Rite 7: Journaling
Journaling can be a lovely way of self-expression and a means of getting a burden concretely “out” of your body and on to something. It can also be a reminder of struggle to folks and can, thereby, increase their feelings of loss and anxiety. Reminder: there are many tools in the kit—try them on and put them back if they do not fit. An Ignatian spiritual practice of Examen invites us to consider the day before going to bed, particularly where we experienced God. One way of examen journaling is to track, daily, the heart of your day, the moment/image/quote/experience that was a core spirit amidst the humdrum or busy-ness or blandness. And then, at the end of the week, to Examen the heart of the week. The heart of the day/week can spare us from superfluous detail and drift toward a gratitude journal.
On the other hand, a number of folks have benefitted from writing regularly, but especially when feeling burdened. The Artist’s Way suggests three hand written pages per day—to be done in the morning—as a means of defragmenting our brains. If morning pages are done with a little extra intention, they might offer a means of defragmenting our residues/burdens. Write down the thoughts, Rebut them on paper. Say aloud, “So there, you are out of my head. I am closing the book on you.” Close the journal ceremoniously. Put it away out of site, perhaps in a drawer, closing the drawer ceremoniously. You can always reopen the journal when needed, remembering that the previous pages are there if you choose to revisit those feelings. But you also are free to choose to leave those pages and burdens behind, as you choose to write a new page with new feelings and new ways of thinking.
When thoughts recur, a possible script, “These thoughts are really important to me. To my past, present, and future. And I have already written that down. It is safe. I am not going to forget that it is there. So I can leave it there. If I have a new idea about this, I’ll add it when convenient. But I can choose when to pick this book up and when to put it down.”