Pathwalking 265
Sometimes keeping things in your head is exhausting.
I am a thinker. I am constantly thinking about things, great and small, major and minor, important and less so. From food I want to eat to world situations to speculation about the next Star Wars movie to finances, I am constantly thinking.
The problem with constantly thinking is that I am frequently finding darker thoughts clouding my emotions. When you start to let negative emotions dominate, you wind up having a very difficult time not just manifesting what you want, but simply living day to day and generally functioning.
This is where a particular Pathwalking in Practice application comes to mind. Specifically, journaling.
I often forget, which is why I frequently remind myself here, the power of writing things down. It doesn’t need to be a long, drawn out process. But sometimes just writing out what I am thinking, what’s on my mind, where my head is at the given moment helps me to regain my clarity, my focus.
Last week I talked about asking myself questions, four times a day. More, I needed to write out my answers when I asked them. How am I? What am I thinking? What am I feeling?
I have not succeeded at getting this down four times a day, but three consistently. The effect? I do feel that I have a better sense of my emotional state. Unfortunately, I see I am all-too-frequently feeling negative, but being more aware of this I can work to correct it.
One of the ways to work at this is journaling. If I write down just what on earth is in my head, it can help me to gain clarity, and to get a better understanding of just what is going on in there. If I am finding too much negativity in the answers to my questions, why is that? Is it something I can control, or is it an outside thing I can’t do much with or about? What’s going on in my thought process that’s causing me to feel negative?
There are times just writing out what you cannot say is immensely helpful. Letters to yourself, to people who have made you feel hurt, to inanimate objects, to grand entities that couldn’t care less about you or your existence – all of these have value. Writing it out gets it out of your head, and lets you move forward.
Some people, like me, prefer to type. Have you seen my handwriting? I swear, when I go too fast, I can barely read it. Typing? I can type nearly as fast as I can think, and this I CAN read.
Some people prefer the feel of pen on paper, and they like to be able to flip the pages and read their thoughts without having to sit at a tablet or smartphone or computer or such. It makes no difference, really, so long as you get the words out of your head and onto a page.
The catharsis of this is incredibly powerful. When you write things out, good or bad, you move them clear of your mind and make room for new things. Yes, I am sure you can argue that our minds have infinite capacity. I argue that pretty frequently myself. But the thing is, when emotions are involved, we often wind up focused on our feelings, and particularly emotions we would prefer to be without.
Negative emotions are NOT more powerful than positive. The trouble is, our society has become far more reactionary than actionable. We fight against this or that, we wait and see and then fix problems, rather than be more proactive and work together to build better from the start.
We also tend to bottle things up. We hold onto bad feelings in particular, we get all stressed out about all kinds of situations. Then we let them fester until we cry, or scream, or get sick…or even die.
As a part of Pathwalking in Practice, keeping a journal can be tremendously helpful in any number of ways. Whether paper, an online format, your smartphone’s notes, or a Word document; maintaining a journal and collecting your thoughts can go a long ways towards finding and negotiating any given path.
I post to this blog a minimum of three times a week. Positivity every Monday, Pathwalking on Wednesday, and now Crossing the Bridges on Friday. Atop of that I also throw down an occasional post about something topical or my writing process or some other things that’s gotten in my head. To all intents and purposes, this is my journaling.
If you are not a blogger like I am, I would suggest starting out with finding a few minutes every day to simply ask yourself, “What’s on my mind?” It need not be lengthy, it doesn’t have to be uber-super-detailed, but it should be something you can write out, and give you a chance to get into your own head for a little self-examination.
Ultimately, this is a very empowering action. Journaling allows us to reach within, draw it out, put it in front of ourselves so that we can create clarity. When we gain clarity, we can more easily manifest the lives we wish to. There is still work to be done, but its always easier when we have clarity.
Journaling is a great means to better walk the path of your choosing. More Pathwalking in Practice. Do you keep any sort of journal for yourself?
This is the two-hundred sixty-fifth entry in my series. These weekly posts are ideas and my personal experiences in walking along the path of life. I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world along the way.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-blog and share.
The first year of Pathwalking, including some expanded ideas, is available here.
If you enjoy Pathwalking, you may also want to read my Five Easy Steps to Change the World for the Better.
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