Sometimes we go on vision quests, seeking our Selves, our personal truths. In this blog, we talk about journaling for Self-discovery.
Self-discovery. Do you ever wonder what that means?
It’s a strange term, when you look at it. We don’t have ‘work-discovery’ or ‘family-discovery’ or ‘community-discovery.’ What could ‘self-discovery’ be?
A discovery mission is about finding the evidence, right? Getting out there and objectively collecting facts.
Space ships and expeditions are named Discovery. Voyages into the Beyond earn such a label.
Do you sense that your journal writing is such a voyage of Discovery?
It can be a bit jarring to realize your Self is susceptible to an infinity of possibilities. A Discovery journey is unpredictable, highly changeable. It’s unsettling to suddenly sense yourself in constant transit, perpetually morphing from who you have been into who you are now and then again changing into who you will soon become.
But journal writing and self-discovery are inevitable bedfellows.
Journaling tends to be an objective witness, and so it can show you exactly how things come together, how one thing leads to another, how your life is constructed in breathtaking complexity and fragility.
Discovery is obviously a central characteristic of the journal writing experience.
But let’s look at Self-discovery. The Self part. Discovery and awareness of Self.
What definition can we give to the word, Self?
May as well journal it.
- Write about your self-image. Draw a verbal picture of You.
- Journal a description of your Self through the eyes of someone close to you: your lover, friend, pet hamster.
- Then journal a description of You through the eyes of a store clerk or a doctor or your favorite celebrity.
- Follow your pen across the page with your ruminations on your Ideal Self, the Self you most want to be, the Self you believe you truly are at heart.
- And then trace the path of Self to its place of rest, where no pre-conditions, pretenses, or protocols pertain. Forget Self in favor of simply being in that protected place, suspended in a blissful trance.
So many different images, angles, facets of Self, all within my own imagination! I could explore for the rest of my life and never reach the end of possibilities.
In the end, Self-discovery turns out to be more like a sport than an achievement. There’s no end to it and we jump into explorations whenever we have the chance, for refreshment and inspiration.
Knowing Self as something fluid, a living and changing interactive flow, somehow makes experience a bit more friendly. It helps us see how we’re all in this as our Selves, and also together.
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I'm here to help if connecting to your Self in journaling is proving to be a challenge. Sometimes a bit of coaching helps to get you unstuck.
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