How Journaling Calms The Mind: From Scattered Thoughts To Focus

We explore how journaling shifts scattered awareness into steady attention, and why the first answer on the page often feels like true guidance. Along the way, we set up a simple gratitude experiment to prime the heart-mind connection for tomorrow’s deeper dive.

• turning mental noise into focus with pen and page
• using questions to guide decisions and creativity
• emotional release, reframes, and better sleep at night
• privacy, burning pages, and honest writing
• building a rhythm without judgment or perfectionism
• matching the medium to your modality, not just words
• multiple notebooks for distinct energies and purposes
• gratitude as self-directed practice with five prompts

Sit down and ask yourself: What is gratitude? What does gratitude feel like? Where in my body do I feel gratitude? When did I last feel it spontaneously? How do I generate gratitude at will?

Chapters

• 0:07 Stuck For Topics, Then Inspiration
• 0:56 Choosing Today’s Theme: Journaling
• 1:44 Cards, Intention, And Manifesting
• 2:41 Why Writing Focuses The Mind
• 4:21 From Noise To A Single Line
• 6:00 Guidance From The First Answer
• 7:04 Creativity Versus Finding Answers
• 9:17 Emotional Release On The Page
• 12:23 Night Journaling For Better Sleep
• 14:24 Resolving Sticky Moments With Reframes
• 16:16 Privacy, Burning Pages, And Freedom
• 17:00 Pivot Toward Gratitude Practice
• 18:03 Make It A Practice, Find Your Modality
• 20:17 Multiple Journals, Different Energies
• 22:41 Returning To Presence And Morning Rituals
• 25:12 Building Rhythm Without Judgment
• 27:05 Gratitude Questions For Next Time
• 28:31 Pick Tools That Invite You Back

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:07

Yeah, today we're we were a little stumped for ideas after 170 podcasts. It's like, what are we what are we even talking about? What are we going to talk about?

SPEAKER_00: 0:18

So we some mornings it's compelling. Some mornings we have stuff on our mind, or we're working with somebody, or we've done something recently, and we just suddenly have an idea and we we we turn one idea into four podcasts. Yeah. And then other days it's like, oh, what do you want to talk about? We talked that one yesterday. I don't know that I want to take that one any further. And and then I love this idea that people are now sitting with us while we're doing the podcast, and we can turn to them and say, What do you want to talk about?

SPEAKER_01: 0:48

Yeah. Yeah. So today we're in the chat. There was topics of gratitude and how important and effective is journaling. And I like I like that topic because I I just started really journaling, pulling cards in the morning and journaling based on the cards, based on what I want to happen in the day. I think I said this on a podcast the other day, but I I I pulled a couple cards and I thought, I don't really like those cards. And I put them back and then journaled what I actually wanted, which transformed into my life. It actually came true. And so that was that was fascinating. I don't like those cards. I'm gonna put them back. I'm gonna choose what I want. But I still in the morning I've been pulling one card and and and journaling. I think the idea of journaling is important because you're using really your uh I don't know, uh the words come to me full mind. It's like a full experience of let's say manifesting, creating the life that you want, or getting stuff out of your mind that you need to get out. We can sit and think about it all day, but there's something about journaling. I think it I think it fires lots of stuff in your brain, uh neurons, right? And and gets things moving and imagination happens, and there's so many facets to it that uh I think it engages all the senses journaling. And if you hear little crunches in the background, that's our dog type.

