Journaling: Completing the Process of Transformation

by Angela M. Woods

Journaling

Journaling plays a useful role in self-actualization. It allows us to free our minds of thoughts that bog us down. It lets us release negative energy without acting upon it. It allows us to acknowledge our concerns, our worries, and our fears without being consumed by them. It gives us the option to increase awareness of our deepest thoughts and feelings, so the mind is not burdened by their covert presence or their shadows. With most types of writing, revising and editing are the final steps before calling a piece finished. Journaling, on the other hand, is a different beast altogether. These works do not need to polished and perfected. They are not works in the same sense as other types of writing. Instead, they are tools, and just as those tools can transform us, they too must be transformed to complete the process they are meant to facilitate.

Journaling and the Energy Problem

Although writing in journals can help clear the mind, collecting those journals can cause an energy problem. If we collect all our old journals, we may begin to notice a heavy energy surrounding the area where they are stored. Clutter is likely to gather around, and we may be inclined to avoid the space, be it a closet, a corner, a cabinet or even an entire room. These energies have been released from our inner world, but we have held onto them in our outer world. Until we release those energies, we are not completely free of them. Both physically and psychologically, they are still taking up space in our lives.

Into the Flames

Many of us keep our old journals because we don’t know what else to do with them. For several reasons, the best solution is to burn those old journals, especially if we tend to fill them with our negative energies like worries, fears, traumatic memories or regrets. Fire burns, but it does so much more–fire refines, it cleanses, it reduces elements to their purest forms. Through fire, we release our old thoughts, but we also purify the energy they have left behind. This is the goal of journaling: to release and purify.

The Process of Transmutation

Fire transmutes things. It reduces them to simpler forms, to air and earth, smoke and ash. Ash has many practical uses, all of them hinting at its power to purify and enrich. It can be used to make soaps, to clean soot, to clear ponds of algae, to repel pests, to hide stains, to remove odors and to amend soil. For those of us who keep journals, allowing the fire to further refine our thoughts and feelings into more basic elements is the final act of release. In destroying those pages, we release our claim to their contents. We are free of their burden.

The Importance of Release

Release is one of the most important aspects of journaling. We write to empty our minds and hearts as well as to clear space within ourselves, so we can again be filled. Yet, once we release our thoughts and feelings onto the page, we often cling to those pages. We let them fill books, and then shelves or boxes. We may even revisit those old thoughts from time to time. This is not letting go. The journaling process begins with writing, but it does not end there. The final step in the process is that of letting go.

The Promise of Renewal

With release comes renewal. Just as ash serves to fertilize the earth, release fertilizes our spirits. It frees us of the energies of the past, and releases us from the bondage of unawareness. By journaling, we allow ourselves to become aware of those thoughts and feelings that lurk just above the surface of our subconscious. By releasing those pages into the fire, we no longer have them concealed away in the closets or attics of either our homes or our minds.

Writing our thoughts and feelings down in journals can help us move toward healing, renewal and self-actualization. Subsequently, the final step, one of releasing those ideas and allowing them to be transmuted, may be the most important step of the process. Clinging to the past is what keeps us from moving forward. Letting the fire refine our words clears our energy and allows us to fully let go.

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About the Author

Angela M. Woods is a freelance writer. She studies mindfulness and emotional health through the lenses of intuition, historical analysis, and mandala work. She writes about topics that help people improve their lives, increase their levels of self-acceptance, and push forward in their quest for personal growth. She holds degrees in history and art. Her hobbies include spelunking and woodworking.