Journaling for Personal Transformation

Two perspectives’ is a monthly column with two different perspectives from two different continents, genders and cultures on the same topic viz.

Janet Smith Warfield (based in Florida, USA) and 

Dr Amit Nagpal (based in New Delhi, India).

Two Perspectives on Journaling

Janet Smith Warfield's Perspective

Benefits:

Clarity

Understanding

Inner Peace

Healing

Increased Self-Esteem

Joy

Freedom

What You Need:

Pen or pencil

Journal or pad of paper 

One hour of uninterrupted time

Quiet surroundings

An open mind

Personal Safety:

What you write is for your eyes alone.

Feel free to shred what you’ve written at any time.

Don’t be Surprised if:

You don’t know what to write about. (Just sit in your “not knowing” until thoughts show up.)

Unexpected emotions suddenly surface. (If these appear, just notice them, and when you are ready, return to your journaling. You may want to use them as a starting point for a new thread of writing.)

Allow Yourself to:

Misspell words

Use the wrong word

Use wrong grammar

Be judgmental

Pour out your rage

Look at your fear

Guidelines:

Don’t censor your thoughts! (I can’t stress this enough.)

Notice your thoughts.

Allow your thoughts to flow wherever they want to go.

Write everything down on your paper

Just watch what comes through.

My personal experience with journaling is that I start out struggling with a problem, meander along twisting, turning paths, jump to a seemingly unrelated train of thought that just won’t leave me alone, and end up with new insights and new ideas for moving forward.

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Dr. Janet Smith Warfield serves wisdom-seekers who want understanding and clarity so they can live peaceful, powerful, prosperous lives. Through her unique combination of holistic, creative, right-brain transformational experiences and 22 years of rigorous, left-brain law practice, she has learned how to sculpt words in atypical ways to shift her listeners into experiences beyond words, transforming turmoil into inner peace. For more information, see www.wordsculptures.com, www.janetsmithwarfield.com, and www.wordsculpturespublishing.com. 

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Dr Amit Nagpal's Perspective

Journaling is one of the best tools for personal transformation. Let us take a look at how to do journaling for personal growth and transformation purpose. Primarily it can be divided in 3 cateegories viz. 

1. Tool for self-reflection
2. Tool for release of anger
3. Journaling as a filter 

1) Tool for self-reflection 

Journaling is primarily a tool for self-reflection. Have you ever reflected upon what are your three core values? Once we decide our three core values, we can do a self-reflection every week, "Am I living according to my values? What are the areas I need to improve? What mistakes did I make in these areas?” as part of the journaling process. You can monitor your own growth by reading what you wrote three months back or a year back and compare your current state. 

2) Tool for release of anger 

When you are feeling very angry-you have two options viz. 

Write it out and then tear the pages 

Write it and keep it to monitor your own progress. 

What is written in extreme anger should be destroyed as it can be dangerous if it reaches the wrong person by mistake. 

3) Journaling as a filter 

Creative people often have phases of creativity blasts and phases of dryness (of ideas). When you are inspired and are flooded with ideas, the journal becomes your filter too (This is a recent lesson I learned from my friend Jennifer Sertl, Author of Strategy, Leadership & the Soul). Write everything in the journal before posting on social media. Double check whether it is worth posting and aligned with your three core values (from focus/personal branding perspective). Double check the errors, if you are developing yourself as a professional author or blogger. 

Sometimes when you read your own stuff after six months or a year, you feel like laughing at your stupidities or your raw language at that point of time. So journaling can be a source of entertainment too at times. 

The trouble of today is the joke of tomorrow.

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Dr Amit Nagpal is a Personal Branding Consultant & Deepest Passion Coach. He is based in New Delhi, India and specializes in personal branding with a holistic touch. His philosophy is, "Enlarge as a Human Being, Excel as a Social Media Being and Evolve as a Personal Brand"

To know more about him, click here.