Writing without Hurry: A Mindful Meditative Approach to Journal Writing and Personal Transformation

Writing without Hurry

A Mindful, Meditative Approach to Journal Writing and Personal Transformation

By Kenneth Pryor

Writing without Hurry: A Mindful, Meditative Approach to Journal Writing and Personal Transformation

By Kenneth Pryor

Copyright 2013 Kenneth A. Pryor

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved.

Cover photo licensed from WebStockPhoto, 2013.

For Kathy,

Who loves to write

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Information

Dedication Page

Introduction: Thoughtful Writing

Part I: Writing with a Purpose

Chapter 1: Taking the Time to Write

Chapter 2: Writing for Self-Guidance

Chapter 3: The Five Key Steps to a New Understanding

Chapter 4: Problem Solving

Chapter 5: Writing to Understand

Chapter 6: Resolving Conflicts and Making Choices

Chapter 7: Self-Understanding

Chapter 8: Writing to Understand Others

Chapter 9: ABCDE—Facing Adversity

Chapter 10: Working with Emotions

Chapter 11: Planning for Change

Chapter 12: The Thoughtful Mind

Part II: Making Changes

Chapter 13: Objectivity and the Search for Certainty

Chapter 14: The Positive Explanatory Style

Chapter 15: Using a Positive Style to Encourage Changes

Chapter 16: Your Summary Statement

Chapter 17: Finding Answers When Things Go Wrong

Chapter 18: A Meditation Exercise

Chapter 19: Revisiting the Past

Chapter 20: Autobiographical Entries

Chapter 21: How We Regard the Future

Chapter 22: Goal-Setting

Chapter 23: The Expression of Gratitude

Chapter 24: Putting Our Lessons to Work

Chapter 25: Conclusion

Part III: Author & Contact Information

Introduction: Thoughtful Writing

This is a book about writing in a personal journal. It is intended to act as a guide for learning to write journal entries that are thoughtful, thought-provoking and effective in bringing about one desired result: changing something significant in your life, something that matters to the success or failure of your life. What this means is that we must have effective writing, writing that helps us understand, but that also changes our mind and our emotions. We want to be moved by what we write and inspired to change the conditions in our life that give us problems or make us unhappy. We want our writing to take us somewhere—we want insight or fresh understanding; we want to understand our problems; and we want to learn how to solve the problems we have. When we write in a journal, we learn about the important parts of our lives, and if our writing is effective, we are changed by what we write.

Journal writing is the tool that lets consider our circumstances and change the things that must be changed so we can live happy productive lives. The methods of writing presented in this book are based on mindfulness research and psychological research into the use of private journal keeping for mental and emotional healing. What we write in a journal is for our own use, and most of us who keep a diary or a journal want our writing to make a difference in our lives. We want to understand something important, something that affects us deeply or something that affects our entire outlook on life. We want to change the way we think and the way we feel, and we want our choices for action to be the very best decisions we can make.

The methods presented in this book for using a journal to create change are easy to learn, easy to use and effective—used correctly, they bring about change and personal transformation. The methods I present in each chapter teach you to approach the problems and situations in your life with increased awareness and increased understanding. You learn to ask thoughtful questions, to present facts and evidence that lead to new understanding, and to create workable solutions for the important problems in your life. You learn to set goals, to create personal plans for change and to write in the best style possible for creating change. You learn to reflect on your life.

When you write in a journal using the methods explained in this book, you teach your mind to think in new ways. You learn the powerful skills of reflection and conducting a journal inquiry, and you learn to approach the writing you do with mindful awareness, a kind of open-minded approach that allows you to view situations from multiple perspectives. Writing without Hurry teaches you to make journaling a meditative process so you consider problems thoughtfully, skillfully and effectively. It teaches methods for problem solving, understanding complex issues and writing so that your writing convinces you to follow through with the plans you create. Effective writing puts the mind in order, and it gives you the emotional confidence you need to make your dreams a reality.

Reflective Thinking

I have just given you a list of things we do as we write in a journal. The most overlooked item is number one in the list: teaching our minds to think in new ways. Thoughtful writing is what we want, writing that approaches a subject and stays with it until progress is made. Writing this way makes us slow down. It makes us ask thoughtful questions, and it makes us stay with our questions until we have answers we can use. When we write thoughtfully, we use more of the brain than we normally use: we use parts of the brain that have different kinds of understanding than the parts we use in everyday thinking.

