On this post I will reflect on the
journey journal I’ve been doing for the last 8 weeks. In this journal I have
been imposed some rules to follow such as write your first thoughts, always
keep your hand moving, don’t cross out, forget about grammar and punctuation,
etc. Some of these rules have been a challenge to me but gracefully I’ve done
it.
On my journey journal I notice about
many changes I did since the beginning. The first main change was when I
decided to write slanted or diagonally, I thought that it would be very
difficult for me, since I’ve always tried to write on the lines. At the
beginning I wrote curvy, like an arc, when you first see it, it would seem that
the words are falling from the notebook, but if you compare that to how I ended
it, you can see all the entire changes I did. I ended writing very precisely
and diagonally as I tried to do in the first place. Another thing I notice was
that I started crossing out every misspelled word and on the first ones I
crossed out, I also put on my initials, as if it was my organic chemistry’s lab
notebook. Since that moment I remember how seriously I took my lab. But them I
learned to ignore all the misspelling and focus on the continuous writing.
At the beginning I first stop many
times when writing because I have been always been the type of person that needs
to think about the topic that I will write, so for me the stream of
consciousness technique was very difficult. When writing, I always got
distracted with all the things I got to do or the things that I wished to do,
but I know that all of these distractions helped me out specially on my
organization. I believe that it easily cost me my first 20 entries to get used
to write my first thoughts. For me this activity was very difficult and at the
beginning I wrote about the TV shows I see and the journeys that I went
thinking about them and stuff like that, but later I got better. After all
these first entries, my journal got a look like a little bit messy but it was
when I fully reach the ability of writing every single thought that came to my
mind. It really looks like I mess but maybe it is because my mind sometimes
goes crazy thinking on many things at the same time. That’s why I found this
very useful. This journal helped me understand the mess of thoughts I am
usually dealing with.
The life compass activity was very
innovative for me. I’ve never heard of something like this. I did 5 compasses
in total since I focus mainly on the writing but I could say that I range all
the possible number in almost all the regions. The region in which I was most
stable was the spiritual. I consider myself with a good spiritual base because
since very little I was raised in the church and I feel very connected to God
and blessed by him in many aspects. Also, I feel very connected with nature,
which is the main reason that today I used my bicycle as my method of
transportation, because it does well to the environment plus I work out. Thanks
to the life compass activity I realize that I may change a lot from day to day
and that my main flaw is that I am resting very little. I know that it is
because of all the stress I’ve been through but I am handling it well, or at
least I am trying to.
Music I used to inspire.
Front Page - Journey Journal
Back Page - Journey Journal
I like the turn you gave to this journal activity and I can see that you had a great internal journey with this activity. As it did for you, my journal also helped me to canalize certain emotions sometimes and I also learned to deal with my anger using this technique. I founded very funny that you even signed when you cross out the misspelled words at the beginning of the activity as you did in your organic chemistry lab notebook. I believe that it represents how difficult it is sometimes to get out of the disciplined customs and be free and reckless. :)
ReplyDeleteLike you, it was very hard for me to not think about what I was going to write. I like to have a topic also. I agree with you about the compass and, for me also, being spiritual with nature and God has helped me. When I'm physically tired, my work is also affected and the compass helped me see this. I think this journal has helped all of us release a lot of stress and emotions that would normally affect us. This has been a great outlet and I hope you travel to Bora Bora!
ReplyDeleteThis activity definitely was of great help to all of us. I share with you the high scores on the spiritual part of the compass, actually that was the only thing that made me feel good about it! Crossing out words is a habit for all of us science majors probably because, like you said, the organic chemistry lab notebook demands such a high structure and order. Btw, nice cover! :)
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