Internal Journey Journal.

Let me take you on a trip, a rather bit different than the others.  As part of my English class, Journey in Literature, one of the assignments was to keep a journal.  This was not an ordinary journal, this represented far beyond that just an obligatory assignment.  Here are some guidelines of the requirements of the journal, feel free to try it.  First of all the notebook could not have lines.  This provides an unlimited area of non-restricted freedom to write, draw your most recent thoughts.  The students keeping the journal had the freedom to write a sentence, a word or even make a doodle and counted as part of the entry. Also all entries must be in pen. Six rules had to be followed, first keep your hand moving, even if you misspelled or did not have something to write.  Another rule was not to cross out, even if you made a mistake or regret writing something.  This was the most difficult rule to follow, because in my case I always write in pen and constantly making lots of mistakes and I used to cross them out.  During this practice, the person writing cannot deny the line of thought, and has to learn to accept what their mind is thinking and embrace it.   The key is not to be logical, and do not over think during the process of entry.  The point is to lose control and go to the jugular.   The assignment consisted in 5 entries per week, with no page number limit or word limit.  In just 10 minutes, express your first’s thoughts, without any restraint and without any judgment.  Also another part of the journal consisted in doing three compasses per week.  A compass is a “spiral” form compass with spirituality, emotion, mental and physical labels in each pole.  The point of this to rate from 1-3 each pole based on how you were at the moment, without analyzing the answer to much, followed by a passage below explaining what was on your mind at the moment of rating.

In class two concepts were introduced: the external and internal journey.  This journal represents the internal journey.  Is based on personal criteria and is strictly confidential.  Now you know the rules, and know you can go into my trip.  My journal experience started January 24, 2014.  At first I started writing up to two pages per entry, then by the mid of the semester I noticed I wrote about three to four and had been persistent.  It reflects the changes and the evolution of my thoughts during this semester.  I noticed some consistency in the topics I wrote about in the journal, especially about my schoolwork, music and fun facts.  But yet, I noticed variety in thought.  The language used in the journal is only understood by me, because most of them are not even complete sentences.  Trying to genuinely write my first thoughts without double thinking it or to sincerely write what I was thinking was the biggest struggle, but once to get the hang of it the thoughts just flow naturally.  I plan in the future to keep journals, but with some modifications to the rules. Keeping a journal is a good way to keep in tract with you, and develop creative skills.  The internal journey is part of the identity, and the journal helps define your identity.