The skill of reflective thinking forms the basis for good journal writing. That one skill transforms our writing. It gives us insight, and it allows us to look with understanding at all the parts of our lives. When we reflect on questions that concern us, we adopt an attitude of open inquiry and we take the time to sort out what is important. We admit that we are puzzled and that we do not have answers for what we ask, but we are determined to discover what we can. We use a method that is slow and careful: we question what we know, and we question the assumptions we make. We look for what is behind appearances.

We do something more—we look for what is true. Sometimes we ask philosophical questions, but most of the time we look at what is personal. The questions we ask are about our personal lives. We ask about events and people. We write about what happens to us and what bothers us. We tell the stories of our day and what we learned, and we put down our ideas for the future and for the changes we want to make. We review our thoughts and beliefs. The purpose of the effort we make to write thoughtfully is finding the answers we need to lead better lives.

It is not enough to chronicle what happens. It is not enough to list our feelings and reactions without looking at what we think that makes us react and feel a certain way. A journal can lead us to self-understanding when we use it thoughtfully, when we question our responses and our behavior, and when we discuss the causes of things. A journal can be a guide, a way of understanding what is important and how we can improve our lives. It can be a place for discovery, a vehicle for new understanding and a means for solving the puzzles of our lives. It is a way to develop certainty about the way we live.

Making Changes in the Way You Live

My discovery is that my journal helps me look at my life and what I am doing with it in ways that let me make permanent changes in the ways I think and behave. The journal is not just a tool for understanding: it is a tool for shaping the future. The decisions I make in my writing are based on my best understanding of what is true and correct—I have thought about what I need to do and how to do it. I have thought about how to relate to others, and I have made sure that I know what I need to know about my life. I have considered my choices and made sure I know what each decision means. When I am finished, I am certain of my direction and what I have to do.

There is a method to making permanent changes in our lives. The method is what I present in this book. The first step is learning to write thoughtfully, to slow down the mind and write without hurry. The second step is to write with a structured method. There is a method for understanding situations and another method for understanding people. There is a general method for all the writing we do, and there are specific methods for different kinds of writing. The third step is to learn about the positive explanatory style, which is a specific style of writing that leads to good results. The particular style we use in our writing tells the brain what to do with what we write, so we must learn to write in a style that helps us.

Those are the basic lessons of this book. It is a book about writing thoughtfully and getting the results you want. My aim is to help you change the way you write in the writing you do for yourself. I want you to think about the way you approach your writing, and I want you to try the exercises I give you as I explain the material about method and style. The lesson about slowing down to write thoughtfully is what I hope you will embrace, because it is the main point of this book. When we adopt the method of writing thoughtfully, we learn to live thoughtfully and make the wisest choices we can.

There is a difference between a life that is lived thoughtfully and a life that is lived without a plan. When we wonder about the meaning of our life and the lessons we are learning, we have a chance to deepen our understanding. We have the basis of a plan. Thoughtful reflection means thinking about what we are doing and where we are going. It means thinking about our relationships with others, then finding better ways to cooperate and get along with people. It means thinking about the way we approach important issues, and it means making changes in our approach.

We can make big changes, and we can make small adjustments. Both are important. The point is that with journal writing, we can make lasting changes. We can change the way we think, the way we feel and the way we react to challenging circumstances. We do this by stepping back and considering our thoughts and our actions. We step back from our feelings for a space of time while we write: when we change our thoughts, our feelings change. Psychology tells us that our behavior follows emotion and the thoughts that precede emotion. Our emotions urge us to act, and thinking shapes the emotions that drive us. We need to change our thinking to change the way we feel and the way we act.

What we know from psychology is that thinking is important. It leads us to have a particular style in the world. We think that our style is permanent, but it is malleable. It can be changed by reflective thinking, and it can be changed by the way we explain things to ourself. This is the importance of thoughtful writing and explanatory style. We learn a different approach to personal change, one that takes advantage of the perspective we get when we take time to step back from our lives and write about what we wish to know. Psychological research shows that structured writing helps us manage our thoughts and our emotions.

The point is to examine our thoughts and beliefs, as well as our habits and reactions. Then we have self-understanding. We ask questions about our values, and we learn about motivation and what drives us. We see the place other people have in our thoughts, and we see how we regard the people we know. What we get is the chance to change much of what we discover within ourselves. Thoughts and beliefs can be changed. Habits can be changed. The style of thinking itself can be changed. Our perception and point of view can change. We can change more than we know.