SPEAKER_00: 2:41

Um I like to think of journaling as the epitome of focus, it's about as focused as our as we use our minds. Our minds are capable of deep, deep thinking, are capable of taking an idea and pursuing it. By putting a pen in our hand and opening a blank piece of paper, to me, what I envision is this movement of my thoughts flowing down through my through me and onto the page. And I love that imagery because it brings what I talk about when I think of my own journaling. I think in terms of the point of the pen being the focus of my thoughts. When I'm writing, I can't generally have multiple thoughts. I can't write and think of a million things. I try to have my pen speed stay at the same speed of my mind. And I try to have the tip of my pen focused on the same ideas that my mind is focused on. And that brings a lot of the chaos to it, to a quietness, to gives me at least the ability and and the attention to ignore the chaos, to ignore the flow of ideas. You know, uh our flow of consciousness, you know, we all live with it. Ideas, thoughts, all this stuff just comes to us. It just comes to us, and it comes to us out of habit. It comes to us because, you know, 90% of our thoughts are the same ones we had yesterday. And the repetition of ideas just comes at us. And a lot of that is generated out of fear. So that you know, our mind is just constantly reminding us pay attention to this, pay attention to that, don't let that happen, don't make this happen. Make sure you do that, don't make sure, right? It's just coming at us. And it's it is sporadic in terms of its its meaning. Sometimes it's really good and useful, and sometimes it's just noise, right? And so for me, we start with the idea that I've created a line, a tunnel, kind of a beam, a laser that runs from my mind, wherever that you want to picture that. I I like to picture it sort of between, you know, I picture the mind as in my chest, in my head, and above me. And that's the mind to me. You know, there's the the body, heart, mind, there's the the thinking mind, and then there's the higher mind, and they sort of flow. And I feel that when I pick up that pen and I have it in my hands, all of a sudden I've aligned those three things, and I've taken their energy and I've forced it into my arm, and it flows right down my arm to the tip of my pen, and it has to be singular at this point. So I think there's a lot of value in awareness, but I also think there's a lot of value in focus and attention. And knowing the difference between those two, I think makes journaling for not for no other reason, can make journaling a really useful practice. To go from awareness to go to attention is a is a really good practice.

SPEAKER_01: 6:00

I think too, while you're journaling, this is what I've found at least, is say you ask a question in your mind while you're journaling. I find that when I'm when I'm just thinking about a question, I can have lots of different answers to that question based on my ego, maybe some higher self, maybe some guide, guidance from my you know, spiritual awareness. And when I'm journaling, I think, I feel that whatever comes out onto the paper is guidance. And it's the very first thing, like when we're working with clients, it's like go with the very first thing that comes to you. The very first thing that comes out onto the paper, I think that is substantial, right? Like that is important and that is coming from your heart, I believe, and and guidance around you. Would you agree with that?

SPEAKER_00: 6:55

Sure. And and I I do believe in a broader sense that journaling uh for the sake of journaling is a nice way to focus your mind. It's a nice way to bring it to a place. Journaling for the purposes of answers is what I've been doing a lot more, a lot more, and very intensely. And that's a that's uh, I think, a different kind of practice. I think that we can trust our mind, we can trust our mind, and we can trust our connection much more than what we do. And we know the difference between searching our mind for possibilities, and that's kind of creativity, right? And searching our mind for answers. Searching our mind for creativity is a beautiful process, right? It lets you know that, well, I think it lets us know the truth, which is we are very creative beings. We have a lot of that trained out of us through our lives, you know, trying to focus on the right answer, the one answer, the the correct answer, the most important answer. That's that's worthwhile once you have done the creative part, which is what are all the possible answers? And it's amazing what's in your mind when you were to ask something more like, you know, what are all the possibilities? And that flow of ideation, we call it, that flow of having as many novel and diverse ideas as possible, that's a that's a beautiful thing. And that creates a whole different emotional base in your body when you're thinking about possibilities. And I believe that that expansive thinking is really a lot of fun to journal in. And just, you know, no judgment of any of those ideas, just as many ideas as you can come up with. Silly ones, crazy ones, unrelated ones. Why the heck did I think of that ones? You know, just long, long list. There's there's that expansiveness. And journaling can really serve a purpose that way, right? To start to see the breadth and the depth of our mind. And then there is the journaling, and I think that's what you're referring to, is that we have concerns when we live. We have points that might come from negative emotions that might come from confusion or fear or, you know, that overall overwhelmment sometimes that we feel that life is just too much sometimes. And in those moments, you know, it's even hard to formulate a question.

SPEAKER_01: 9:50

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_00: 9:52

You know, like a good question is, you know, what should I be focused on? Or better, what can serve me the most right now? Yeah, I use the word should there, and I don't like that word. But it comes to us when we say things and we go, oops, that's not the way I want to say that. What are my possibilities right now? Sometimes it's what can I expect from this decision is a good question. You know, and allow your mind again to just I'm gonna use the word spew. Like a fire hose running from your mind right down your arm onto the page. Just go. Yeah. Many times when I journal, I go back and look, I can't even read it. I wrote it down so fast and so chaotically because it was so much. Yeah, I think there's lots of goals, lots of different approaches to journaling. And I think that they're all really worthwhile.

