Now that I finished my journal, I have noticed
some changes that I think they are significant. One of the things I could
notice was how the amount of words I write changed during the process of
writing almost every day for 8 weeks. At the beginning, when 10 minutes had
passed, I was writing on the middle of a page, but at the end of my journal I
noticed that I was writing almost 2 whole pages in the same amount of time.
Another thing that I noticed was about my way of writing. I usually write
pretty tiny and fastened, but through the course of writing in the journal my
writing was changing, was getting bigger and more separate. Also, I consider
myself as an extremely right brain person, so when I started to write in the
journal it was very structural, but at the end it was more random and less
structured.
Other aspect in which I could see a change
during the creation of my journal was an improvement in trying not to break the
rules. When I started writing in the journal I was tempted to break all the
rules such as, cross out, be aware about the spelling and grammar, think about
what to write, stop writing, among others. I think this temptation to break the
rules come from my trend to be a right brain person, because it makes me think
about what I am writing and it does not let me write freely. Not to break the
rules was the hardest thing to do during the process, because I am used to
over-think every single word I that comes to me in order to make an excellent
work or get a good grade.
Other thing we did as part of our journals were
the Life Compass activity, in which we made a compass and we wrote how we felt
in the spiritual, physical, emotional and mental way in each cardinal point. We
also wrote a number from 1 to 3 to each category, to describe how we were doing
that day and then we got a total number for that day, so at the end we could
analyze if there was a trend from the beginning to the end. In my case, I did
not find any trend, but my totals were constants. However, I think this technique
is a good way to organize my thoughts and to figure out what kind of things are
making me feel happy or making me feel worried about. Also, I think it helped
me to prioritize my needs according to how I was feeling, so it allowed me to work
on them to try to feel better.
In the case of my internal journey, I have to
say that this activity, of making a first thoughts journal, was very useful,
because it allowed me to reflect about my experiences. I saw this activity as a
moment to get relax and to let my brain unburden and empty all the information
it had taken during the day. At the beginning, I thought about it as a simple
homework, so working on it was like an obligation, but during the course of
this activity I changed my mind and I noticed I was feeling more comfortable
writing in the journal. I think that writing almost every day about the experiences
I had, made me being more aware about how significant these experiences were in
my life.
I also include a pictures of the front and back cover of my Journey Journal, respectively.
