Hello everyone. Long time Pavlina reader here, been reading the forums on and off, only posting now.
Steve, thanks for your post on journaling. I have read yours and Erin's previous posts on journaling, but I never did get into it. I see now my unrealistic expectations were discouraging me. I was swayed by what I had read about journaling elsewhere, and I had assumed that some wise spirit guides or my higher self is supposed to answer my questions, and that I need to be in a certain state of mind to hear that, that I just wait until I feel like typing/writing, none of which happened.
When I let go of those notions, and simply used the journal to write what's on my mind, I had much better results. My journal entries now usually start with a description of the current situation or problem, and a series of questions to be answered. I then keep writing without imposing any rules or trying to explicitly "listen" to any guidance.
I then seem to come up with many useful insights. These insights don't seem like they are totally, out-of-the world brilliant. They seem like something I would have come up with if I had thought long and hard and rationally, but it just came out easily when I was in the flow of writing. Maybe those guides and spirits are really helping. In fact, I had a reading with Erin a year ago, in which they asked me to "write for myself". I didn't quite understand at that time what they wanted me to do. So, while I do believe in them, I seem to be do better thinking this is all coming from my own brain.
PS: For Mac users, I recommend this great free journaling software I use called
Journler.