Keeping a Soul Journal
Soul Journalling helps us to meet our inner wisdom on the page and ground in our body.
Soul Journalling is similar to regular journalling. The main difference is you connect to your body then journal. Or you wake up and in that dozy semi-sleep state you just start writing first thing in the morning. It is journalling without thinking much at all and being grounded in the body. When we have just woken up and when we are connected to our body our right hemisphere of our brains is more activated. Switching off the “over-thinking” switches you to right-brain writing and that’s when we can get some soulful insights into ourselves, our deepest dreams, what’s holding us back or just how we feel in our body right now.
So many of us get locked in our heads - especially people who are neurodiverse like me and experience ruminating thoughts, the spinning hamster wheel of replaying conversations and wondering what was meant by so-and-so, or whether you got your point across to the boss, to-do lists, things we should be doing but are procrastinating about. The list of thoughts goes on!
There’s a process Soul Writers take to let go of the thinking mind and step off the hamster wheel of thoughts. You can take this inner journey with me on any of my Soul Writing self-paced workshops.
However, in our fast modern world, a quick way to meet your Soul on the page when there’s no time to meditate is to journal.
Here’s how:
- Connect to your breath
- Become aware of your body
- When you have a good sense of your body, pick up your pen and write.
We do not need large chunks of time to soul journal. Make sure you take your pen and notebook wherever you go and you can journal anywhere. Use pen and paper – not your mobile. The hand-pen connection is way more powerfully felt in the body. Like calligraphers, creating the shapes of letters and words with your pen is a creative and sacred act. It reconnects your body-mind-soul connection much more than using a screen to type. I journal on trains, at bus stops, in the small moments in between. It is a way of me reconnecting to myself.
Benefits of finding short moments of time in your day to journal:
- Calms your nervous system
- Creates inner clarity
- Expresses difficult emotions, which helps process them
- Reduces anxiety
- Slows your breathing
- Reconnects you to you and grounds you
So when you find yourself in the liminal spaces between meetings, travelling from here to there, sauntering through park, why not stop at that bench, feel your feet on the ground and journal for 5 minutes.
You can just write free-style whatever occurs to you, describe how you feel in your body right now or whatever you want to dump on the page. Here’s a few prompts to get you started …
Soul Writing Journal Prompts:
My breathing is …
My body feels …
I’m grateful for …
I am sad about …
What does my soul want to say today?
The part of me that feels judged needs …
The part of me that is anxious needs …
My wise part wants …
My best memory is …
I love …
I dream to …
What do I miss about my younger self?
I thank my younger self for …
I’m angry because …
What makes me feel weak?
When do I feel strong?
Where do I feel strength in my body?
If love had a smell what would it be (describe) …
Describe a place where I feel at home
Home feels like …
Home smells like …
Home looks like …
My greatest lesson in life so far is …
What gave my younger self joy?
Joy right now is found in …
What do I need most today?
Who do I feel safest around?
What makes me afraid?
How does comfort feel on my skin?
When I have failed to set a clear boundary what did I learn?
I find it hard to say “no” to …
I find it hard to say “no” when …
I want to say yes to …
Which part of my body wants to speak and what does it want to say right now?
Life feels peaceful when …
Happy Journalling,
Sarah X