Intuitive Journaling E-workshop – Released on the Summer Solstice (21st June) 2014
Format – Pdf into email inboxes with email support
Tutor – Fiona Doubleday
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Aim – the aim of this free e-workshop is to introduce participants to the principles and fundamental practices associated with intuitive journaling. This will be achieved through – •
A series of mindfulness exercises to help cleanse & clear our minds.
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A series of creative exercises that allow the participants to tap into their ‘essence’ that holds the key to their intuition.
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Reflect on these creative exercises through stream of consciousness writing.
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External analysis of stream of consciousness writing via email (optional)
Context I have been practising journaling most of my life through a variety of media. I began with diary writing when I was very young when my entries shifted from describing my day to thoughts and feelings associated with my experiences. I spent a few years in the US when journaling was just taking off and attended various seminars and workshops to embed the practice. I then introduced the notion of a physical journal into my dance career and related teaching. In more recent years I have studied art journaling and journal analysis through intensive courses to further my practice. The journal analysis course taught me so much about the process of journaling as well as how to analyse journal entries effectively. The analysis of journal entries is something I have taken further as I have deepened my practice of it through my current delivery of e-courses. I always start from the same point in my analysis. I consider it a privilege to read people’s journal entries and any analysis is offered as a reader only – 2
with no necessary prior knowledge of the person. That way I allow myself to focus entirely on the writings and what they offer. Method The process of journaling is complex and we use many different techniques to access it. I prefer to use creative exercises as a means to access our stream of consciousness writing. These are both underpinned by mindfulness exercises that help to cleanse our minds and make them ready for the process to come. Stream of consciousness writing is not easy and takes considerable practice. It is very easy to begin internal editing as we write which then removes us from our intention. The intention behind stream of consciousness writing is to allow the mind to flow from the subconscious into the conscious. The technique comes unstuck if we pause for anything longer than the briefest of moments. We aim to write as we think. If this is your first encounter with stream of consciousness writing do be gentle with yourself. It is a form of writing that improves greatly with practice. Support I am only offering this e-workshop to a maximum of 20 participants so that I might be able to respond to each person individually. There is absolutely no obligation to share but if you would like to email me your stream of consciousness writing I will offer an analysis as part of the experience.
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Further Opportunities I am running an Intuitive Journaling course for the month of July. A short writing exercise will be offered every day for the month to help embed intuitive journaling into your daily life. If you would like to pursue your journaling further I offer a number of ecourses that develop from this workshop. Each year I offer a 6 month ecourse entitled Meditation through Writing. This course gives participants a long period of time to embed mindful meditation and writing as practice capable of delivering lingering contentment. The next offering of this course will be early in 2015 but you can reserve a place now. For the first time I am offering an e-retreat entitled Place, Space and Identity which is delivered over two intensive weekends separated by 4 weeks. The aim of this e-retreat is to immerse ourselves in creative activities (including intuitive journaling) to examine the complex issue of our identities and how they have been affected by place and space. It is useful to have some experience of journaling for this course so it is a good idea to extend your practice beyond the free workshop in your own time and at your own pace. This course will be offered in August but bookings are open now.
Preparation for the e-workshop This is your chance to go out and purchase a beautiful journal that inspires you! Or buy a plain notebook and cover it yourself‌. Where possible writing by hand rather than keyboard and choose a pen or pencil that feels comfortable in your hand. Colour is an important part of intuitive journaling so coloured pencils or maybe even watercolour paints are good options for this workshop. A comfortable cushion and a warm blanket are by no means essential but you may find them useful. Being comfortable when we are entering into the mindfulness exercises usually makes the experience more productive and enjoyable. It is important to find a quiet place to engage in the workshop away from distractions.
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Introduction – Take your journal, this workshop document, your writing equipment and a blanket and cushion and find a quiet space to work. Settling down into a comfortable position wrap the blanket around you and begin to listen to your breathing. As you listen close your eyes and let your breathing deepen slightly. Stay like this for a few minutes. Open your ideas and turn to the first page of your journal and draw a circle to fill the page. Take yourself back into that breathing space you just inhabited and write everything that went through your mind as simple notes inside the circle. With either a coloured pencil or a paintbrush lightly wash over all of the writing inside the circle with a blue colour. Put down your journal equipment and make yourself comfortable again. Repeat the breathing exercise again but try to stay in that space a little longer this time. Recreate the circle in your mind but leave it empty. In your mind’s eye pick up your pencil or paintbrush and wash the circle with your blue colour. Look at this blue circle for a few minutes before opening your eyes. Turn to a new page of your journal and draw another circle to fill that page and colour it blue as you did in your mind’s eye. Turn over the page and write down any thoughts that tried to enter your blue circle when you were washing it with colour in your mind’s eye. These are what we know to be dominant thoughts. Circle any of these thoughts that you enjoy in a green colour and those that you don’t enjoy in a red colour. You are beginning to take control of your thoughts. On the next fresh page draw a line right down the centre from the top to the bottom. On the left side write the words ‘I thought about’ and on the write hand side of the page write the word ‘because’.
