So, I have spent the majority of my life journaling in some way. I have books, and books, filled with analyzed thoughts and feelings through decades of my life.
Needless to say, when starting this month’s homework (this is my first month in scholars and I’m completely new to all of this) I felt I would just breeze through all my thought downloads no problem. Now, I’m not sure if I’m actually doing it right and tapping into my thoughts in the way that is beneficial to this specific type of work. I find that my Thought Downloads are just observations of of thoughts and feelings instead of the actual thoughts themselves.
For example, one day I was feeling unmotivated and found sentences like “mind is stuck spinning on all these ‘shoulds’ and wanting to do more” or ” I can see myself wanting to slide back into the old ‘I’ll just ignore it’ habits.” These kinds of things followed by objective observations of what i’m feeling. Like “I feel myself teeter on the edge of overwhelm when I think of all the things that I have to do in January. I just have to remind myself to go slowly, slowly. Be patient. Be consistent. It will be challenging but it should be fun and good… mostly. If it’s too much, then take it down a notch.” and other thoughts like this.
I am assuming that Thought Downloads are a practice in observing thoughts and feelings in a way separate from ourselves? I feel that I am accomplishing this but at the same time I’m struggling with extracting specific “thoughts” from my deeply ingrained journaling practice.
Am I hitting the mark on this or am I way off? Any tips or tricks you suggest for mining out thoughts and should I put more effort there? Any help in amplifying the benefits of this process is greatly appreciated.
Cheers!