How Journaling Circles Can Be A Spiritual Practice

In September, Prom[p]t was invited to facilitate journaling circles as a Spiritual Practice at the 2019 Addiction and Faith Conference, in Bloomington, MN. The organizers of the conference had allotted spiritual devotion time at the beginning and end of each conference day. Participants had the option of choosing a practice such as yoga, drumming, spiritual direction, 12 step meetings or our journaling circle. The purpose of creating this space was to allow conference-goers the opportunity to connect with their day, their Self and their faith.

The practice of journaling can be a spiritual one. Journaling can quiet our minds and allow us to be open to hearing Spirit. It is here at the intersection of openness and stream of conscious writing that spiritual understanding and transformation happen. When we facilitate Prom[p]t journaling circles, we encouraged the participants to write beyond the recounting of events and move to the emotions and thoughts behind what is happening in their lives.  By writing through our human experience we find our spiritual one.

We conclude our Prom[p]t journaling circles with a sharing session. It is often in the sharing that we understand how journaling forges a path to spiritual and personal authenticity.  

Viewing journaling as a spiritual practice is a way to cultivate awareness of Spirit in our lives.  Our journal entries are us in the written form and how we choose to express ourselves with words can help us create a deeper connection to Self and strengthen our faith.  Eventually, journaling as a spiritual practice can help us find peace in who we are. Esther Hillesum once wrote in the journal she kept during her imprisonment at a Nazi concentration camp, ‘Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, …. And to reflect it toward others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will be in our troubled world.’

Have you experienced journaling as a spiritual practice?

Love,

Andrea

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