Weekly journaling class at Sherman Library & Gardens encourages participants to look on the bright side

Ellen Bell has written about local history and enjoys creative nonfiction. But lately she’s been focusing on mindfulness and positive journaling — a daily habit she’s now hoping to pass on to some of her “students” at the Sherman Library & Gardens.

Bell, a Newport Beach resident, is leading a five-week-long course that encourages its participants to journal with a positive slant. The next session begins Jan. 10.

“I tell people it’s less of a writing class than it is a reflective practice,” Bell said. “It’s journaling, which is different than diary writing. Diary writing is a little more chronological. They’re downloading all the things in their brain, writing about what they’re going through and that’s very valuable and therapeutic. But this is closer to having a sketchbook.

“We’re writing about things that you like, things that make you happy; writing with gratitude and touching on positive emotions,” she said.

“That isn’t to deny that they might be having a bad day,” she continued, “but it’s putting that aside ... once they take it all in, [they realize] actually they are grateful and happy for ‘this’ today.”

Ellen Bell, a local Newport Beach author, said she started teaching her positive journaling class at the Sherman Library & Gardens in last summer.

(Courtesy of the Sherman Library & Gardens)

Bell started teaching the class last summer after she completed certification training for becoming a facilitator for positive journaling and guided meditation. She was already a docent at the Sherman Library & Gardens when she reached out to education director Catherine Dickinson about potentially hosting a class.

There was no way of knowing how many people would show up, she said, but there are regulars who come back for more sessions to continue the process. As of this week, seven people had signed up for the morning session that begins Jan. 10 and four for the afternoon session. They aim for around 10 to 12 participants to keep the class tight-knit.

Bell said the class meets on Wednesdays because of her love for alliteration. “It has to be Wednesday because [like ‘writing’] it starts with a W,” she said. It will usually begin with some light conversation on her part to direct people’s thoughts toward whatever prompts she may have prepared for the day. Afterward, she usually asks them to wander the gardens and ground themselves before returning to write.

There’s no expectations to share their journal entries with the others, but the floor is open for those who want to.

“It may be a challenging day, but we get so stuck on focusing on what’s going wrong and habitually have that negative bias, where we’re always looking for the next challenge,” Bell said. “This [class] is to focus on what’s going on right, what makes you happy or peaceful and it’s actually kind of sad that we have to do this intentionally. It should be habitual for us. But when things are going well, we tend to put it on the back burner and go, ‘OK, what’s the next problem?’

“This is a practice to put it a little in balance. Challenges are a part of our life and that’s not to be denied or ignored. But there’s a lot of wonderful things that are happening to us at the same time. You build in some resilience for when you are going through a tough day or a loss or something challenging, you can call on the things that you’re grateful for at the same time,” she said.

Bell said she knows there are those who might be hesitant about signing up because of the writing component or because they’re not interested in meditation.

She encourages them to give it a try anyway.

To sign up, visit thesherman.org/event/writing-wednesdays-positive-journaling-morning-january-2024. The class is $100 for members of Sherman Library & Gardens and $125 for nonmembers. For those who can’t make weekdays, Bell will host her first weekend wellness workshop on Saturday, Jan. 20, which costs $50 for members and $65 for nonmembers.