The Keys to Change

The keys to change are unhurried reflection and explanatory style. Unhurried reflection lets us see what we have been missing, and explanatory style is the foundation for a new way of looking at the world. What I am suggesting is that we need to be careful about the way we write: our writing can lead to new perceptions and new behavior, or it can reinforce old habits in the way we use our mind. When we write, we open up room for understanding and change, or we write in our customary style, getting the same results we usually get and making the same mistakes we usually make.

I see the journal as a way to get beyond our habits and assumptions, and beyond our customary thoughts, judgments and biases. I see journal writing as a way to explore issues in depth and from all sides, and I see it as a chance to step out of our customary modes of thought. Reflection is another mode of thought. It is thinking that takes a step back from the usual kind of thinking we do and adds another dimension to it. The new dimension is the understanding deeper parts of us add. When we are in a hurry, they do not get to speak. When we slow down, we have access to the brain’s sources of wisdom.

Other parts of the brain perceive reality differently than does the conscious part of the brain. They receive information about the world that the conscious mind does not receive, and they use the information for different purposes, but when we ask, they can tell us what they know. In an unhurried pause, which is the basis for reflection, we utilize more of the brain than usual. We learn about small things we did not notice, or we get another view of the big picture. Our thinking shifts, and it is corrected by the thinking we do when we think deeply and reflect on our situation. There is a special process for working with the thoughtful reflective pause which will be explained later in the book.

Writing without hurry means working with this special process to develop real understanding—understanding regarding the principles and causes that lie behind the events in our lives. When we approach what the mind knows in this patient way, the principles behind appearances become clear. Puzzles make sense, and we know why things occur the way they do. We see our own reasons for doing things, and we intuit others’ reasons for doing what they do. To accomplish all this, we have to set aside our biases and assumptions. We have to leave an empty space in the mind that intuition and understanding can fill.

That is how we proceed when we write thoughtfully, but habits of mind are strong. Our usual method of explaining things emphasizes some parts of the picture and leaves out other parts. That is why we learn about explanatory style. We want to develop a style of writing that is accurate and clear, because what we want to say now is different from what we thought in the past. We want to say what the things we learn mean to us, and we want to talk about how we will use our knowledge. We want to avoid a pessimistic style and use a style of writing that is optimistic and open to change.

When we form plans based on what we learn through reflection and introspection, we want to make plans which have a good chance of succeeding. If we have the habit of pessimism, we will not do this. We will see roadblocks rather than opportunities for transformation, and we will not change. When we use a more optimistic style, we tell ourself what is possible and how we intend to do it. We commit to a time and a date for action. We write out our plan in a manner which makes us believe that we will follow it. That is the ultimate message our brain should receive: that we will do the things we plan to do. It is an optimistic message, one that our emotional brain depends on for motivation and courage.

There is much more to say about unhurried reflection and explanatory style, and more will be explained about the methods to use for different kinds of writing. When we write for different purposes such as writing for understanding or for self-guidance, we use slightly different methods. We do not always approach our journal in the same spirit. There are other ways people use their journals, but the methods I describe are the ones necessary for developing self-understanding and for using journal writing to aid you in your personal transformation. I hope you learn the tools you need for successful self-guidance and that you practice using them until you have made the changes you need to make. Writing thoughtfully and without hurry are the critical techniques you must learn to use when you are writing for self-understanding and personal transformation.

Part I: Writing with a Purpose

Chapter 1: Taking the Time to Write

In the modern world, we are in a rush. Time goes by, and we do our best to manage it. We try to make notes about what is important, but we have other things to do. We get used to a certain amount of chaos, and we must squeeze in the extra time we need for managing our lives. Or we are not used to spending time for ourself alone—we are too busy doing things for the people in our lives. Unless we make it a priority, time slips away, and we cannot recover what we have lost. We think we know what we are doing, but we make mistakes. We don’t celebrate life’s victories, or we let our lives go by without thought. We waste the time we could use for reflection and self-instruction.

Just like reading for pleasure or reading to learn, we need to write about what we are doing. Without deep reflection, we manage our lives as best we can, but we do better when we take the time to think deeply and write about what is important. That is the reason for writing for yourself. When you keep a diary or a journal, no one else reads what you write, and no one else knows how you conduct your inner life. Before writing, you may not know much about your inner life. You operate by instinct and the pressure of circumstances. You do not know what holds you back or what makes your life difficult. You do not know how to make things better.

