me than I was aware of, I became even more curious and exploratorive. It turns out that creativity seems to flow like a faucet when the value is opened. It’s not a chore at all. I really wasn’t expecting a creative renaissance just from journaling a few minutes each day but that is exactly what happened. At first I just started jotting down random ideas, a bucket list, song titles, jokes, quotes, observations about people...mostly things for further exploration. One thing lead to the next and now I have a dream journal, a journal for each major project and a daily journal that I write and sketch in every evening for about 30 minutes. It’s liberating to just grab a Journal and a pencil and go to the park or the cafe and unplug. It’s a bite of a rush to know I’m about to explore a new idea or create something organic. I still do computer aided design everyday but my journal pages are uniquely raw, funky and fun. If you have a friend, student or family member whom you feel could benefit from exploring a new outlet for their expression, we encourage you to share this article with them and send them a gift certificate which they may redeem to create their own customized journal on jorurnalz.com.