Welcome to Week Three of Journaling in January, and I am excited to talk about one of my favorite journaling methods today and share a bit of my experience with it. Today I will be sharing a man, and a method and a specific prompt!
But before we jump in, did you try Topics du Jour, or our Weekly Plan prompts? I would love to know if any of these journaling “angles” is helping you rethink what journaling is and can be.
Let’s head to the river for our next journaling perspective and prompt!
I want to share a powerful journaling prompt with you and introduce you (or reintroduce you) to another great journaling pioneer, Ira Progoff. Arguably the single most influential journaling guru of our time, Progoff used journaling with his psychology patients in New York. Over time he fine tuned his method, and the Progoff Intensive Journaling Method came into being.
I have a registered journal from the program. I attended my first Intensive Journal Workshop (which are still held internationally) in 1995. I attended it twice for a 3-day weekend format, and also once for a full week. The method follows Ira’s perspective of depth psychology, which acknowledges we experience life on many levels, and tuning in and understanding these various “depths” help us to live more integrated lives. He was a student of Carl Jung and was strongly influenced by his time with him in Switzerland. The method is still taught and maintained through regularly scheduled workshops (both online and in person). The Dialogue House Associates, Inc. under Jon Progoff, works to keep the Progoff method alive, available, and accessible to all who are interested. (https://www.intensivejournal.org/index.php)
I share this information in case you are not aware of this journaling resource. I have to say it is quite an extensive method, and impossible to do initially apart from under the tutelage of a trained facilitator. However, you can try a sample of this method through YouTube, and they also have more offerings on their website if you are interested. I went ahead and refreshed my memory by doing the online exercise myself. This takes about 90 minutes and is led by facilitator Dave Arbogast. I have not done the Progoff Method since 1997, so it was interesting to come back to it, even a bit this way and remember through this facilitation experience.
This week’s prompt is one which can be utilized repeatedly over time with differing results. Each time I have done this prompt, I have come up with a different list of “milestones” which can be written by perspective, theme or in general. Either way, time alters our perspective, so the longer one lives the more likely a shift in context in focus can occur. Let’s jump onto the prompt: Steppingstones.
Journaling Prompt: Steppingstones
Think of Steppingstones like milestones. However, you do not need to create a comprehensive life list. But instead, what allow what comes to the surface of your mind on this day as you consider no more than ten to twelve stones (events) which are/were significant in the movement of your life.
Consider, as Progoff suggests, that our life is always trying to become, something or is moving toward something.
So ask yourself: What events come to your mind when you spontaneously reflect on the course your life has taken from the time you were born to the present moment.
Do not allow yourself to be swallowed up by the magnitude of the question, but instead sit quietly, and maybe even allow yourself to try an entrance meditation by Mr. Progoff to start you off-Entrance Meditation: The White-Robed Monk. Then time your writing for 10-15 minutes – using a timer and writing what comes!
When you are finished you could have from 8-10 Steppingstones. This is just the tip of the journaling iceberg, friends. It’s ok, whatever number you have for your steppingstones, but be sure and use the first one as “I was born”. Regardless of whether we are talking about our life, or just an aspect of our life, Progoff suggests this strategy. There is a beginning to the theme you may be addressing. For instance if you are addressing milestones surrounding a relationship, it would refer to the beginning of that relationship. So be sure and try it.
The next step is where we chip away with our pens and write our way to the center of our “now”. Reread what you have written. Then choose one of the stones, and now complete a timed writing to that stone.
Some ways of approaching the stone are with these springboards:
- “It was a time when…”
- What were my hopes and longings at this time?
- What is/was my life trying to become?
- This is what I was doing…
- How did I see myself?
- Where were my loyalties?
Steppingstones can help us make sense of the movement of our life. This journaling exercise also can uncover unresolved areas we can then decide what next steps to take with as needed.
As you conclude your journaling practice today, I encourage you to conclude prayerfully, and allow yourself to acknowledge God’s sovereign hand over the movement and course of your life. There is nothing more powerful than knowing underneath all of life’s complications and challenges, we are upheld by and held in the everlasting arms of an unseen BUT present God.
I hope you take the time to try the “steppingstones” prompt, and maybe explore Ira Progoff and The Intensive Journal Method a bit as well.
Thank you for reading!
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Enthusiastically, Dawn
Enthusiastically, Dawn 