Journal For Life Change – Journal For Wholerness
www.journalforlifechange.com www.journalforwholerness.com
You want to change your life? Get a 12 pack of yellow pads, some blues pens and start writing.
Journaling is one the best ways that you can pursue life change / wholerness.
Wholerness?
You might be asking what “wholerness” is. Rather than encourage people to become “whole” I encourage people to become “wholer”.
If you are going to live the Good Life you need to pursue “wholerness.”
Pursuing Wholerness is one the the 3 primary Good Life Elements www.GoLiveTheGoodLife.com.
I do not think that you are going to become completely whole, so given that, I say – “Pursue Wholerness!” You may not be able to become whole, however you can become wholer!
So What is Journaling?
Quite simply, it is simply writing. Nothing more complicated than that.
If you have a challenge that you need to face, a great way to start, is to sit down with a pad of paper and start writing.
You will be amazed how much you can discern once you start writing about your problem(s).
Self reflection is amazing. Sadly, people do not often take the time to reflect on their journey.
Journal Your Way Out of Misery
Socrates said “An unexamined life is not worth living.” www.wikipedia.org/Socrates
I say “An unexamined life is marked by misery.”
If you are miserable, start writing about it. Start examining your life. Put pen to paper and begin to become the person you are.
Journaling Can Help You Healthfully Face The Stuff in Your Backpack
Each of us has stuff in our backpack that hinders us. Journaling is a great way to face what is in your backpack.
What Do I Write?
Okay, I am ready to write, now what? Just start writing. You will find your way.
I have found it helpful to take two approaches when I am journaling.
#1 Trying to sort out a response to a challenge you have.
When I am trying to figure out what to do next, to healthfully face a challenge in my life, I have found that writing out what my options are and writing out what I want is very helpful. Helpful, but often hard.
Regardless of what you are facing, if you start with step 1 and you work on figuring out your options and your wants, please move onto step 2 – writing out how you feel about the challenge you have.
#2 Trying to heal from; a wound to my heart, abuse, trauma, or mistreatment.
When I am trying to heal from something, I have found it helpful to write about how I feel. Even if you are not sure how you feel about something that you might need to heal from, just start writing. Write these words;
When it comes to my marriage – I feel…
When it comes to the abuse I endured as a child, my mom hitting me – I feel…
When it comes to the crappy way my boss is treating me, I feel…
Don’t Talk, Don’t Trust, Don’t Feel
I used the above three word mantra as a way to survive my brutal childhood. While that approach helped me survive my abusive childhood, it hindered me greatly in adulthood.
The first time (in my early 20s) that it was suggested to me to write down how I felt about something, I realized that I did not feel. At least that was what I thought. I did feel, I just had to work (and write, alot!) to get in touch with my feelings.
I would literally write things like this on my yellow pad – “I do not know how I feel. This is stupid. There is no way that journaling – writing – is going to get me in touch with my feelings. I do not even want to feel. Hmmm where did that come from? why don’t I want to feel?”
With that simple realization, I was off and running.
If you want to be wholer, journal. It is an amazing tool for wholerness!
Many thanks to Bryan Van Dragt. He was the one, who first taught me to journal.
As I said at the beginning of this article – You want to change your life? Get a 12 pack of yellow pads some blue pens and start writing.
One Last Thing – Number your Pages
When you journal about something, number your pages. That way you will know when you have journaled 100 pages about that particular topic. www.journal100pages.com
If you would like to easily share this article with someone, it can be found at www.journalforwholerness.com and www.journalforlifechange.com as well as on www.stevenshomler.com
That’s it,
Steven Shomler
