I often hear people say that they’re intimidated by other people’s nature journals, and they’re afraid to share their own because they think they’re not “good enough”.
But today I want to share a beautiful moment that happened in a class I was teaching recently.
In this week’s “Writing Workshop Wednesday” session, I gave everyone time to free-write for five minutes, stream of consciousness, based on a prompt. And in between prompts, everyone had the opportunity to share what they wrote about. During one of these pauses, someone shared how they ended up writing about the sky.
But here’s what happened next: at the end of class, someone else shared that they also wrote about the sky in the next prompt! They were inspired by the thoughts of the first person, and took them in a completely new direction, developed their own train of thought, and ended up with some really meaningful insights.
If you’re afraid to share your thoughts or your journal pages, because you’re afraid of being judged, that’s understandable. But what happens when you’re in a supportive community, a no pressure judgement-free zone, and you DO feel comfortable to take a step up and share?
Your observations, or your thoughts, can spark a whole new exploration in somebody else, so they can reach thoughts and ideas they never would have without you.
When we share our nature journals, it’s not to compare and see whose is better. We can inspire each other, give each other ideas, build off each other to expand our knowledge, to deepen our understanding of nature ...and of ourselves!
Nature journaling is not a competition. It’s a collaboration. And we’re all growing and learning together, as one team, here on the planet Earth.
I hope this helps with how you approach nature journaling. If you know someone else who needs to hear this, maybe share it with them.
And if you’d like to learn some nature journal activities that help you tell your own story, check out my free mini-ebook “Science & Imagination: Exploring Words in Your Nature Journal.”
So have fun nature journaling, and go have an adventure this week! I’d love to see what you discover.
~ Rebecca