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1. I have one tattoo (and want more).
2. I dropped out of highschool twice but still graduated.
3. I prefer fruit to vegetables.
4. My favorite fruit is Clementine oranges.
5. The closet doors in my bedroom must be closed at night.
6. My beverage of choice is skim milk.
7. I have a girl crush on Fluvia Lacerda.
8. I like to-do lists.

Go ahead, blog about your own 8 random facts. I dare you!

“The great challenge of adulthood is holding on to your idealism after you lose your innocence.”

~ Bruce Springsteen

Using art, dance, and journaling, psychotherapist Jo Ashworth helps groups delve into and release their inner selves. This forty-five year old mother of three (teenagers) has been married for twenty-one years and currently resides in Mandurah, Western Australia. Read on to learn about how she uses journaling in her work and her life.

How long have you been journaling?
I have been journaling for twenty years though I was first introduced to the technique at a youth camp when I was eighteen. I must have pigeon holed the technique only to pull it out years later after my first son was born with a disability. It really helped me to download all the confusing thoughts and process the feelings.

What kinds of journals do you have?
I have probably experimented with them all. I prefer a spiral bound with no lines because I like freedom which kind of sets the stage for the journaling. I don’t use anything smaller than A4. It’s not very convenient to throw into a handbag but it inspires letting go, particularly if you combine some art.

How often do you journal?
I try to journal every day. Even when I think I have nothing to say I am constantly awed at how much is there. Research suggests we think in excess of 70,000 thoughts per day. Most of these are unconscious so there is always material. The thing about thoughts is they produce feelings. If we can trace a feeling to our thoughts through journaling then the charge from the feeling dissipates. The belief behind the feeling arises in the exploring and this gives us an opportunity to decide whether it is actually of our own value system or has been modeled from family or society.

Why is journaling important to you?
Journaling is my medicine. It is free, it is my truth and it constantly converts to peace. Something I aspire to in this world. It also offers me all the answers and guidance I need. It helps me to know myself. When we know ourselves well we know what we want and need. It downloads feelings and leaves me in a space to communicate clearly without blame, judgement and reaction from my feelings. From this place it is a peacemaker. It also then puts me in a place where I can feel compassion for others.

You were trained to facilitate journal courses, could you describe this?
I decided I wanted to share the miracles I had experienced from journaling. I trained as a facilitator. This training taught me how to run groups and write up courses. I then researched some other authors’ experience of journaling and together with my experiences had plenty of material.

When did you become a psychotherapist?
Three years ago. As my processing went deeper I found the groups were going deeper. I needed to train to be able to hold that space and help others continually forward their own journey.

Can you tell us about your weekend workshops?
My work is constantly evolving. Over the last couple of years I have been including art and no longer extol journal writing but journaling. Our bodies are a journal and have oh so much to teach us. I always use the body in the work now. Feelings can have a shape or color.

For example a knot in the stomach could look like a matted green ball of wool. Extracting this visually is really important. To be able to see it offers further insights. We also always use collage and I inspire people to get a display file and start a library of images that invoke a reaction from them from the newspaper of magazines or anywhere. You begin to see themes coming through. Mine are Body, Family, Home, Environment, Words, Colour, Art, Inspiring articles and people, Cultures, Travel and Fashion. The headers evolve naturally as a result of what you are drawn to tearing out. These images are journal prompts. You can pull one out and glue it into your journal and dialogue with it to see what it has to teach you about yourself.

When we have a feeling about anything, even if it seems unrelated to our life it is actually mirroring something deep inside. The visuals are fantastic for forwarding your journey. My most recent work has included full body collages in response to the chakra psychologies, for example base chakra issues relate to survival, prosperity, family and belonging. This is an awesome prefect. Through various prompts an image depicting the journey is pasted on and we go from there. It is very healing to see your full sized body staring back at you.

One of the main questions writers ask about is discipline. Do you think discipline is important in journaling and could you provide a few tips on improving one’s journaling discipline?
The best disciple is LISTENING to your body in this busy world. From this space a regular journaling journey naturally evolves. Track a feeling and see where it takes you in the journal. Unravelling dreams can be a good discipline. All dream images are about ourselves and have something to gift us. Simply have a conversation with the characters. Julia Cameron’s morning pages can not be ignored. They are very powerful. Journaling simply has to become part of our every day life. There just is no other way. I cannot extol the virtues of journaling enough. It is important to know journaling isn’t just about writing. In fact when other techniques are integrated it becomes a holistic approach to our wellbeing.

Interviewed for the Journaling site at BellaOnline.

I’ve reviewed young adults books in the past and some of my own favorite childhood books but this is my first requested children’s book review.

Going Home is a simple creative non-fiction book about the migration of ten interesting and varied animals for children aged 4 to 8. You can read the full review at The Homeschool Club.

My latest review for BellaOnline is the Period Undies. Grace SooHoo is the designer/creator of Period Undies for Simple Necessit-Ease Inc. It officially launched in 2006 with a small but successful test group. Period Undies are designed for women with the goal of protecting clothing from those accidental moments while menstruating.

Read the Period Undies Review.

This last week has been really busy as I started a new venture with Squidoo — a club for plus size fashion bloggers called The Fatgirl’s Closet. My immediate goal is to build a top 100 directory of fashion bloggers. My long term goal is to create a club where these bloggers can network with one another to promote their blogs and of course plus size fashion.

One of the cool things about working with Squidoo is they designed the headquarters where the club will reside and where bloggers can make pages about their blogs or plus size fashion in general with The Fatgirl’s Closet logo. Bloggers get all the same features that Squidoo offers except we have our own place to do it. To round off the club I created a facebook page and a twitter account to keep everyone in touch.

My official role is “club leader”. I’m featured on the main headquarter page and my role is to market the club and provide support to bloggers as they create lenses. I’m very excited about this project as I’ve wanted to create a home for plus size fashion bloggers for some time and now it’s happening; one fashion blog at a time.

***
Topic Links
* The Fatgirl’s Closet Headquarters
* The Fatgirl’s Closet on Twitter
* The Fatgirl’s Closet on Facebook

I’ve always wanted to be an angel. A SquidAngel that is. Today I started my position as a SquidAngel at Squidoo. It’s a volunteer position where I travel through the guts of Squidoo rewarding worth seeing with a love “bump”.

In true Giant Squid fashion I have created a lens that will document my angel journey by highlighting all the lenses I visit and give a thumbs up. I call this lens — My Squid Angel Journey — I know original, right.

It’s also a great way for lensmasters to connect with me and let me know if they have a special lens they want me to look at.

In blessing others I bless myself (I don’t mean literally).

The people at Purina Maxx Scoop sent me a kitty litter kit for review (by my kitties, not me) and I’ve been posting the progress over at my personal blog. You can read the review complete with candid photographs — don’t worry they are PG.

Today I received an email announcing that The Write Prompts lens received a purple star. Of all the 200+ lenses this is probably one that I am most proud of.

The Write Prompts is my first lens, originally developed by another writer who turned it over to me. From the day it became mine over two years ago I have been updating it religiously every Sunday.

It has a large following and its popularity eventually led to me developing its sister The Write Prompts Blog which I also update every Sunday. I’m feeling very proud of myself today.

Ever since the Purple Star was instituted at Squidoo I’ve been hoping that my Curvy Chics lens would get picked. Today the wish came true!

The Curvy Chics lens is kind of an index for other lenses. It gives brief intros on some of my favorite curvy chics and then leads readers to larger lenses on each curvy lady. This is one of my favorite lenses and I’m glad it received this acknowledgment.

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