Episode 15: How Journaling Can Help You Heal
Welcome to the Safe Enough Podcast! This podcast is an exploration of what it means to feel safe enough in order to live the kind of life, or make the kind of changes that transform our lives, into those with all the love, connection, belonging and purpose that we seek and strive for. My name is MacPherson Worobec, founder of the It Begins To Move studio. I am a safety and self-worth recovery partner, and I’m so happy that you’re here.Â
This is the 2nd of a 3 episode series about different ways to gently connect with your body, so that you can cultivate an embodied sense of safety, as the foundation for work in cultivating a deep down knowing of your inherent value and worth. The last episode talked about how a certain kind of body movement can be a great tool, and this episode will talk about how journaling can be a tool for gently connecting with your body to create a felt sense of safety. So, if we’re going to talk about journaling, then let’s talk about words. Language, in general, is a system of conveying information. Therefore, language is our communicative medium, and words are tools for communicating meaning to other folks. Words communicate meaning, and if they can convey meaning to other folks, then they can also be tools for communicating meaning to ourselves too! So what kind of information can words convey? Well, words convey concepts. Concepts are complex ideas that are representations of lots of things. Concepts are often made up of our experiences, thoughts, needs, memories, emotions, and so on. And they’re so important! Concepts make up what we know and feel, what we believe to be true, and they underlie the actions we take. They are like an amalgamation, like a rich soup with a complex flavor profile that’s made of many different ingredients. So, words convey concepts. And because concepts are representations of memories, experiences, thoughts and such, words point to all those things that a concept represents. Words point to the memories, the emotions, the feelings, the even other concepts that all blend together to make up the complex flavor of one concept we’re trying to convey when we use them to communicate. describe when we use Words point someone else to consider all the parts that combine, to make up the whole thing that we mean, when we say words like “happy” or “sad.”Â
So words are descriptors. They’re not the feelings themselves. They’re not the beliefs. They’re not the emotions, they’re not the experience or the memory. They’re the descriptors of those things. They point to all the parts, that make up the whole of the concept we’re trying to describe and convey, and therefore, words can help us learn about all the parts that are there. They can help us get to know the whole experience that we’re having, or the whole experience we’ve had in the past if we’re remembering something. But! words are not there to CHANGE the concept, or to CHANGE the experience or the emotion or the memory that we’re having. They can be used in that way, but I think that for folks who have had really tough experiences, or who’ve had lots of experiences where their feelings, needs and reality have been negated, there’s gold in using words to understand and affirm the concept that’s there, and all it’s parts. Not to change it, but to know it and understand it. There’s gold in what words can point to. There’s incredible information waiting there about what it is that you actually want and need! Perhaps what action needed to happen in a previous situation that was thwarted and never finished. Perhaps what will create a sense of safety for your nervous system and in your body right now. Perhaps what emotions needed to be expressed in a situation from back then, but didn’t have a safe space to be expressed into. Or perhaps there’s a concept in there right now, that points towards what brings a sense of comfortable aliveness for you, right now! These are what words can help elicit and bring forward. Talking and conversing with another person can do this, sometimes. But journaling can do it in a different way. AND! There’s a special kind of journaling that I’ve found, that can do a particularly remarkable job of helping to connect with those inner concepts, those deep knowing and wisdom bearing places.Â
I first found out about stream of consciousness journaling from Juia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way. In her book, Cameron introduces this kind of journaling that she calls “Morning Pages,” because she recommends doing this kind of writing on real pages (versus typing on a computer), and first thing in the morning. The basic premise of stream of consciousness journaling, is that journaling in this way can help to bring forth something fresh and new, something that you did not have conscious awareness of beforehand. So, I’d like to talk a bit about why this kind of journaling can bring about that outcome. So language is the system by which we communicate information about concepts to each other. It is a codified system, meaning there’s a structured way of how to use words, sounds and sentences to communicate in a way that someone else might understand. As humans, we had to come up with a way to use language in the same way, so that we could understand each other. We had to agree that the letters - at least in English - apple, and the sound that you make with your voice when you say these 5 letters together a-p-p-l-e, “apple,” means, very generally: a round, shiny thing that has red or green skin and sweet, crisp, white colored flesh you can bite into, and it grows on trees, and has seeds. We had to agree as humans how to code that into the English language, and we teach that to children as they’re learning the rules of how to communicate with others. The way we understand, and therefore use language, is based on a set of rules that allow letters and words, and strings of words, to make codified meaning, or that allow another person to get the point we’re trying to make when we speak. Otherwise, words are just strings of sounds we make with our mouths and vocal cords when we speak, or are just scribbles on the page when we write or read. But because it’s structured, and this is the whole point of talking about this, there’s a whole lot of filtering of meaning, needs, of the raw expression that comes from within, when following the rules of the language we speak. Following the rules is both helpful in one sense, and also unhelpful in another sense. It’s helpful in the fact that it means we can convey and share meaning, but it's unhelpful in the fact that there’s an inherent editing we do, when abiding by the linguistic rules. This editing and filtering happens when we talk to others, but it also when we talk to ourselves. And it is exactly this set of codified, structured rules that can prevent connecting with the deep, inner knowing and wisdom that’s right in there, right within you, right now! That inner knowing and wise part of you, it’s benevolent, and can only provide incredibly positive information. Your needs, are ALWAYS positive. Always. What you need for safety is ALWAYS positive. Always. I can’t stress that enough. It might clash with what your environment is providing at the moment, or has the capacity to provide. And that clash is a topic for a whole other podcast topic series. But! you need to have ACCESS to the wise, inner knowing that’s within yourself, and within your body, in order to decide what to do with it, or what to do about it. In order to have choice and agency. And gently connecting with all that wise data that’s within you, is what stream of consciousness writing can help you do. If you’re interested in experiencing this kind of journaling to connect with your wise, inner knowing, and grow your sense self-worth, you might want to register for the very special upcoming event Experiencing My Self-Worth. Or you might want to download 3 Journaling Prompts For Healing. You can do both of those things on my website itbeginstomove.com. That’s all lower case and the word to, t-o, not the number 2. Itbeginstomove.com. The event Experiencing My Self-Worth event will take you through a more in depth experience of stream of consciousness journaling for self-value and self-worth, so if you’re interested in learning more, I really hope to see you there! And if you find this podcast helpful, please rate it on your listening platform to increase the chance that others can find it too. If there’s any question or topic you’d like to hear me address, leave it in a comment or a review! In the next episode in this series I’ll be talking about how reading can be used to gently connect with your wise, inner knowing. I’ll see you there, and Take care, kind soul!
