Why Journaling is a Ritual Worth Your Time

I want to talk about writing and journaling – maybe you have been wanting to write and journal and don’t know where to start OR you want to be re-enthused about it…that’s what this conversation is going to be about.

I wanted to talk about this now because it will support some of you in working through the questions I offered up to you in the first masterclass, and it will also set you up to be juiced up and ready to receive what I am going to talk about at the end of tomorrows masterclass session.

Writing is my absolute favourite tool to really take time to slow down, centre ourselves and connect with what is really going on within us. It’s a way of giving yourself your undivided attention AND it also supports the belief I have that we have all the answers within us.

We have so much wisdom through our own lived experiences, our insights, our perspective, our intuition – and sometimes we are just running through our life so fast that we aren’t able to witness the way that life is giving us opportunities to join dots, and make connections and have lessons come through us and if we really develop our capacity to stop and self reflect and pause and actually be willing to enter into a really honest, vulnerable, genuine enquiry process within ourselves, willing to make new connections, willing to acknowledge what we have been avoiding or repressing or denying, willing to look at things in new ways, willing to see something we have not been willing to look at even though its right in front of our face – when we are willing to do that, there is so much juicy goodness that is there just waiting for us.

Its easy to keep trying to outsource our wisdom and to keep looking to other people to show us the way – especially with our access to social media these days, we are constantly just absorbing what other people are doing and considering what do they think, what are they doing, whats their perspective ….and what I want to offer to you today is to stop and actually ask yourself – WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE.

What do you think?

When I say that, im not asking you to reflect on what you have been thinking for the last few years, as the response that is on repeat in your mind, as the thought patterns that play on loop in the background of your mind again and again because you haven’t challenged your own thinking – because you haven’t challenged your thoughts.

Could it be possible that the thoughts that run the show that is you – have never been your own and actually have just been inherited from family, or social environment?

Are they really your actual beliefs? Would you actually believe what you were thinking if you stopped and challenged them for yourself?

The most magical thing about being human is that we can turn inward and have a completely private and unique experience enquiring into ourselves and look at our thoughts and actually ask ourselves if we truly do believe them to be true.

We can ask ourselves questions that really guide and shape our thinking so that we are stretched and expanded and given the opportunity to really come up with what is true for us now – and not just what we have been programmed to repeat on demand.

Writing is an incredible tool for this. We cannot do this sort of work within our minds. We need to hold space for ourselves to really express what we are thinking, have some reflections, and the truth is – our thoughts are so transient that they do come in and out really quickly. We have to catch them and record them to actually bring consciousness to them and be aware of what is generating our emotions and impacting our actions.

Some of our thoughts are so embedded within us – we don’t even realise they are there – that’s what our subconsious mind is. The background noise. These thoughts are effortless and efficient. They zap in and out. It can be a problem because we are not always really present with them, so we don’t even realise they are there – writing can slow us down and see whats going on for us. See what we are thinking. Our thoughts shape our experiences.

Writing actually was the rope I used to pull me up and out of rock bottom. When I decided to leave my first marriage, I actually didn’t tell anyone. Not even my first husband. I took off and I ran away, overseas and sat with myself in the absolute devastation I felt at having to work out how to find my way out of one situation – without knowing where the fuck I was going to go, or what I was going to do – or what life could be like next.

There was complete disconnect between my mind and my body. My mind was panicked, overwhelmed, in damage control mode – yet my body, lead by my spirit continued to move forward. I kept getting up and moving my body, eating, drinking, sitting in the sun, staying alive when my mind was in a very dark place.

It was confusing. I started just writing down what I was thinking. I actually prefer writing with pen and paper because it slows us down, but at this time in my life there were so many thoughts zapping around that I sat in front of my keyboard and just banged away on the keys.

I captured the thoughts that were torturing me. I realised that everything I was thinking had NOTHING to do with me. I was repeating things I had been told. I was projecting and anticipating what others would think and say and do. I was able to realise that I was being weighed down by the beliefs of others. In writing everything down I was able to sit back and read what I had written and question if I believed that to be true.

I didn’t. I was a little uncertain about what I thought and how I felt – so I began to use enquiry questions to support me in accessing my own thoughts.

There is no right or wrong way to use writing as a way to access your own beliefs and understand your own thinking. I think its actually best if everyone develops their own practise in their own way.

If you don’t already, you might like to use this program as a container to begin to see what it would be like to begin a writing practise. This could be just a really beautiful, supportive thing that you do for yourself. The best part about it is that you don’t have to expect or demand any particular outcome – theres nothing to get right. Its just holding space for yourself and offering yourself support, compassion and love.

Theres a few ways that you can write, actually there are so many ways – tomorrow Ill be sharing a few ways you might like to approach a writing practise for yourself.

Hopefully this helps you as you start to turn inward and do the work within yourself – understand that the answers don’t just appear to us because we have decided to ask ourselves questions, or because I have asked you a question.

If you are trying to feel into understanding yourself in a certain way, breathe, remain open, remain curious and remain secure in the knowledge that everything is within you. This process is about reconnecting with yourself, trusting yourself and learning to get to the source of what holds you back so that you will be able to set goals for yourself with confidence and clarity moving forward.

Register your details and Ill send you the 7 journal prompts I have lovingly curated for you to kick start a writing practice for yourself…
https://www.lenamoxon.com/7-best-journal-prompts