![]() ![]() ![]() I was competing with robots and forsaking what made me human. I saw how I was neglecting friendships, forgetting to play, and drowning out my true feelings with external noise. It was through journaling that I was able to see just how far off the path I’d strayed. It allowed me to hold them in my hand and see them for what they were. My journal allowed me to pull the blurry emotions, vague ideas, and wild insecurities into physical existence. And it didn’t take long for words to fill the page and release the pressure in my head. It didn’t know exactly what was down there, but I had a hunch it was coiled and ready to bite.Īfter months of avoidance, I returned to my journal. ![]() Standing on the cliff’s edge, refusing to take a hard look at what was waiting below. ![]() I knew that I had too many thoughts and feelings bouncing around my head, but for some reason, I felt more comfortable spinning on the haunted carousel of rumination. It was when I found myself in the thicket of burnout and disconnect that I realized that it had been months since I journaled. I’ve always been amazed at my ability to avoid what I know I need most. Who looks outside dreams who looks inside, awakes.” But looking into your heart is difficult when you’re stuck in your head. “Your visions,” he wrote, “will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. But the power of journaling isn’t only in the collecting, it’s also in the emptying. Because as ink fills the page, our inner canvass gets washed clean.Ĭarl Jung, the godfather of analytical psychology, calls this process, making the unconscious conscious. One of the gifts of journaling is the ability to go back - to re-read, re-live, and remember who we were and how we felt at different points in our life. It’s the daily practice of keeping a journal. It’s been used as a secret weapon by some of history’s greatest leaders, artists, and icons to find wisdom and self-mastery. There is one tool, however, that works to drag the lake of murky emotions out of the dark room and into the open. We eagerly pounce on whatever ‘insights’ we find without questioning their validity or value.” The Buddist scholar, Tarthang Tulku uses an apt-analogy: “When we introspect, our response is similar to a hungry cat watching mice. Introspection is typically thought of as a good habit, but research has shown that people who are prone to introspection tend to be more anxious, less content, and more self-absorbed than people who spend less time in introspection. And that ongoing, up-in-your-head rumination we’re prone to? It often makes things worse. That’s because introspection doesn’t always equal insight. Self-reflection like this is like getting dressed in the dark - you might get your pants on, but they’re probably backward and definitely won’t match your shoes. We replay old scenes on the mental projector in our mind. Most of us - myself included - tend to self-reflect inside our head. Self-awareness, in particular, is defined as the “conscious knowledge of our own character and mindset.” To be self-aware is to be an unbiased witness to the concepts, feelings, and behaviors that shape our reality.īut despite the amount of time we spend thinking about ourselves, true self-awareness is rare. Philosophers and scientists have debated for generations over a clear definition, but at its core, consciousness is considered, “an awareness of an internal and external existence.” Yet, while all humans have consciousness, it’s painfully apparent that many have less awareness than others. Is it the capacity to feel guilt or gratitude? The chill on the back of the neck during a morning walk? The taste of a delicious dinner that transports you to another time and place? What is consciousness? The word gets thrown around in science fiction films, branded as the final divide between humans and robots. ![]()
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