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Hello, and welcome to the Own Your Health podcast, I'm Cyndi Lynne, and I can't wait to help you step into your health power. So today's episode is coming from you folks, from questions I've gotten lately. I think I've shared that when I hear the same question or the same flavor of question two or three times in a week, like, okay, that's what's on people's minds.
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So as we've gone through the last few episodes, I haven't said much about journaling. It's usually part of my focus, and there's people who've noticed it's missing and people who have asked me, hey, what about the journaling?
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And most of the time people ask, what should I journal about? Or I have a journal and I sit down and I've allocated time for it, but I don't know what to write. I've also been asked, how is this different from keeping a diary?
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So I'm going to try and answer these questions, and then I'm going to give you a real specific example of how I go about one type of journaling just about every morning. So, first of all, journaling is something that helps me process my thoughts, process what's going on in my life, what's going on in the world around me. And when I say helps me process it, it means it helps me think about what feelings something evokes in me.
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It helps me sort out moods or feelings that I'm not sure of, that I can't quite put an aim to. If you've ever been in a situation where you're left feeling a little bit upset or a little bit off, but you look at the situation and on paper everything seems fine, but you still have that little kind of funny feeling about it.
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Journaling can be a really good tool to help sort that out. It's different from a diary in that typically a diary captures what has happened during the day. It tends to be a little bit more of objective.
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Of course, it's always from the writer's point of view. But a diary may capture what you did, where you went, who you were with, what kind of events. You may get into some feelings about it or, or vent a little bit, but that's a very direct writing of what is and what is your experience.
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Journaling, for me, means diving a little bit deeper than that. So if you're sitting there and you're thinking, okay, fine, I sit down in the morning, I have no feeling. I have happy to have my coffee and don't really know where to start writing.
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And that's where reading can come into play. If you find a book of readings, a book of verse, there's many, many books out there that have just a daily reading to kind of spur your thinking on. And and I shared with you the one that I use since my father passed, and it's "Healing after loss".
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There's another one that's been very helpful for me in a much broader perspective, although it's pretty amazing how many days the two of those cross. So the book that I'm going to talk speak from today, I'm actually going to read you a passage and go through my thought process on journaling is called "The Book of Awakening", and it's Mark Nepo.
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And I think I've spoken about this before and if not, either way, there will be a link to this in the show notes below if you're interested in getting a copy for yourself. There's many, many books out there, some of them very spiritual, some of them religious, some of them tied to seasons and practices, and some of them tied to specific phases of life that you're in.
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So wander through Amazon or if you're like me, certain books just have to be held in my hand. Wander through a bookstore, they still have them. And look at these daily sort of readers. So what do you do? You sit down with your coffee or tea or however you want to start your morning.
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I typically do so in front of my happy light because especially now in the winter months here in North America, the days are fairly short and that extra light makes me feel very, very good. And I read that passage for the day and I read it straight through.
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And then I go back and I read certain parts again, certain things I want to highlight or underline. I'm a chronic underliner when it comes to books and sometimes even take notes in the margin. And then I sit down with my journal and I think, okay, what does this reading mean for me?
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The author may have one thing in mind, but how does this reading apply to my life today? What kind of response do I have to it? Am I resistant to it? Am I excited about it? Do I relate to it? It gives you a starting point to kick off that, hey, what, what hit me here?
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What is it that is making me think today when it comes to this particular passage? Now, for those of you who prefer to just free journal, absolutely. And those are typically not the people I'm getting questions from.
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So for the folks who sit down and say, what the heck am I supposed to be writing? This is part of my process for most days. So I'm actually going to read to you from a passage that came through in January,
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It's entitled we must take turns. We must take turns diving into all there is and counting the time. The gift and responsibility of relationship is to take turns doing the dishes and putting up the storm windows, giving the other the chance to dive for God without worrying about dinner.
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While one explores the inner, the other must tend the outer. A great model of this is how pearl divers search the deep in pairs, without scuba tanks or regulators, one waits at the surface, tending the lines tied to the other, who soft steps the sand for treasures he'll hope to recognize.
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He walks the bottom, watching the leaves of vegetation sway and sways himself till she tugs the cord. He swallows the little air left as he ascends. Aboard they talk for hours, placing what was seen, rubbing the rough and natural pearl.
