When it comes to restructuring old habits or reinventing ourselves it takes surprisingly few tools. Greater awareness is right there at the top of the list. Paying attention to what is in our lives and how it makes us feel is key. But it also takes a little digging and sorting through the deeper whys of what we are drawn to and what we do, to really make a difference. This is where a journal comes in, it may be the single most important tool at our disposal for self-transformation and learning how to live a more meaningful life. You might be asking yourself how can something seemingly so mundane be so powerful.
A journal is not merely a recounting of what happened during the day, that’s a diary or planning calendar. A journal is the nitty gritty of how we feel, what we think, and how we make sense of what happens in our lives, it’s a tool to gain greater clarity. That clarity helps us recreate and reinvent who we are and how we live. It offers us a way to deal with what’s going on underneath our everyday experiences and helps us to integrate those insights and turn them into a greater wisdom of ourselves, others, and the world. When life gets difficult, or we’re wondering where to begin, or how to sort through the confusion, or get to the bottom of what’s bothering us, a journal is the place to start.
The reasons to keep a journal are endless. It can be a way to sift through a jumble of emotions or work through a difficult time, or get to the deeper why of what we do. Journaling can also help us make sense of ourselves rather than merely reflecting what others feel or want. At the very bottom of all of it a journal is about our process. It is a tool of becoming, a translation of who we are on the inside outside in our everyday lives. A journal is meant to hold our voice until we can hold it for ourselves out in the world no matter what situation we find ourselves. The truth is we are practicing at being our most authentic self in these pages. There’s no need to get hung up on a particular thought or feeling, a journal is more about flow and spontaneous aha. And in this delicate and messy process of seeing more deeply into our soul and deciding our next step there is no room for judgment or perfection.
In truth journaling is a wild endeavor and on-going adventure. It is the story of our life unfolding. It’s about finding the long, lost home of our self through cultivating our voice. In the journal we get to exercise this voice that’s often ignored in our public lives. The journal is a sacred space to be and grow and evolve and where we learn to find and live our truth. These words may not define us forever but they do help concretize some of the illusive steps we take in order to get closer to our essential self. In order to dance with this deepest part of ourselves we have to shed some old baggage and make room for what is yet unknown. Again, this is where the journal comes in. We rummage through our feelings, our decisions, our steps and missteps, where we stumble and fall, and where we rise. We come back together more whole when we write it down and make sense of it in this safe space.
This is the work of transforming and the journal is the conduit for this transformation. Becoming who we really are is not magic, it’s hard work and joyful work. So let yourself be exactly who you are in the pages of your journal, be prepared for the surprises that may appear on the page, in some instances it won’t be what you expected at all. This is the beauty of keeping a journal, it’s what it’s there for, to let the mysterious and unexpected arise and take shape and to realize we are the mystery slowly being revealed.
It is the unexpected that leads us home. The journal helps us chart the map of our return.
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