Suggestions for direction with Progoff journaling
July 3, 2014 5:40 PM   Subscribe

I have been journaling for about 2 months now and I have a couple questions ...

I have been doing this under the direction of a counselor. Basically, I've been having dialogues with a couple aspects of my shadow. It has been very satisfying and revelatory. The most amazing feature of this has been that as I put pen to paper, I often have no idea what is coming. I have tried other types of journaling and this has never happened, so this technique is working for me.

It is also hard work. I so enjoy this phenomenon of writing without knowing what is coming. I wonder if there is a way to do this recreationally, so its fun and not so much work. Can you suggest any direction for this? Perhaps you can suggest what you have done or hypothesize about what might work. Thank you.
posted by falsedmitri to Human Relations (3 answers total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'm not familiar with this practice, but the first thing that came to mind was choosing a different subject to dialogue with. Dreams, a positive aspect of self that you would like to get awareness on, picking a random line out of a book. (This is assuming that the hard part is looking at shadow aspects).
posted by Vaike at 6:20 PM on July 3, 2014


Come up with a barest sketch of a character; start asking her questions and seeing how she answers. When she wants to drift off-topic and start telling you fragments of stories, LET HER - this is half the fun.

I've been using some of the questions from this list while doing this with a vampire who's popped into the back of my mind lately, but I'm sure you could find any number of similar lists.
posted by egypturnash at 6:59 PM on July 3, 2014


Response by poster: Thanks for the character idea. I tried it. I can make up stuff like this all day long, but it didn't have the same magic to it as the journaling. At least I tried. Thanks again.
posted by falsedmitri at 6:29 PM on July 16, 2014


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