As the pace of life slows down in Autumn and we are naturally getting more into an introspective mood, November is an ideal month for deep reflective journaling – ‘organising’ the memories of the year drawing to a close. Similar to the body-centred healing with Acupressure and Colourpuncture, we can balance our Order vs Chaos reflections with journaling. Add some good quality Dreamwork and our refreshed and updated Mind-Body-Soul connection will let us start making some more concrete plans for the next year.
So…gracefully descending into and embracing a colder, darker and so naturally deeper and more reflective time of the year, looking back on the year’s active part – are you exiting ‘chaos’ (and so wanting/needing to create some order) or are you exiting ‘order’ which became counterproductive and not motivating you anymore – and you feel you need and want to create some freedom and movement to start paving/dreaming/laying the way for constructive changes, for a new direction?
Here is what we are aiming to achieve with the following journaling exercise, in a nutshell – please scroll down to the Steps if you want a quick start but a getting an overall perspective first is recommended 🙂
- Current Year ‘Chaos’: you need/want to establish order and peace
- Current Year Order: you want/need to create freedom and movement.
Deep Autumn is a natural taking stock and re-assessment time – before the holidays season which also give us a chance for a natural full ‘reset’ in December-January. In October -November we look back at our year and sorting things out in a way – consciously or not – I found it’s best to do it consciously as we can recognise and integrate so many gifts of the year coming to a close which we otherwise won’t register as the seasons move on. With that we can also starting looking into a next year as at this time of year we are getting a natural preview of the next year: unknown or unnoticed by us, the counterbalancing things, things in development have been quietly showing up in the background all year long. All we need to do to move towards a more balanced like is: to notice!
And while we don’t know what the future holds for us we can still do our part and out forward our dreams and needs and desires and wishes and also take the lessons leaned this year to carry on with creating this interesting journey called life.
The two most simple and easiest to master journaling techniques – stream of consciousness writing and list journaling – perfectly answer the call of balancing ‘Chaos and Order’ (please also have a look at Acupressure/Colourpuncture options aimed at the same balancing from a body’s standpoint). Stream of consciousness journaling is a ‘chaotic’ writing by design: the idea behind it that we just let our natural associations to show up on paper as we are getting our thoughts, feelings, emotions, bodily sensations, daily events, short term plans and random associations as well as hopes and worries out of our head/chest and onto the page. This is an organisation of thoughts and perception from a chaos to (an eventual) order which gifts us with clarity. And this makes stream journaling a perfect choice when we are generally well organised and life runs smoothly but we feel that we need to stir in some dynamic, gain a new perspective and generally breathe in some fresh air.
Exiting our year from a place of order, we want to create some freedom and movement, to sow some seeds for a new beginning or to better adjustment of what is, has always been and what we already created so a reflective stream of consciousness journalling is a great daily choice to start exploring our deeper needs and wishes.
Exiting the year from a place of chaos we want (need, crave!) some order and peace; we want to stabilise ourselves and start making sense of what often has been a rich and eventful year where the mere pace and intensity created a a sense of chaos. Starting with a simple list journaling is best: simple, orderly, clearly defined – and so easy to see as whole — list itself often creates an immediate sense of balance and stability and so we feel we can finally breathe out an accumulated tension and intensity and start looking objectively on what is, where we eventually ‘landed’. List journalling is great to start organising thoughts, events, even pictures into a cohesive whole, revealing a newly updated reality.
Life likes balance. Our human physiology needs stability and predicability, our mind thrives on us being in charge of our choices. Journalling is just one yet probably the easiest tool to start taking some action aimed at creating this balance.
Steps, variations
The exercise proposed in the video is very simple (please do watch it to get the idea behind it). Make it your own, start with these suggestions and be guided by your journalling – see where it takes you!
So… ‘exiting chaos’:
1) List every event/experience/period of time which was chaotic/intense/too busy this year
2) List all random events; events/feelings/experiences which you didn’t see coming; anything which didn’t turn the way you expected and so on
3) Now actively look for the order (which will be hard but very much rewarding): either the long existing order which was supporting you during the year and also a new order as in trying to sort out the chaos we already started creating an order in some areas of our life and Self which were most affected by the chaos.
A creative extension to this exercise:
- Across every chaos entry put a chance, an opportunity, an opening, a possibility, a promise of a new, more aligned path forward which this ‘random’ event created. This is the intentional part and may need you coming back to it several times so you an approach it from different angles to make a fuller picture. This pauses also let our perceptions settle before getting to a new layer of it – important.
And…’exiting order’:
1) You can still list journal if you prefer but this is more of a stream writing exercise as stream journalling naturally invites a fresh movement and a free exploration (a little infusion of a ‘chaos’ in by letting the multitude of thoughts in our head, feelings in our Soul and felt senses in our body actually be realised on paper and so, recognised and acknowledged is helpful here)
2) You can stream write under a general heading of: ’order’; start by describing what was obviously orderly (boring and stagnant or nice and stable, all of it for the start)
3) Now start actively looking for and noticing and seedling of change, things which started to quaintly move in some other, unexpected direction from what you generally followed this year.
A creative extension to this exercise:
- Across every ‘order’ entry put what has been ‘an invitation’ here for some freedom and movement eventually leading to a better aligned life. This is the intentional part and may need you coming back to it several times so you an approach it from different angles to make a fuller picture. This pauses also let our perceptions settle before getting to a new layer of it – important.
And then… after taking a break with some nice Yin cup of tea or a refreshing Yang walk outdoors (or both) we can do some journalling of our choice to integrate and let new connections, thoughts, feelings and associations come on paper. So, a nice cup of warm tea, a comfy blanket, a hot water bottle….a look out of your window on onto a nice home surroundings, a walk in great nature to connect with and take in the elements of the season – have a good quality time for your self-care with journaling – Happy Autumn 🙂
Any questions – please get in touch using the form below. If you would like to learn and practice various creative and simple journaling techniques for your daily self-care, making sense of your life experience or exploring deeper layers of your inner world, join us for Journaling Challenge ‘Letters to the Soul’ – it will give you a wide variety of tools to journal with ease and joy for years to come.
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