That is what is important about writing for yourself. We do not know our own minds unless we think about what they are doing and we spend time getting to know them. We miss seeing our own patterns, and we fail to see how we contribute to our problems. We miss seeing the big picture, and we live our lives without a plan. Sometimes we make needless mistakes. We have not taken the time to understand our own motivation and our own needs. We have not made room for self-reflection and self-understanding.

Giving Ourselves Time

I came late to writing for myself. I did not understand the need for writing in a journal, and I did not understand the need for writing about the problems in my life. I used to write letters and I took the time to talk to others in a private way, but I did not write for myself. I felt self-conscious and awkward writing something no one else would read. I did not understand that I would read it and that what I wrote to myself would make a difference in my life. I had to read about and experiment with journal writing until I found a form that worked. I discovered that writing for myself had to be a mindful experience and that I gained the most benefit when I could write without hurrying through the exercise. I discovered that science already knows a lot about what works in personal writing and what does not work.

My temptation when I started writing was writing sporadically. I wrote when I was in the right mood, and I did not keep to any kind of schedule. Weeks or months would go by when I did not write anything meaningful. I did not know how to put down my thoughts in a way that would help me. Finally I learned that I had to make writing for myself a regular part of my life, and I had to learn to look back over what I had written. I had to learn the exercise of reviewing parts of my life by reading what I wrote when I was troubled by something or when I was working out what to do.

My other temptation was to write without a plan. I expressed my feelings, and I jotted down some of my thoughts. I did not have a design for organizing my writing. I would write, and I would get some benefit, but my life did not change significantly. I was not using my writing for serious introspection. Later this changed. I learned to ask a question and focus on it. I learned to examine my thoughts and beliefs, and I looked for patterns in what I was doing. I went below the surface of the events and circumstances of my life.

Finally, I learned the need to write without hurry. I gave my writing the important place it deserved in my life. I learned to slow down and think in a new way. I learned to be thoughtful about what I said, but also to be thoughtful about the way I said it. I found that there was an art to writing in a way that would make a difference. I discovered that reflective thinking involves more than the waking mind. When I wrote about my problems and set out my answers in a certain way, I would learn from what I wrote, and it would be easier than I expected to make the changes I needed to make.

When I learned to write in this unhurried way, in my writing I was telling myself what I needed and my brain was making changes. I gave my mind a plan and a model for change. I went from reflecting on my situation and the problems I encountered to writing down the steps of a plan. I laid out for myself what I would do and when I would do it. I committed to a change of behavior or a change in my approach, and I was changed by the process. I told my brain what I needed, and then my brain was helpful. It knew what to do because I had given it a direction.

That is the difference between writing with a plan and simply jotting down what comes to mind. Writing with a plan is a kind of meditation in stages. It requires us to think with more than the rational mind. It involves deeper parts of the mind, and it cooperates with those parts to find truths the conscious mind would miss. The conscious mind misses important truths because of its biases, its assumptions and its ruling beliefs. Our habits of thought blind us to things we should notice, and our need to protect our feelings keeps us from examining things deeply. We all protect our feelings, and when we write for ourself, we need to be able to entertain thoughts that affect our pride, our sensitivities and our self-image.

We usually protect our self-image. We think we are a certain way, and that blinds us to the exceptions we make for ourself. Our self-image has holes in it, and when we are writing for self-discovery, we look at these holes. We have to see where we have been making mistakes or making assumptions, or treating others badly. The growth we want to make is limited by our willingness to see what may be wrong with our view of ourself, and when we are honest, we usually find that we have a part in the problems that crop up or persist in our life. We normally do not see our part in the mistakes we make because we do not know how to see them.

Sincere Self-Appraisal

Honest self-appraisal is the basic requirement for personal change. It is something we must train ourself to do, because we are normally prejudiced in our view of ourself. We think we are good or bad, strong or weak, and we do not see the parts of the picture that do not match our ideas about ourself and what we do. This blind spot is the tendency of the mind to protect itself from things that challenge its biases. We think we are all good or all bad; we take the blame for others or we blame others. We criticize ourself for weakness and mistakes. Our bias is to think we do not contradict our patterns: we are comfortable with a set of assumptions about ourself, even inaccurate or painful assumptions. The trouble is that we do not know how to see ourself any other way. It takes work to see beyond our assumptions about ourself.