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I thought about
because
SAMPLE I thought about my work
I find it difficult not to!
Complete your chart listing as many thoughts as you can remember with the reasons why these thoughts are dominant. Turn to a fresh page. Make two lists. On the first list record a list of thoughts that you wish you had less of. On the second list record a list of thoughts that you wish you had more of. You are starting to train your mind.
Regression In our pursuit of lingering contentment we sometimes look back into our past. I want to take you back to a clutch of early memories where you are as young as possible. Make yourself comfortable and repeat the attention to breathing exercise. Beginning with your neck and shoulders release any tension down your body into your arms and chest. Release that tension into your hips and pelvis. Release that tension into your legs. Release that tension into your feet. Take a deep breath in and, as you exhale, release the tension from your feet into the space around you. Focusing on your breath allow your mind to wander back to a clutch of early memories that make you smile inside and out. Place that version of your younger self in the centre of your mind. Look at him/her for a while. Let that small child speak to you about his/her lovely memories and listen 6
carefully. When he/she has finished wave goodbye and let him/her walk out of your mind. Open your eyes. Turn to a fresh page in your journal. Without too much thinking write down what he/she told you about your lovely early memories. When you have finished read it back out loud and then close your journal and just sit quietly in the space. On the floor around you use your finger to write some key phrases that come to mind after reading your happy memories. Open your journal to the last page where you wrote about your happy memories. Answer the following questions – Roughly how old was I? Who else was involved in these lovely memories? Why have these memories stayed with me so long? What is the essence of these memories? What makes them unique? Think about your life now. How far have you moved away from these memories? What has taken their place? Think about the child you saw in your mind and waving him/her goodbye. How did that feel?
Our early happy childhood memories are often shaped by a feeling of belonging and being safe and loved. But they are often also shaped by a feeling of curiosity and wonder. Both of these aspects ebb and flow through our lives but when they are absent we often feel at our most vulnerable.
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Our own desert island Scenario – You will be abandoned on a desert island for a month. Besides life saving things such as water, food and shelter you have to choose from the following options what else you will take with you. Draw yourself on a desert island in your journal leaving plenty of space to add in words/pictures from the list below. Obviously some people in the list may not be with you at this time in your life. Let that go and accept that these people are always with you (some of the options may not be relevant to you). It is important to make instant responses. Don’t allow yourself too much thinking time. Your best friend or your mother Your brother/sister or your father Your child/children or your partner Your pet(s) or your other close friends Your bed or your sofa Your coat or your shoes Your favourite book or gadget (let’s assume wifi!!) Your paintbrush and paints or your pen Sheets of plain paper or your journal Your favourite flowering plant or your favourite perfume or aftershave Bird identification book or latest best seller Blanket or duvet
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A ball or your knitting/sewing A surfboard or a sun lounger When you have added your choices to your desert island page in your journal take a look at the picture that is emerging. These choices should have been instant and, as such, rely on instinctive judgements. Look back at the list of choices with a little more time – would you like to change any of them? The more we change the more we are challenging our instincts. Why is this happening? Start writing about the choices you have made. Tell the reader why you made some of the choices you did and don’t stop writing until you have finished. Close your journal. Make yourself comfortable and repeat the breathing and releasing tension exercise. In your mind’s eye picture your arrival on the desert island. Picture the people and things that you have brought with you. Picture one day running into the next as you explore the things you have brought with you as you share these with your company. • • • •
Do you feel safe and comfortable? Do you feel loved? Are you curious about your surrounding and the options for activities it offers? Do you feel a sense of wonder?
Let us be very clear. There are no right answers here. It is not a test! What it is though is an emerging picture of the people and things that make you feel content. Ask yourself the following additional questions – • Were you surprised at some of the intuitive choices you made? If so which ones and why? •
Which choices were particularly hard to make and why?
