Journaling Power: What's Your Personal Profile?

It’s the Merry Month of May! Mother’s Day, Marriages, and Matriculation!

May seems to be a time when we focus on various ways society defines us. We have our roles in the family; we pair up and face life together in couples; and we celebrate learning and growth through institutions (like schools) that we have collectively developed.

Using journaling to explore your inner life is more helpful than almost any therapy. But we can also get a lot out of using journal entries to explore our outer lives.

The outer realities of your experience may seem obvious, but it’s likely you take many of them for granted.

When is the last time you carefully examined your role in the family, for instance? Oh, you may be painfully aware that you’re the mother or the baby sister or the old granddad. But what about taking a little time to consider what that means to the others around you as well as to your own peace of mind?

Pick up your journal and pen, and jot down some thoughts:

• In what ways do I relate to the role I have in my family?
• In what ways do I reject that role?
• What aspects of my role are especially important to others?

Does writing out your perspectives on these questions help make you feel more positive about what you may have seen as obstacles in your life?

What about your romantic relationships?  It’s so easy to lose track with those!

• What’s working and helping you be more You?
• What’s not working and keeping you from becoming fully Yourself?
• Describe the way you think your partner perceives you lately. How do you look from his or her point of view?

And then what about your life experience so far?

• What milestones and accomplishments have you achieved?
• What have you learned?
• What do you plan to do, or to become, before your life is done?

There are many external facts about You that, once you list or describe them in your journal, reveal new insights because otherwise you’re too close to see them properly. Some of these might be your choices in:

• Clothing
• Diet
• Home décor
• Movies and music
• Vacation spots

But it might be more fun to write about choices you make in less obvious areas. Consider your tendencies when it comes to:

• Accustomed sleeping posture
• Preferred shopping style
• Table manners
• Packing a suitcase
• Riding in an elevator (yes, everyone has their individual approach/reaction to elevators!)

I bet you can think of a dozen more ways your character is revealed in the simple facts of your life. After listing/describing several of them, play around with your writings for even more cool discoveries.

• Go through your journal entries from the suggestions in this post and circle some of the hot words. String those words together in a sentence or two and see what follows.
• Select a few items and examine them in depth, questioning how you make each choice and analyzing the results it brings.
• Sketch a mandala with sections for the various parts of your external reality and meditate on the resulting image. 

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Isn’t it amazing how there’s inspiration everywhere you look?  We don’t always feel that way, though, so it’s nice to have a resource that’s guaranteed to give you new ideas. That’s why there are hundreds of Journal Prompts available on this site. You can access them write here!