SPEAKER_01: 10:48

Yeah, whether you're just like getting it out, right? Emotions onto the paper. I I I hear people talk about burning it afterwards. Whether or not you want to burn your journals, that's up to you. But you know, if it's a loose piece of paper or something like that, maybe maybe burning it. But I think there is a huge opportunity to release what the mind is churning as you allow those words to flow onto the onto the paper. The mind, subconscious mind is always looking for the answer to something. And it can even be an emotion, right? Why am I having this emotion? Let's get rid of it. I don't like this, right? But but many times, as we know, we get caught up in these emotions and they just churn. So when we I I think the act of journaling and and and letting it flow and getting it out onto the page is it is giving the subconscious mind relief. You know, I think it's the same, just a little side note here. I think it's the same less as when you used to get really overwhelmed about what you had to do the next day years ago. And then you would write it out. Okay, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. And then you'd go to bed and it was like, okay, my subconscious mind doesn't need to worry about this anymore, right? Doesn't need to churn it.

SPEAKER_00: 12:17

Yeah, it was something I learned a long time ago on how to how to prepare for a good night's sleep. I'm actually working on something like this for the school. To prepare for a good night's sleep sometimes requires that we let complete, we have a complete release of today. We have we're so filled with thoughts about today, we're so filled with concerns from today. And all of that leads us to concerns about tomorrow and sort of the need to try to put things in some kind of order. And so I think that's why some people like to journal at night. And I think that it's yeah, there's another sort of purpose you can put to journaling, which is to just process the events of today. What are the ones that are on my mind? I've I've always believed that what we hang on to, what is in our memory, what we try to remember are the things we haven't yet resolved. Yeah. That's why it's so easy in regression for us to access those moments that never got resolved. Because we we keep them, we hang on to them, we carry them with us because we're trying to resolve them. We want, when we resolve something, we don't even remember it anymore. Like, who remembers what they had for breakfast three weeks ago? Like you just, you just don't because it's meaningless. It's not it's not problematic in my moment today. But the tiniest thing, you know, the way, the way somebody looked at you in the grocery store while you were passing through can stick to you because it causes a question in you, it causes a concern in you, it causes an emotion in you that you can't resolve. And journaling can be used to resolve those things. And this is, I think, where some of our reframes really become valuable is can you then take something that you've been unable to resolve and process it through a broader, more philosophical perspective? And in that act of journaling, let flow all the thoughts and let them let them get out there in front of you. And just doing that often lets you see their merit, right? That that lets you look at those ideas and say, yeah, that's crazy. Or look at those ideas and say, uh, I don't need to think that. Or I don't know that. I I can't know that. Why am I thinking that I know something that I don't know? I can't know what's in somebody else's mind. I can't know somebody else's intentions, I can't know that. And and I don't want to know that. And I'm thinking badly of myself, or I'm thinking disrespectfully of myself. We can see all of that when it all comes out on the page. Which leads me to something you said a minute ago. You talked about burning it. I think that there is value in keeping your journal private and making sure that those around you respect that. I think there's value in that because then I do it all the time when I'm writing. I think, well, what if somebody was to read this?

SPEAKER_01: 15:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 15:34

What if somebody was to read this? It's it's in those moments, I'm I'm restricting myself from being honest with myself. And in those moments, yeah, maybe I should decide that what I need right now is to journal completely honestly. And since I don't want anyone else to be aware of these thoughts and concerns and confusions, I'm gonna write that on some scrap paper and I am gonna burn it, or I am gonna trash it in a way that nobody's gonna ultimately be able to read it. And I think there's value in that kind of freedom, that kind of release. You know.

