Discovering Meaning

A method that I have still yet to try is the Existential Memoir,  which I heard about through ~C4Chaos's Kosmic Blogging Pod. 

 Has anyone tried this? Did provide space for you to dig deeper into who you are and what is important to you in life?

Re: Discovering Meaning

I engage in a practic similar to Rommel's ”Existential Memoir”. I modeled my practice after Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet (well, well, worth the read for those of you who haven't…), where Rilke writes open letters about the struggles, lessons, practices and ah-ha experiences that serve hone his craft as a writer. I like to think of my journal as a Letters to a Young Boddhisatva of sorts!

Basically I take whatever growth edge I happen to be struggling with and journal about it. It's part narrative therapy, part 3-2-1 process: what am I experiencing, what are the major players (triggers, self-statements, meaning making, etc), what is the core issue involved, how can I meet this issue in a way that is in-line with my higer self, what can I commit to doing right now to exact the change I desire.

I have found it to be a very clarifying practice.

I have often recommended a succinct version of this practice to clients of mine (particularly clients who have a tendency to engage in the age-old practices of “judgment” and/or “catastrophizing”…)

Ever experience a time when an internal voice was telling you “this is all your fault, because you did X (or failed to do Y) and now (any number of horrible outcomes) are going to occur” or perhaps “you wouldn't be in (this predicament) if you had only (done whatever insted!)”? 

Now, as common as this type of self-talk is, it certainly isn't facilitative… I have had clients report life changing experiences w/ the practice of dual-journaling. A practice where you journal a “conversation” between the above, critical, voice and another, objective, facilitative voice. (I have one client that calls the second “the voice of reason”, another who refers to the whole process as “head-heart conversations”) 

I love this practice b/c it allows you to actually see how we feed our own destructive patterns (which makes it much easier to comit to change).  

Re: Discovering Meaning

Hey Serenity, thanks for sharing that practice. I've added Letters to a Young Poet to my book wish list:) I like this idea you have of “Letters to a Young Bodhisattva” - how fitting for so many of us here at Zaadz. I wonder, if you feel comfortable, would you be willing to give us a taste of what this looks like by sharing a snit bit of your own? Again, only if you feel comfortable. 

Judgment and catastrophizing are huge players in preventing us from living our lives fully. For me, it comes into play mainly with my social anxiety. The biggest change for me came when I made catastrophizing explicit, wrote it down, actually talk the inner-talk through, which doesn't check out in the end. So, I think a writing practice, or dialogue with others about such things, is so important.

ryan

PS - looks like you and I are the lone Medeski, Martin and Wood fans here at Zaadz:) I don't run into fans of MMW very often, but they are so good, aren't they. I've never heard anything like them. Word to MMW!