I believe journaling makes me more mindful.  Helps me pay attention, and notice what happens round about me.

But there are times I need to switch off my journaling mind.  I need to walk quietly, without processing as I go, without writing in my head before I even notice that I do, without thinking how I will frame this moment, capture this experience, share what I have seen and learnt.  There are times I need to walk without thinking of others and how to teach this feeling, I just need to walk.  There are times I must leave my camera behind, stop capturing, stop framing, stop freezing the moment, and just let it be.

This need to not-journal is expressed beautifully in Patti Digh’s post on letting go of your brain.

Be mindful in another way. Touch, smell, see. Really see. Not the seeing that comes with the reductiveness of language: “how will I write about this?,” but the seeing that comes without any further need.

I think it’s linked to what she wrote the day before too: don’t forget the need for silence, even just for 10 minutes.  Including silence from our writing minds, our creative hearts, our whirl of tangled thoughts.

Just walk, just breathe, just be.