SPEAKER_01: 16:16

I know my just to jump in here for a second. I know my, you know, I I think it it happens a lot with people who journal and who are parents, they don't want their kids reading all those or feeling like, you know, uh when they pass. Yeah, it I I know my mom has expressed that and she's going through her journals, you know, to get rid of them. But yeah, I think there is there is a lot to say a lot to be had and expressed when you know that it's going to be, you know, burnt up in flames. Another thing I didn't mention, if anyone has any questions along the way, just drop it in the chat and we'll try to get to them. Yeah, and I think I do want to do want to gently circle to gratitude. I mentioned earlier that journaling is, I believe, in my opinion, that you're really connecting with the heart when you're journaling. If if you're if you're open, if you're allowing things to flow, it you are developing that heart-mind connection and letting things go. And I think gratitude runs on the same rails, right? The same gratitude is connecting with the heart. And I do believe that it it can be easy to have gratitude for what's around us, people that are around us, the world maybe. But I would suggest and encourage you to send that gratitude to yourself as well. I think that's that's very important to do.

SPEAKER_00: 17:54

I want to come back to that because I wasn't finished with journaling.

SPEAKER_01: 17:56

Oh, yeah, I mean, I'll let's do it.

SPEAKER_00: 17:58

I'm concerned about the practice of journaling because I want, you know, I want to be helpful. And I don't know that there's a right way or a wrong way. In fact, I know there isn't. No, there isn't a right way or a wrong way, but there are ways that I think most people find it more effective. So, you know, I think the first way is is to turn it into a practice. When I treat uh writing as a practice, it's way more effective. I get better and better at it very quickly. And I get into a routine, if for lack of a better word, I get into a schedule. I hate that word, but I get into a rhythm where, in fact, I start to anticipate it, I get myself ready for it, and then it's much more effective in terms of helping me focus, get ideas out, and understand myself and the world better. So I think journaling as a practice, writing as a practice is very effective. And I want to separate that, you know, this is a discussion we have lots. We have we have thought people, we have sense people, we have vision people. People have primary modalities where they tend to function in certain ways. I am a word person, I physically sense and mentally it my thoughts flow in words. Hillary is different, and this is where maybe you know some people's journals become sketchbooks. You know, my my son has all kinds of talent in creating images, and I looked at his sketchbook as a young man because he shared it with me, and you know, it was very much a journey, it was very much of him. Capturing the things that mattered to him. And that, you know, there were points and places of love for him that were obviously in this. So I think that if you're saying, I don't know if journaling's my thing, maybe it's because words aren't your modality. And maybe you should find something else. I love music. I can, I need to frequently just spend time in music and just be there because I believe music is a form of communication that communicates things that words can't communicate. But we each have our thing and probably multiple things. And so you open your mind to the idea that if I regularly engage his practice and I engage it in a way that it fits my expressiveness, you're going to find that it really does come to a point of attention, a point of focus. And I think that's where a lot of the value is. I think it's great to have multiple books. God knows I do. Hillary laughs because, yeah, I'm sure to an outsider, there's no rhyme or reason to why I'm using this book or that book or another book. And Hillary gave me a new book for Christmas, and now I'm using that one for a completely separate purpose. But it helps. It helps me in terms of the way I focus my mind. If I want to focus on higher thoughts, I have a journal that my sister gave me, and that's now become the book. It's filling up quickly. It's become the book where I go to do that kind of thinking. And I have a book that Hillary gave me where I'm doing my business thinking about this business. And I have multiple notebooks where it's just taking notes. Like I always have a notebook open while we're doing the podcast. So I can write down ideas and write down ideas for tomorrow's podcast and write things down as they go. And that for me is a big deal because I'm a word person and precision of words is really important to me. Maybe too much so, I don't know, but it's really important to me. And so this is yeah, this is all uh my babble is really about encouraging you not to follow my suggestions, but to search for your method. I think there's value in practice. I think there's value in knowing what you're sharing and what you're not sharing. I think there's value in having multiple mediums that you're journaling into that if you decide this is one I don't want anybody to ever see, that you can. You can take that and burn it, or you can tear it up and destroy it. That you have books for different purposes because I do believe in the energy. You know, we are energy. Well, science has proven the whole thing we're living in is energy, and we put energy into things. And so certain kinds of energy goes into certain books, and that's you know, that helps me when I address that book. So I really make the suggestion, knowing that the brain, the brain itself is going to use different parts of itself when you're writing than when you're speaking, even different again when you're singing. It's an interesting thing about singing. We can learn anything if we turn it into a song. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_01: 23:21

That's true. I never thought of that.

