Creative work is an exchange between the Left Brain and The Right, between Ego – the aspects of ourselves that we present to the world -- and The Shadow – our unconscious Dark Side, our anger, our unacceptable feelings, the parts of ourselves that we’d prefer others not see and that we avoid dealing with, thinking about, in ourselves.

Journaling can make a huge contribution to creative work by providing a testing ground, a neutral ground, which the two aspects, Ego and Shadow, encounter each other.

The Shadow contains enormous energy that can give creative work its depth and authenticity. It provides the edge that draws us in. It provides the unpredictability, the scariness, the imaginative leap.

The Ego helps keep The Shadow in control so that it doesn’t go too far. Journaling facilitates the interplay.