A Joyous Perspective on Going Deeper: Journaling

Did you ever wish you could see the deeper nuances of your day versus just painting over them?

I have something I'd like you to consider doing. Maybe you've thought about it or done it in the past but just can't get motivated to start. If you're looking for more in your life, a daily journal could be just what you need. In fact, keeping a daily record of your life's inner and outer movements can be a profoundly deepening experience.

Whatever you strongly notice in your outer life will tell you something about your inner life. 

As you start to take note of what feels meaningful to you each day, you bring the edges of your unconscious mind into conscious awareness. Consider that 95% of what you see and experience in your daily life can reflect the unconscious beliefs, conditioned programs hurts, and traumas that you are not yet consciously aware of.

To the unconscious, time does not exist, and it seems all that is unprocessed within, in the out-picture of your daily life.

So this means that the energies of your unprocessed past are still lingering in your mental and emotional field. 

By noticing the mirror of your unconscious in your outer life, you can build compassionate awareness of what is causing any discomfort or emotional dysregulation in your life.

To help you get started, I'd like to share some wise nugget classic book, At a Journal Workshop, by Ira Progroff. (link to book) This self-reflection journaling process can be done at the end or beginning of each day. I prefer the morning, but the time really doesn't matter. Just whenever your mind is fresh and full.

 "To follow the movement of our emotions allows us to retrace the formation of our lives from the inside. Thus, you will begin to recognize how your day unfolded from within yourself."

~ Ira Progoff

At the end or beginning of your day, before bed, sit in stillness and look back or forward on your day. 

1. Waking Up:  How did you feel upon awakening? What did you dream about? Recording even the slightest fragments of your dreams will help you to see how your night moves into your daytime theme.

2. Strongest Details: Contemplate your day's inner (feeling) movements. With your eyes closed, what are you feeling you feel about your planned day?  If at the end of the day, revisit the outer events of your day. What details stood out the most? Write them down as they pop into your mind.

3. Main Feeling-Tone: What primary emotions, desires, anxieties, and hopes do you have for your day? If at the end, what did you experience? Describe, in a few sentences, what the main feeling tone of your day was.

4. Relationships: What stands out the most about your relationships today? Were your relationships loving or frustrating? What emotions did you feel as you encountered other people? What people came into your mind, and how did you feel when you thought about them? 

5. Main Insights: Once you finish writing, close your eyes, breathe deeply and let your whole being absorb the feelings and events of your day. Write any additional thoughts and insights that come to you. 

6. The Daily Theme: As you record each 24-hour block of your life experience, you will start to sense how the movement of each day feeds into the more prominent themes of your life. See if you can name each day's theme before bed. Let yourself integrate the movement of your day as an integral piece of the more prominent theme of your life.

The most challenging part of journaling for a deeper connection is not becoming your own Editor!  

Be sure not to edit the content of your day to make it seem more positive or negative. Include the things you felt unsure or ashamed of, and also note what you felt proud of. It is essential to stay neutrally curious as you honestly record the feeling-tones and experiences of your day.  Let your words flow with no censorship. Remember, this is for you, by you. 

 I hope these suggestions help you as much as they did me to begin and keep working on a daily journal. I think you'll find it is the perfect emotional, and mental pallet cleanser to begin, start, or end your day.

Stay joyous!

Joy