SPEAKER_00: 23:23

But we're using different parts. And by using different parts, we're we're processing in different ways. And in processing in different ways, we're expanding our awareness and expanding our knowledge. And I think that that's a really valuable way of being more mentally flexible, especially since you know, you hear me say that a million times a day. The brain is a habit-making thing. And it's going to think habitually, and it's going to think those same thoughts before. And by pushing ourselves in another direction, we push ourselves to think differently. And that's a worthwhile endeavor. Okay, I'll take a deep breath now.

SPEAKER_01: 24:02

Oh, I think all that is wonderful. I think, you know, in my journaling experience, I I'm somebody who over the over the years I get I get excited, I get a fancy journal, and then I write one page and then it disappears for 10 years, right? So but I think I'm after doing our after doing that practice for for this upcoming year, letting go of last year, finding a dedicated word for this year for ourselves. I I've tried, I'm trying to dedicate myself to journaling. Not that I don't want to and I'm just pushing myself to do it, but I do feel an opening to do that. I feel more again, I want to bring it like a little bit back to gratitude. I feel gratitude for myself, I feel gratitude for others. I want to be mindfully connecting to myself, to the universe, to others, to my life, because I recognized through that exercise we did January 1st that I was Thank you, John and Miran. Yes. I recognized that I wasn't present last year. I wasn't being present, and I so want to be present this year. And it's it's it's working out so far. And I'm take I'm taking care of myself, I'm taking care of my mind more, I'm doing things that are expanding my mind, doing things that are focusing my mind more. I I didn't realize how unfocused I am, you know, less I'll be talking about something and I want to be present, but I'm like I'm like a little, I can't say the word too too loud or else the dog will come run racing out of the bedroom, but I'm like a little squirrel. And you know, oh, this shiny thing over here, this is happening over here, you know, and I get I get off track really quick. So anyway, all that being said, I'm I'm just really trying to bring it back to gratitude for myself. And in that gratitude for myself, I'm taking the time to help myself grow and connect. And journaling is part of that. Actually taking the time in the morning to pull a card from tarot or oracle deck and and just sit with it and meditate on it and understand it and understand myself. I think it's so easy to get up, and this is what I did. So last year, so easy to say I would get up pretty early, I would grab a coffee, and as soon as I grabbed my coffee, like say it's 5:30 in the morning, I get a coffee, and I think, wow, I've got like an hour to do something for myself. But it's funny because as soon as I would get my coffee, that kicks in the habit of sitting down, looking at my computer, maybe looking at the news. I try not to, but maybe looking at the news, opening work and starting work. And so I would just be taken off into a direction of doing things that were not constructive for me, right? For my own spirit, for my own self, for my body, for my mind. And what I'm trying to do, I still get my coffee in the morning. But what I'm trying to do is is get the coffee, sit down and say, okay, don't even open your computer unless you're looking at the meaning of the tarot card, which I have now as an open tab on my computer. So anyway, blabbing on, but that's that's what I'm trying to do. And I'm taking that time before I dive into work, right? Because if I don't, I just feel overwhelmed by midday. And uh and I think it's important. I think it's important to do that. In the chat here, we have that's what happens to me. I start and I don't maintain the rhythm. That's totally normal. Oh my gosh. I am meditating each morning now, so I think I will aim to connect it into that, so I maintain the practice. Yeah, I think that's so, so important to develop. And yes, it it that rhythm is so hard to hold on to. Like I said, like I would start journaling and then the journal would disappear and I would go a year without without even looking at it. Yeah, dedicating that time and space. And it doesn't have to be a long time, right? We don't need to meditate for an hour on end. We can meditate for five minutes or ten minutes, or you know, or just be calm and and go inwards and send that gratitude to yourself and journal and and it just gets the rhythm going.

