Journalling: A Tool For Self-Discover
You can never have enough tools to understand your inner landscape. In yoga, we speak of the importance of Svadhyaya or (self-study) for understanding the truth of who we really are.
By studying ‘the self’ and recognizing our habits and thought processes, we realise how much of what we do and think is far from who we know we are.
When we listen to the ego, we often do things that don’t always align with our true beliefs or intuition. The ‘I’ or small ‘self’ is mostly concerned with survival, which usually entails getting what it wants in all situations, and proving it is indeed ‘the best’ despite what consequences that might have for us. The small self judges, criticizes, fears, conditions, and doubts and is essentially the cause of the chitta vrittis, or ‘fluctuations of the mind’.
By paying attention to, or ‘studying’ our ‘self’, we become more aware of the things we do that harm us, and also those which serve us and bring us closer to that process of ‘yoking’ or ‘uniting’ with the true Self.
This is why I love suggesting to my client to give journalling a try. It can be a valuable tool for diving into the depths of one’s internal world. Furthermore, it’s relatively easy to do and doesn’t cost or take much to get started.
Since we are all unique (as Ayurveda always reminds me) it can be valuable to anyone’s self-healing/understanding process to try different journalling techniques. Just as the weather patterns change in the world outside, they also change within us, so I recommend giving yourself a chance to explore ways of journalling that resonate most with your current heart, mind, and body state.
Here are some journalling ideas to inspire you:
Non Dominant Hand Writing:
For context, click links for inner child work journalling and a link from my blog.
Dream journalling:
Realities of the Dreaming Mind | Yasodhara Ashram
Feeling journal:
Document-
Mood: (what emotion am I experiencing?) (what sensations am I feeling?) Am I experiencing unpleasant or pleasant sensations and emotions
Event/Incident: How might my mood state be related to what has or is happening (mood could present as neutral or various states good/bad/positive/negative)? Note incidents/events surrounding mood states.
Triggers: Bearing in mind the mood state(s) and what the day involved is, what are some triggers for the emotion(s)? Opportunity to link how you feel and the day’s events
Things to consider:
Was there something that was said/that happened (good or bad) that impacted your mood state(s)? What was is about that event/incident or what was said that is related to the emotional and sensate experience that provoked/created a shift and physiological response? What was the mentality and bodily experience in response to the event/incident(s) throughout the day? What was the consistent thought process showing up? What was the “story(ies)” about what was happening? How did this impact and contribute to the mood state and the sensational experience?
*** Sometimes an event may seem like a trigger. This may well be the case but also try to isolate a particular feeling or bodily response that the event/incident triggers.
Morning Pages:
If you’re at all familiar with the Artist’s Way, then you’ll know this exercise. To retrieve your inner knowingness/connect with your intuition and creativity I ask clients to give the morning pages a try for 2/3 weeks (or continue for the rest of their days if they so please).
What are morning pages? Put simply, the morning pages are three pages of longhand writing, strictly stream of consciousness: “Oh god another morning, I have nothing to say. I need to wash the curtains. Did I get my laundry yesterday? Blah, Blah, Blah…” They might also, more ingloriously, be called the brain drain, since that is one of their main functions.
There is no wrong way to do morning pages. These daily morning meanderings are not meant to be works of art. They are simply a tool for writing down whatever comes to mind. Nothing is too petty, too silly, too stupid, too weird to be included.
They aren’t supposed to sound smart, although occasionally colourful, the morning pages are often negative, fragmented, self-pitying, repetitive, stilted or babyish, angry, bland or even silly sounding. Good!
All that angry, whiny, petty stuff that you write down stands between you and the connection with your intuitive/higher self. Worrying about the job, the laundry, the funny knock on the car, the weird look in your lover’s eye, this stuff eddies through our subconscious and muddies our days. Get it on the pages, and say hello to your authentic self. The morning pages are a great tool for creative and intuitive recovery!
Happy journalling!