Understanding ourself is a kind of detective work. There are problems we know about and we think things are the way we believe they are, but there are clues to a different explanation. Our ultimate goal is finding answers for problems we encounter, and we get there by asking pointed questions about our situation, our responses to our situation, our behavior and our perceptual biases. Every one of us has perceptual and thinking biases: our brain and mind have been trained to perceive and think about things in the world in predetermined ways, so unless we look for alternative points of view, we will be limited to the way our mind has learned to understand the elements of its perceptual world. Our biases can be understood and compensated for when we ask about our recurrent thoughts and beliefs.

Sometimes the problem is not our fault, but we need to find a way to deal with it. We need to ask what is going on, what needs to be discovered and how we can help. We need to settle on a point of view and a plan, and we may be required to make adjustments in the part we play or are allowed to play in fixing the problem. It helps a great deal to know what questions to ask and how to go about answering them. When we ask about our own part in what concerns us, we need to keep an open mind as we look for answers to the questions we ask. Some things in the mind are hidden from us, and we have to work to be able to see them. Our hardest work is learning to see ourself honestly. That is the requirement for change.

When we ask pointed questions, we get the best answer the mind is willing to give. Some answers protect our vulnerabilities, and some answers protect us from embarrassment. The answers we want are the ones that may be difficult to get. We may be disappointed about ourself, or we may be angry. We may not want to hear about what we did in the past, and we may not want to do what we have to do to resolve a situation. In order to succeed with self-inquiry, we have to accept times when we are not pleased with our answers. Sometimes the mind has protected us—some part of us knows that our actions are hurtful to ourself or to others, but we have not been ready to accept that that is what causes our problems to persist.

We grow through self-inquiry, sincere self-inquiry based on the awareness that it is important to find the real causes of things. Facing our hidden flaws requires courage, and discovering the real causes of events requires mental honesty. We cannot lie to ourselves in our writing. We are writing to find out the truth. Our future actions depend on it. Once we have discovered the truth about our situation, we can ask what to do. Sometimes we have to absorb the knowledge that we did something wrong. Sometimes we have to consider options and alternatives that are very different from what we have done in the past. But we always have to commit to a plan for the future.

Our plan has to be practical. If we have hidden things from ourself, our plan may not work. We may resist following it, or we may want to do something else. We have to have accurate knowledge of our strengths and weaknesses to make the changes we want to make. At times, we have to imagine how others see us and how they regard our actions. We have to be willing to face truths we did not know before we asked the questions we needed to ask. We start by writing down what we know and what we need to find out, then we ask the best questions we can and look for the best understanding we can discover. When our questions are answered, we make a plan that will guide us in the future.

We live complicated lives, and sometimes we need to put all the pieces together. We need to see what we have done and where we are going. We need to wrestle with ideas and values, and we need to know what our emotions are. We need to make decisions about our life. Sometimes we need to see what we have done wrong. We need to know ourself all these different ways. This is why we write with a plan and a goal. There is too much to say without a goal in mind—we wander in our minds and in our writing, and we do not arrive at the understanding we need. We will not see what we need to see unless we have a plan and a method for writing.

Writing with a Plan

We have something we need to discover. We need to go from what we know to what we can find out. Part of the plan involves taking the time to consider ideas we need to consider. The kind of thinking we need to do is deep—it requires us to ask questions about ourself, about our desires and about our reasons for doing things. It takes time to think about the questions we put to ourself, and it takes time to come up with answers we believe are right. We cannot rush self-reflection. We take the time our thinking requires by giving ourself time to consider deeply the questions we ask and to write thoughtfully about the ideas we encounter in our search for the correct understanding.

We write to keep a record of our thoughts, our ideas and our personal history. We write so we can break down complicated issues into simpler parts, into causes and consequences and possibilities for change: we have to make links between ideas so we can develop understanding and see other ways to proceed. We have to see how what we have done in the past relates to where we now are. We have to understand our motivation and why we thought the things we thought in the past. We have to understand external influences: those from other people, our circumstances and the pressures that have been on us. Then we can start to understand the complicated picture we discover. We read what we have written, and we see the patterns that shaped our lives.

We need to understand enough of the truth so we can make good decisions. We must understand our situation and consider all the things we need to consider. That means taking the time to be sure we have considered everything that is important. Introspective work takes time, and it takes a willingness to sit down without knowing the answers we will get. It takes effort to get past the barriers to personal discovery, and it takes perseverance to stay with the process until our answers satisfy us. It takes courage to see things the way they are, but being courageous is what we have to do when we write. Then we can go on with our lives.

