Journaling and keeping a diary are two very different things. A diary is keeping track of what we’re doing or what’s happening to us, journaling is a technique used for sorting through what’s underneath all that’s going on in our lives. We write down feelings, situations we find ourselves in, our responses, new ideas, and different ways of looking at the present situation. It’s though all this digging down and writing it all out that connections are made and understanding grows. Anais Nin said it’s a way to taste life twice. Sometimes we need to taste it a hundred times before the light finally dawns, but if we’re making an effort we’re sure to get results.

This is how I’ve always used writing, as a tool to make more sense of myself by going through my experiences, how they effect me, and letting that information constellate the bigger picture. There is a lot going on internally and it takes a bit of detective work to put it together and have it make sense in the bigger picture. But this seemingly endless chronicling and sorting is all leading up to something, and that’s the time when we live these insights spontaneously. The time for writing, figuring, and second guessing is done, the knowledge and awareness we’ve gained becomes a part of us and suddenly we’ve got this one. The jumping off point comes after all of this energy, attention, and focus has been placed on a particular person or situation and all that trying to figure out its deeper implications finally clicks. It’s only natural that all this hard work leads to an ah-ha, and a place of integrated and spontaneous action. And I will tell you, when this happens it’s absolutely magical.

When all the methodical and sometimes painful sorting through of an idea, problem, or emotional response finally comes together it’s often in a completely unexpected way. It often doesn’t look like we thought it would, but what does come is a natural internal realignment that needs no more mulling over, somehow it becomes second nature. Just like that. Suddenly there is a greater ease in our being, we respond effortlessly to what’s in front of us, especially to the things or people that had us wound up and perplexed. What had us practicing or judging our actions and behaviors has dissipated into thin air. This jumping off point comes with little warning. We are doing the work, looking at what is going on, slowly cultivating greater awareness, and then one day we realize something has shifted within us and we are different. To the untrained eye it may seem that everything is as it has always been, but we can feel the shift in our bones, and it makes us feel more like our self.

Now for the joyous reward, everything seems to open up in the most unexpected ways, there is a feeling of spontaneous flow and less struggling to decide about what we should or shouldn’t do, what we should or shouldn’t say. We are just naturally and effortlessly ourselves, but with greater clarity. This is the jumping off point to being who we are on the inside in the external world. This is rarified air we’re breathing, and it has the power to transform and heal us.

Keep at it, the rewards this work offers can change the way we live our lives.

kb