SPEAKER_00: 29:12

I think that I want to say that I I really do everything I can to encourage people not to judge themselves. And when somebody says, Oh, I start and then I don't, yeah, you're normal. We live in a world that is constantly trying to grab your attention. You're living in a body that is constantly trying to grab your attention. You're living in a time where it's easy to call it just crazy. And and I think that there are a lot of forces and dynamics that draw away our attention. And this is again that that idea of going from awareness, which isn't always helpful, but has its purpose, and moving towards attention. And if what you do is find that when you do create that time, muscle out that time, right? To say, this is my time, yeah. That feels good, that feels helpful, that's the reward, and seek that reward, muscle out that time, push away things to give yourself those moments. And it only takes a moment, it really is amazing. It once you hit a time, once once you actually drop those previous thoughts, right? See it that way, that it as soon as your attention gets shifted somewhere else, those old thoughts are gone, and you immediately feel relief. You immediately feel better. And then you can check the clock, and it might only have been two minutes, but you just had two minutes of relief. And that relief is like a reset, right? So, even you know, doing your routine, grabbing your book, grabbing your pen, setting it down in front of you, get your cup of whatever, and take a deep breath, that's that's a win right there. Even if it can only last two minutes, that's a win. And that that's what I mean when I say practice. And so if you find it hard to establish that practice, you're really normal. And there's nothing wrong with you. And all habits take time. And for this to become a habit, it's gonna take time. And just come back to it, just start again. Just oh, I missed yesterday. Who cares? Doesn't matter, right? Let's just start again and just keep starting again. And pretty soon those starts again will be strung together and become a habit. And and yeah, just no judgment, don't waste time thinking you're good, you're bad, you made a mistake, you did the right thing. That's just a waste of time. It doesn't serve you to engage those thoughts. Yeah, and so uh I'm looking at the time, and this is what I'm thinking. I I love the topic of gratitude, and I want to spend time on it. And so here's the challenge between now and listening to the next podcast that will be on gratitude. Sit down and ask yourself, what is gratitude? Ask yourself, what does gratitude feel like? Ask yourself, where in my body do I feel gratitude? Try to allow yourself to remember the last time you spontaneously felt gratitude, and then try to figure out how you could generate the feelings of gratitude at will. These are very different things, I think. So Hillary's writing that down, isn't that great? So can you say those out loud again?

SPEAKER_01: 32:53

Yeah. What is gratitude? What does gratitude feel like? Where in my body do I feel gratitude? Allow yourself to remember when you spontaneously felt it before, and how do I generate gratitude at will? And when I when I put the podcast in school today, I'll I'll add those.

SPEAKER_00: 33:16

So there's a little exercise to I just wrote them all down now, too. There's a little exercise in journaling. Allow yourself to bring yourself to a place where your focus and your attention runs from your aspects of mind right down into the tip of the pen. Allow yourself to just let your mind flow and keep the questions in mind. I said, I love questions. Questions are so powerful because they bring the mind to a point of focus, right? You can be having all kinds of random thoughts, and all you need is somebody say, What time is it? And all of those thoughts disappear. And now you're concerned with what time it is, right? It's it's an amazing thing that the way the human mind gets absolutely hooked on questions. And so, questions I think are great ways to bring focus. And yeah, well, we can talk about gratitude tomorrow, and and maybe you'll be here and maybe you'll give us some of your ideas and I'll be grateful for them.

SPEAKER_01: 34:25

I want to wrap up today with something a little uh a little fun, like just fun in my mind. So uh think about, you know, if you're into if you're wanting to journal, if journaling is like, oh, I think I'm gonna start journaling. I encourage you to get a journal that feels good to you. So go to Dollarama or something like that and have a look. Some are spiral bound, some are, I don't know what you'd call it, like uh you can open them up and they lay flat, no spirals. Some are small, some are big. Find one that calls to you. Find one that when you sit down and you feel the paper, you feel the cover, it feels it feels nice because it'll encourage, it'll, it'll help you. It's a funny thing. It'll help you feel like, yeah, I'm enjoying this because I I like the feeling of you know, moving the pen across this kind of paper. And yeah, it's just part of part of that. I remember just to cap it off, I remember somebody saying years ago to me, they hated drinking water. And and the way they started to drink water more is they found this beautiful wine glass and they would fill it up with water and they would just feel good drinking it, right? It wasn't in just some old glass, it was in this beautiful glass that they had in the cupboard specifically for wine. But they they they really changed the experience so that they felt drawn to it. They felt like, yeah, this feels nice in my hand. It feels good drinking this. Uh so the same thing with a with a journal. Find find one that speaks to you, find one that that feels nice to write in, right? Okay, so thank you for joining us today. And yeah, hope to see you later. Yes, have a great Thursday. See you later.