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In the morning, she dives and fills their baskets, and he counts the time, hands wrapped about her line. Quite plainly, these pearl divers show us the work of being together and the miracle of trust.
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We must take turns. Whoever is on the surface must count the airtime left so the one below can dive freely. So when I read this passage, a couple of things jumped out at me.
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And if you are me, if you are a woman who likes to think they can do it all, you might bristle a little bit at some of this. I did kind of at first. I don't always want to be the one tending the lines.
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I want to be the one doing the work, doing the important work. I don't necessarily want to be behind the scenes in some parts of my life. So as usual, I read through it again and got a little bit deeper into my feelings and that, into what I was thinking.
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Now, you can journal at any point. And if your first response like mine was to bristle a little bit, that's what I wrote about. Here is a person I don't even know writing a book that I may or may not have ever bought.
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And they're telling me that I have to take turns. How do I feel about that? And for some of you, this may be like, oh, good grief, what is your problem? Others may say exactly that. I don't like some of what I heard.
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I don't like some of what you read. I don't know if I really follow Cyndi that much, if this is the kind of stuff she's reading. Okay, it's not super radical, and it's not. It's not. Every one of the readings is very different.
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But when we read anything, when we take anything in, what's so much more important here is not what's written on this page. It's what is stirred up in us because the world acts as our mirror.
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And if I have nothing to be stirred up about, if I have nothing to contemplate about this, I would read through and say, oh, okay, that was January 7th. Fine, maybe it'll have something with more meaning for me tomorrow. Or, gee, that reading wasn't as good as it was yesterday.
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But most of the reading in this book, and that's why I like this particular one, most of the readings stir something up. And as I dug deeper into this and got beyond the direct analogy, I thought about times in my life where it was nice to be able to dive deeply into my work, to not worry about the mundane in the world, to not worry about what's for dinner, to not worry about the little details of life, when I was doing the bigger work. And thinking about how much I enjoy that, how much I value that, it's only fair, it's only right that I would do that for another person.
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Here in this instance, he used a he and she. And it brought to mind marriage. And of course, marriage needs to be that partnership if it's going to be successful. You need to take turns not just washing the dishes or putting up the storm windows, but you need to take turns being the one who's minding and tending the lines, the one who's working in the mundane so your partner can do the deeper work.
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This is also very true in friendships. And that's when I started to warm to this passage more. I have women that I've known for many years that I work with closely, and there are definitely times in our relationship where I'm actually happy to hold the lines for them and let them do the deep work and times when they've done the same for me.
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And I'm working on a project right now, I don't have enough ironed out to start talking about it yet, but a partnership project with a very good friend of mine, a professional sleep strategist. And it's a time where one of us spends time in the creative space and the other really focuses on the concrete.
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The website design, the landing pages, all of the mechanics that you have to have to put a good program together. So as I wrote, as I journaled about this, I looked at where this is already happening and what value I'm getting from it?
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And then went back and read it again. And it didn't, I didn't feel as bristled. In fact, I felt like I wanted to look to where I could mind and tend the lines more. And that's in my nature to be a helper.
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Maybe people just don't like to be told what to do. And this is something that may or may not have meaning for you. This particular discussion that I've just had with you may strike a very strong chord, but this is the process that I get to when I sit down with the pen and with my journal to kind of walk through all of that stuff.
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Because if I didn't journal about this reading, I would just read it, think, oh, okay, fine, or, oh, that bugs me. Maybe I won't read that book tomorrow. But I've learned if something bugs me, go a little deeper. And writing it out.
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The process of actually putting pen to paper is what helps the mind really process it. Because thoughts are so fleeting, we have patterns of thinking, we automatically dismiss stuff, but the time it takes to actually write something out gives you the time to say, oh, that's it, I've captured it.
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Or that's not quite right. What else did? I mean, what else is there? And so that's how this has become a very important part of my journaling practice. Now I also teach something called future perfect journaling, and that's a very powerful tool for manifesting.
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But this is the one. This is the method that I use, the process that I use most every morning when I get up. So if you have any questions, I'd love to hear from you. If you would love to move forward in your process, connect with me, give me a call, set up a time, and I can help you get started.
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And if you think that this episode would really ring a bell for anyone else, feel free to share it. And by all means, if you liked it, I would love a rating. So until next week, let's go out and own it.