Without a goal and a plan, we will probably get lost. We will not find out what we need to find out about ourself and about what bothers us. We will not know how to make sense of complicated issues and the problems we face. We will not know how to link together the facts we have and all the ideas we have about them. We will not know where we are going. Then our writing will not have the impact it could have. It will not change the way we think or make us change course when we need to make a change. It will not teach us what we need to learn.

Writing for yourself is about going from confusion to certainty. We do not have answers for the questions we have, and we do not understand what we need to know. We need to know what bothers us and why it is a problem. We need to find out what we know and what we do not know. We need to discover how we feel. We cannot write about issues without considering feelings—we have to know how our bodies and the other parts of our mind react to what we are thinking. We have to develop a process of writing that takes the time to link ideas with feelings. We want answers that are the best answers we can develop using all the resources we have.

What is the question I need to ask? What answers do I need? How do I get from the question I ask to the answers I need? First we have to decide what we are asking. We have to refine the questions we have been asking. We have to find the question that leads to the goal we want. This central question is the topic of everything we write when we sit down to work. Our goal could be gaining certainty about a decision. It could be understanding a problem. It could be understanding what someone else is doing that affects us in some important way. It could be understanding our reasons for doing what we are doing. It could be resolving an ethical dilemma. Our central question leads us in the direction of our goal.

Keeping our goal in mind is a way of staying on the topic, of keeping to our central question. Then everything we write contributes to the process of understanding. The question Where am I going? is answered. We know we have to assemble things in a certain order: we have to find out what we know, what we do not know and how to search out the facts or understanding we need. We need to know whether we are going to wrestle with things in our history, with cherished ideas or with long-standing conflicts. We have to have a yardstick for determining which ideas are relevant and which are not.

I start an inquiry with the basic facts. I have a question, and I need a particular sort of answer. I need to know what to do or how to respond to someone. I need to have a plan for my future actions, or I need to understand something I do not understand. When I begin to write, I take the time to put in order the facts that I know. I want my facts to show me the gaps I need to fill. I want to be able to see what I am missing in the situation or in the problem. I write about what I know, then I write about what I do not know. I ask questions about what I do not know.

I try to ask the questions that matter. I want answers that answer my primary question. I ask questions about the gaps in my knowledge, then I answer those questions. This is when I think deeply about the problem: What is missing? What is it that I do not understand? Why have things turned out this way? What can I do to change things? I let my mind help me. I look for ideas that suddenly appear to me and for changes in my perspective. I look at things from several points of view. I try to let my mind understand all aspects of the problem before I look for a solution. I need to know how things fit together and what they mean. I am looking for the correct understanding.

There is usually a correct understanding. It fits what I know; it tells me where I am wrong; it explains all the facts; and it leads to an understanding of what I can do. Putting together the correct understanding is the part of our work that takes the greatest time. Once I understand, I step back and see what it means: What does this understanding tell me? How does it answer my main question? How can I use it to correct what is wrong? These are important questions. Sometimes we are surprised with the answers we get. Things might be easier than we thought: it just took finding the right point of view. Or the meanings we find determine what needs to be done.

Then we create a plan for what we will do. We consider ways we might proceed, and we ask questions about each of them. We look for options and alternatives. We find a solution that answers our needs, even if the answer is to hold off and ask more questions tomorrow. Perhaps we need someone else’s help. We will not have our answer until we know whether they will help or whether we have to find other answers. Perhaps we do find our answer, but then we have to commit to it—Can we say that we will do what we know is best, or do we have reservations? If we do, then we can continue tomorrow. We need to explore what holds us back.

Initial Steps for Making a Journal Inquiry

1. Decide on a central question for your inquiry. This will be your main topic for discussion.

2. Set out the facts you know, and set out the facts you do not know.

3. Set out your thoughts, feelings and beliefs about your central question.

4. Write about your situation or problem from several points of view. Practice reflective thinking. Go slowly and wait for understanding.

5. Write about your options and alternatives for understanding or for action.

6. Consider what you want to achieve and choose a course of action.

7. Create a plan, and outline the steps you will take. Commit to your plan.

Let’s consider an example which illustrates a simple but effective journal inquiry:

"What is going on with the people at work? Several people seem to be avoiding me, and I am left wondering what I did or whether there is something I don’t know. I’m not even sure whether to be hurt or whether to be looking for explanations. What is going on? So far as