To your point of directing our attention to what matters - this is a recent Atlantic Magazine article’s concluding paragraph by Chris Hayes about taking back our attention from distractions back to things that do matter:
“We must use every tool and strategy imaginable to wrest back our will, to create a world in which we point our attention where we—the willful, conscious “we”—want it to go. A world where we can function and flourish as full human beings, as liberated souls, unlashed from the mast, our ears unplugged and open, listening to the lapping of the waves, making our way back home to the people we love, the sound of sirens safely in the distance.”
This essay has been adapted from Chris Hayes’ new book, The Sirens’ Call.
Man I love that quote. Sustained daily journaling does absolutely feel like me wresting back control of my own self, giving myself that agency to choose what I'm doing instead of just following wherever my attention immediately snaps to.
As a dedicated journaler myself, I can only agree wholeheartedly. I no longer write daily, but I use my journal to work out things that are bothering me or just record 'aha' moments. And yes, as you say in the comments, it keeps me focusing on the heart of the matter instead of letting my mind leapfrog around (as most ADD minds do).
I got into the habit when doing Julia Cameron's Morning Pages (from The Artist's Way). She's a proponent of handwritten 'pages' which I still do (even though my handwriting is terrible). It stimulates the body-mind connection, I think. And training awareness of that connection is very healing, I've found.
Ah, I've heard so much about Morning Pages, although have yet to try it. My hand would probably cramp up if I tried to write with a pen for longer than five minutes, but I'm curious about the body-mind connection part. A good bit of my journaling is me noticing something in my body then trying to figure out what may mean... so a manual version of exploring mind/body connection perhaps.
My therapist told me about the prompts in the native Journal app on iPhone, and while I still haven’t gotten over my weird inability to journal, it is definitely a place I could try to start. They are listed in the app as “reflections”.
I have been looking for a guided journal, or a prompting journal, or something like that, because I sense that prompts or sentence stems might be what I need to get the habit going. The blank pages intimidate me or maybe even make me feel self-conscious to be writing about myself, which I know is SO silly (and probably something I should try to untangle). Thanks for this! Just reading this is helpful for demystifying/familiarizing the process and value of journaling for whatever wall it is that keeps me from writing.
Hey thanks! Glad you found it insightful. I have no idea if this would actually work, but my immediate thought is to try journaling about why you find it so hard to actually journal. Otherwise you're going to be trying to push through that (very understandable) block without actually addressing it. I often find journaling at that "meta" level, where I'm talking about what's going on with me at the moment, instead of following a prompt about something more general, to be quite helpful. May not work for you at all, but just a thought! (Also now I want to at least see what that new Journal app has to offer, thanks for the reminder.)
To your point of directing our attention to what matters - this is a recent Atlantic Magazine article’s concluding paragraph by Chris Hayes about taking back our attention from distractions back to things that do matter:
“We must use every tool and strategy imaginable to wrest back our will, to create a world in which we point our attention where we—the willful, conscious “we”—want it to go. A world where we can function and flourish as full human beings, as liberated souls, unlashed from the mast, our ears unplugged and open, listening to the lapping of the waves, making our way back home to the people we love, the sound of sirens safely in the distance.”
This essay has been adapted from Chris Hayes’ new book, The Sirens’ Call.
Man I love that quote. Sustained daily journaling does absolutely feel like me wresting back control of my own self, giving myself that agency to choose what I'm doing instead of just following wherever my attention immediately snaps to.
As a dedicated journaler myself, I can only agree wholeheartedly. I no longer write daily, but I use my journal to work out things that are bothering me or just record 'aha' moments. And yes, as you say in the comments, it keeps me focusing on the heart of the matter instead of letting my mind leapfrog around (as most ADD minds do).
I got into the habit when doing Julia Cameron's Morning Pages (from The Artist's Way). She's a proponent of handwritten 'pages' which I still do (even though my handwriting is terrible). It stimulates the body-mind connection, I think. And training awareness of that connection is very healing, I've found.
Ah, I've heard so much about Morning Pages, although have yet to try it. My hand would probably cramp up if I tried to write with a pen for longer than five minutes, but I'm curious about the body-mind connection part. A good bit of my journaling is me noticing something in my body then trying to figure out what may mean... so a manual version of exploring mind/body connection perhaps.
My therapist told me about the prompts in the native Journal app on iPhone, and while I still haven’t gotten over my weird inability to journal, it is definitely a place I could try to start. They are listed in the app as “reflections”.
I have been looking for a guided journal, or a prompting journal, or something like that, because I sense that prompts or sentence stems might be what I need to get the habit going. The blank pages intimidate me or maybe even make me feel self-conscious to be writing about myself, which I know is SO silly (and probably something I should try to untangle). Thanks for this! Just reading this is helpful for demystifying/familiarizing the process and value of journaling for whatever wall it is that keeps me from writing.
Hey thanks! Glad you found it insightful. I have no idea if this would actually work, but my immediate thought is to try journaling about why you find it so hard to actually journal. Otherwise you're going to be trying to push through that (very understandable) block without actually addressing it. I often find journaling at that "meta" level, where I'm talking about what's going on with me at the moment, instead of following a prompt about something more general, to be quite helpful. May not work for you at all, but just a thought! (Also now I want to at least see what that new Journal app has to offer, thanks for the reminder.)
Just in time.