Tag: Spirituality

Mapping the journey

journalingJournaling is something that I used to hate doing.  It was always something that others mentioned that would help me in my life and encouraged me to do.  But every time I tried I struggled to make it worth while.  It always seemed like a diary to me and I had absolutely no use for a log of my daily events.

Recently I came to understand journaling in a whole new light.  It was never supposed to be a diary.  There was no need at all the log events that happened in my life at all.  Unless that is something that you want to do.  Journaling was meant to be a way to sort out your thoughts and feelings.  Sometimes this is linked to an event, but doesn’t need to be.  If we want to truly know ourselves then this is something that is necessary to the process.

Dawson Trotman said “Thoughts disentangle themselves when they pass through the lips and fingertips.”  As we put our thoughts down on paper, or computer screen, we can process what is happening in us.  Without doing this we will miss out completely on knowing who we are, and who we are becoming.  Life simply passes and we struggle to get by.  Journaling allows us to place markers along the journey.  Things we have learned about ourselves and the way we see the world.  Discoveries we have made about life, and the struggles it brings.  As we process what is happening to us and within us, we grow.

You wouldmemory map never plan a trip without deciding first where you wanted to go.  A destination is very important in every journey.  But just as important is knowing where you are now.  You can plan a trip from London to Sydney, and have everything lined up for the journey and it will do you absolutely no good when you are currently in Toronto.  Journaling is a way for us to see first where we are at personally.

It allows us to look within and see things about ourselves we would have never noticed otherwise.  It allows us to be honest with ourselves because there is no one to impress.  It is simply us looking in a mirror and writing what we see.  Just as important is the writing where we want to go.  Without a destination to work towards the place we are in now can be painful and not have any purpose or hope.  A destination makes the start worth while.

When we journal we simply are mapping our journey of self-discovery and becoming.  As we journey we mark memorable and life altering moments and discoveries, and allow ourselves to process what is we are discovering and clearly understand who we are becoming.  This allows us to not simply exist, but to really live life and achieve our potential.

The journey begins

journey stepEveryone needs to be on a journey of self-discovery.  It is a journey that many never start, and they miss out completely on some incredible things.  There is only one you in this world.  There has never been someone like you, and there will never be again.  This is the worlds only opportunity to experience you.  And it will miss out completely if you don’t experience you.

Who are you?  Who are you when no one else is looking?  Once you take away all the trappings of life and scratch away everything that life has taught you to be, who would you be?  Would you be the same as you are?  Without your job, or your family, or your friends who are you?  It is a very good question to ask ourselves.  One day all of those things will disappear.  We will retire, our families will grow up and move away, our friends will come and go, and if our identity is based on those things we will be very miserable indeed.  There are a great many people who pass away a few years after retirement,or their spouse passed away, because their identity is gone.  Who are you?

The best place to start is to begin some honest self-evaluation.  This needs to be honest evaluation. We often lie to ourselves about ourselves.  We justify behaviors and responses, and we explain our choices in life which cause us to be the way we are.

For example:

.  If we want to lose weight, we might claim that we’re eating healthy, but in reality our eating habits haven’t changed very much.

.  If we want to be more creative, we might say that we’re trying to write more, but in reality we aren’t holding    ourselves to a rigid publishing schedule.

.  If we want to learn a new language, we might say that we have been consistent with our practice even though we skipped last night to watch television.

We use lukewarm phrases like, “I’m doing well with the time I have available.” Or, “I’ve been trying really hard recently.” These statements are usually just soft excuses that make us feel better about ourselves or about having a goal that we haven’t made much real progress toward. (I know because I’ve been guilty of saying many of these things myself.)

Why do these little lies matter?

Because they are preventing us from being self-aware. Emotions and feelings are important and they have a place, but when we use feel-good statements to track our progress in life, we end up lying to ourselves about what we’re actually doing.

Being honest with yourself is a very important step.  It is where you begin to see what is good in your life.  Start making a list of what is right with you.  But don’t stop there.  Make a list of what you think is wrong as well.  Then you can begin to sort out what you actually want to, or need to change because a lot of what we do is a result of the life we have been pushed  into by the expectations of those around us.  Only when we begin to see ourselves as we truly are, and then make some steps to move towards who we actually want to be can we begin to truly know ourselves.

But it starts with that first step of beginning to be honest with ourselves.  The journey is definitely worth it.every-journey-begins-with-a-single-step-you-will-never-finish-if-you-dont-start

 

Knowing me

Most of us go through life detached from the most important person in our lives.  We wander though life never getting in touch with the one who can make the biggest impact on us.  We accept whatever comes our way and miss out on a passionate existence, and usually blame the world around us for what we see is wrong.  We miss out completely with connecting with ourselves.

A friend once asked me “What are you passionate about?”  It was a question I couldn’t answer.  I had never got into the habit of looking within and learning what was going on inside.  Life was full of external stimuli and little inside understanding.  Life was happening to me, instead of me taking life for all it was worth.  And when I talk with people, most times they have the same responses.  They don’t often know what is inside.

know yourselfFor many years I never came to understand who I was.  And missed out on some great understandings of me, and great experiences which I could have seized on if I truly understood me.  So I started a journey of self-discovery.  Because I am worth knowing and if I don’t know myself, I cannot expect anyone else to be willing to either.  Without knowing yourself you cannot value yourself.  And if you don’t value yourself, no one else will either.

The struggle to know oneself is a difficult path, but one that leads to rich rewards.  Your relationships get better, because they are no longer based on circumstances but on who we are.  Conversations can go much deeper because we have evaluated what we think, and why.  We have also evaluated what we feel and why, so then instead of exploding at random events when everything comes to a head, or blowing up at family after a few hard days, we can begin to see things in a different light, and respond appropriately.

The journey begins by taking a look under our hood and determining what is there.  For many people this will be a hard thing to do, because many don’t really like what they see.  But as we do this we begin to see past the grease and the oil, and we see past the damaged areas, and we see things that are actually worthwhile.  There is great value and priceless treasure inside each one of us, and unless we are willing to take a hard honest look inside, and get past the things we don’t like, we will never become who we were meant to be.

Jesus said to “…love your neighbor in the same way you love yourself.” Mark 12:31 (Voice)  When we look around us at the world we live in very few people actually love themselves.  This is evidenced by the way they treat the world around them.  If we don’t love ourselves, we have nothing to offer others, and we treat them the same way we feel would treat us.  You cannot love yourself without knowing yourself.  And others cannot know you either if you don’t know you.  And the world is crying out for relationships that matter.  We are fed up with the empty social world, and are hungry for something deeper.  And it begins by me knowing me.

know yourself quotes