If you decide to share any entries with me following the workshop I can do an external analysis of the choices you made if you send them to me. Remember I do this with no prior knowledge taken into account. It is a simple analysis that you can use as you see fit.
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The Intuitive Being Let us compare ourselves to a cat. A cat works on its intuitive instincts throughout each and every day. Their behaviour is determined by powerful instincts to hunt, be comfortable and to eat and drink. In some ways we are more complex than cats. Our instincts develop and change as we go through our lives. Just like cats we have instincts to seek comfort and food but much of our additional instincts come from our relationships with others. Many of us have an instinct to be loved. This is a very complex and powerful instinct that is capable of dominating our thinking. In your journal write a list of the people that you love most in the world. Underneath that list write another list of the people that love you most in the world. Are the two lists the same? If they are you are fortunate and it is important to dwell on that for a moment. If they are not it may be that someone you love does not love you back‌‌ How does that make you feel? Most of us reach out to others in search of love and affection. That is a positive thing. However, it is capable of clouding our intuition as we find ourselves wondering what others would do in a given situation. The reactions of others have no place in our intuition except with reference to ensuring our intuitive behaviour does not hurt them in any way. Intuitive Check Have a little think about recent decisions you have made. Turn to a new page in your journal. Draw a line down the middle top to bottom as before. Decision made
SAMPLE Applied for a new job
People that influenced the decision (other than yourself) in order of importance
Partner, boss,
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When you have finished insert your initials where you feel you sat in the decision making process. For example do my initials come before partner or after etc. In reviewing your chart are you • • •
Always Sometimes never
at the start of the decision making process? If not why not? This is what we mean by other people clouding our intuition. Revisiting our small childhood memories that we accessed earlier. Make yourself comfortable and repeat the breathing and the easing of tension exercise. In your mind’s eye let your small child enter the space and sit down on a park bench. You sit down next to them as you are today. Let your small child remind you of your happy memories. Let them remind you what is important to them. Now tell your small child about some of your recent decisions from your list. Listen to your small child as they make some suggestions about how you might re-frame any decisions you have made. Gently hold hands with your small child and let the image fade before opening your eyes. What did you learn from this visualization? Start writing and don’t stop until you have finished. This is another piece that you might like to share with me at a later date but there is absolutely no obligation.
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My Intuitive Self Affirmations are things we write down believing them to be important as we move forward in life. Write a maximum of five affirmations that focus on the following – • • • • •
What is important to you in life. How do you make decisions? Who is too involved in your decisions and endangering the clarity of your intuition? Who is not involved enough in your decisions as a support to you? How do these answers change the way we make our decisions?
For example – My best friend (insert name) is the person that knows me best and I therefore trust him/her the most. I need to stop relying on other people to make my decisions and trust my own judgement more.
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Ending our thinking An open letter Turn to a fresh page. Write a letter to your small child with his/her happy memories. Give them some advice on how they might hold onto a sense of being loved. Give them some advice on how to hold onto their curiosity and wonder. Tell them anything else that springs to mind as you write. End by wishing them a life filled with lingering contentment.
Congratulations – you will have, undoubtedly, travelled some distance towards touching your essence and understanding the power of intuitive thinking. This is a long and sometimes arduous journey that I am quite sure we follow our entire lives. However, learning to think intuitively is a very powerful life tool that helps us believe in ourselves. This self belief sits beside a deep pool of lingering contentment as we chart our way through our decisions. Our lives are a collection of decisions and other aspects that we can’t control. So let us, at the very least, take some control over our decisions in the safe knowledge that our intuition will not let us down. This has been an intensive introduction to intuitive journaling and its potential place in our lives. Let the thinking that the exercises have generated move around our minds at will for a while. Sometimes it is in this reflective thinking that new knowing is uncovered. Please feel free to send me any extracts you would welcome external analysis of and I will do my very best. I hope that the workshop has been helpful. Many thanks Fiona Scottish island mum. xx Web references www.scottishislandmum.com www.onesoulmanyhearts.blogspot.co.uk www.gb.pinterest.com/fionad/meditation-through-writing/
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All photographs remain the property of Fiona Doubleday & David Newell. If you would like to see more of their work visit their flickr accounts – Fiona Doubleday www.flickr.com/photos/fionadoubleday/ David Newell- www.flickr.com/photos/105987366@N05 The workshop remains the property of Fiona Doubleday. Please do not copy any of it without prior permission. Thank you.
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