9/11. Twelve years ago that horrific event occurred and yet it appears that we are still clueless about the Middle East and how to achieve global peace. Why can’t we learn that we need to wage peace with the same intensity that we’re used to waging war?
But mostly, of course, it’s about being the change we want to see; being the change on the individual level. If I want peace across all the nations of the earth, I must learn how to create peace in myself.
How unendingly difficult that is! Peace may stay with me for a moment or two, but then some distraction always comes along. Inevitably, some menace pops up to burst my bubble of contentment.
It’s the human condition, I suppose. We ping-pong constantly between contentment and anxiety. Too much of either extreme would kill us.
But let’s consider a few ways journal writing can bring us into more masterful control of the perpetual volley between our happiness and our fear.
- Title a new page in your journal, “Threatening Things.” List or discuss the things in your perceived world – the world you see and experience as external events – that seem to be threatening. Include those that exist in your personal life and then also consider the things that appear to menace the wellbeing of your community, the world around you. Make this list fairly comprehensive. Once you run out of items, rest a while and then come up with some more. Then circle three items that are most threatening to you.
- Devote three separate journal entries to your three circled items. Let yourself become more intimate with your most pressing fears. Be honest; dig deep. No wimping out here!
- Now (and force yourself if necessary) write several journal entries that focus on your contentment: your gratitude, hope, and creative ideas.
- The next time an external event – whether in your personal sphere or in the world at large – makes you anxious or fearful, spend some time in your journal describing exactly what happened both inside and outside of you. Make note of your physical, emotional, intellectual, and intuitive responses. Repeat this exercise as your life goes on, describing your responses to frightening situations a few more times.
- Now devote several journal entries to your thoughts about other people and their fears. Consider your family members, co-workers, friends. Describe what you imagine their major anxieties to be, and how they deal with them.
After a few of these kinds of journaling journeys, your relationship with fear will change. Not that you’ll be suddenly fearless, but your writing will show the way to the next level up on your never ending search for inner peace.
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