Who is this for?
There are two kinds of people in the world. People who love journaling and people who don't. If you self identify with the first category “people who love journaling; everything from planners, gratitude journaling, goal and habit tracking, and even those oriented to epic life history writing; this approach will work alongside your already existing practices beautifully. It is not the same, this approach is different and has a somewhat different objective and utility, I’ll explain more on this later.
If you identify with the second group; people who deeply resist journaling, if not outright hate putting their feelings and thoughts on paper. This is esspecially designed for you.
Whatever kind of person you most identify with, the Cluster Journal method is for you and everyone in between. This simple journaling approach is different from any other journaling strategy, on purpose, because it works and is designed for every human.
The Cluster Journal as a Discovery Tool:
Journaling can be a powerful tool in your journey toward self-healing and self-awareness. This Cluster Journal strategy is particularly effective for uncovering unconscious patterns, emotional habits, mental strategies, and the felt experiences of your daily life. Rather than recording every detail of your day (aka long format, paragraph style) this method helps you focus simply on capturing only the most important aspects. Think energetics, small details, bullet responses and sensate experiences (sensations happening inside your body), thoughts and feelings. By paying close attention to the activation arising inside, you’ll begin to cultivate a compassionate inner observer so that you may begin witnessing without reactivity, your personal internal experience. This includes but not limited to your mental, emotional, and physical responses, as well as any restrictions or constrictions without judgment, simply as a curious observer. When appropriate, attempt giving this expression by finding the words that best represent these feelings, thoughts and sensations.
Be curious. Are you looking to explore a specific topic, word, phrase, or memory from your life? If you’re feeling extra energy around any one of the above, this is called activation. For lack of better language, this can be positive, negative or neutral. Pay attention to this activation, think of it like a breadcrumb trail, leading you towards more full complete full expression.
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1. Simplicity
Don't confuse the simplicity of this method, as childsplay. The Cluster Journal approach requires very few words, there is no need to cover the ‘whole story’ because you aren’t writing a novel (unless you are) nor is there need to add complicated contextual details—you already know those—the brain already knows the minutia, so unless you deem them necessary, trust in your lived experience and begin expressing as simply as you can, what it is like for YOU to be you.
Research has proven that the brain only needs three words or core details of any lived experience to retrieve a memory. So cut yourself some slack and trust that whichever words pop out on to paper are details that are waiting to be expressed.
When a tool such as this, is used for gaining more self understanding, clarity and self acceptance and is combined with strategic support, a new found measure of self confidence, feels refreshingly efficient and productive. This method can be used for gaining useful perspective that can support you in healing from your past and expanding into your future favorite self. This method, though simple, has been proven time and time again with 1000's of clients over the years to be powerfully supportive in their quest to live more authentically.
2. Becoming Fully Expressed
The gentle act of compassionate curiosity and nonjudgmental self inquiry, allows a person to become more fully expressed. As I have taught in my practice, the root cause of most anxiety and depression can be distilled to two fundamental things; repression and lack of expression. Said another way, taking into account this statement lacks context and a tremendous amount of nuance, the basic root cause of anxiety is something repressed and the root cause of depression, is something that is repressed that is not fully expressed.
Trust that your soul will know the way.
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