Feb 17, 2016 / Inspiration

Collecting Words and Sentences

As Emerson suggests, collect words and sentences that inspire you to speak your truth.

My journal, in the process of becoming my own "bible."

My college roommate and I used to collect quotes for one another. We’d write inspirational words down on Post-its and keep files where we regularly stored our favorite messages that we’d stumbled across. We both agreed: words are powerful.

When someone expresses an observation that we identify with, a sense of validation and synchronicity arises within us. We’re reminded that we’re not alone, that someone, somewhere else in the world, has discovered the same truth that we’re living or perhaps arrived at a conclusion we needed to hear ourselves.

Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

I came across the quote above from a fellow quote-collector, journaler, and generally uplifting blogger, Gala Darling. In her “30 Days of Radical Self-Love Letters,” she talks about starting a radical self-love journal where you can store all of the things that make you happy. Since I came across this quote, I’ve noticed my own journaling has changed quite a bit in turn. It’s filled less with my own internal ramblings, and more with words, images, and conversations that I find uplifting.

In short, it’s turning into my own “bible.”

What words and sentences have been like the blast of a trumpet to you? What bloggers, authors, poets, filmmakers, or artists have shouted your truth and spoken to you like no other? On the flip side, what is your own truth? If one of your readers were making their own inspiration journal, what message would you want to share?

The more we analyze our influences and the words that speak to us, the more we’re able to peek under the hood of our own writing. By exploring the quotes and phrases that feel like your truth, and that pick you up out of a writing rut, you’re able to uncover processes and truths in your own work. As you sit down at your keyboard this week, channel your greatest influences and either write your own blast of a trumpet or share what speaks to you.

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  11. On entering the Long Room of Dublin University I was in awe of all the great writers of times past that have inspired so many their contribution has instilled a never ending thirst that has sustained me in my quest and as I now step forward into the world of social media for the first time I have renewed energies to share all my magical experiences and spiritual truths, thank you

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  17. Awesome to hear that I am not the only person in the world that does the same thing. I have 8 journal books that I call “The Hokmah book”. I even wrote a blog however my writing isn’t any good. And if your wondering what Hokmah means, it’s Hebrew for wisdom. Like the Hebrew word “rhayma” which essentially means wisdoms Utterances to you, which I believe God utterances to our heart the wisdom we need to hear to know who we are.

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