Wednesday Writing Prompt: The Pray Rain Journal by Rochelle Melander

The light blue journal is my Pray Rain Journal. The bright blue journal is my project journal for an upcoming book.

Early in August, Martha Beck wrote a column about getting rid of stuff. Since I’d been madly tearing through my house, dumping books and old clothes into bags, and tossing them in the car for delivery to Goodwill, I paid attention. In her article, she raved about how helpful her Pray Rain Journal had been. The Pray Rain Journal was developed by Master Coach Jeannette Maw and taught to Martha Beck by Master Coach Bridgette Boudreau.

Martha Beck described the Pray Rain Journal as a written vision board. It reminded me of the Best Possible Future Self exercise, developed by Dr. Laura King and written about in this blog. (Sonja Lyubomirsky and Ken Sheldon also did a version of this exercise.)

The Pray Rain Journal is a very small journal. Each day, write one page as if you were living your best possible life. Think about it this way: if you were living your ideal life what would you be thinking, writing, and doing? Who would you connect with? Where would you live? How would you spend your days? What would you eat? Write in the present tense.

After a few weeks of writing, review your journal. Beck encouraged readers to pay attention to negative thoughts and feelings like, “THAT could never happen” or “I’ll never achieve something so wonderful.” According to Beck, these negative ideas are the clutter we need to clear away.

I’ve been keeping my Pray Rain journal since mid-August. I’ve noticed that just writing abut what I wish my day was like has helped me to shape my days in small but significant ways.

How about you? Have you ever kept a Pray Rain Journal? What similar tool have you used? How did it help you?