I cannot care for your spirit for you. No one can. Your spirit is yours to care for. We all need you to care well for your spirit.
I cannot tell you how to care for your spirit. No one else can either. Your spirit is unique. The difficult work of learning how best to care for your spirit is your work to do. We all need you to do your own work.
Sharing
However, I can help. I can share with you what little I have learned up to this point in my life. Perhaps something I share will help you in your own journey of discovery.
All I ask in return is that you help me. Share with me what you have learned. Perhaps something you share will help me.
One Example
So, for example, I have found it helpful to keep a log of what affects and changes my spirit. Specifically, I find it helpful in learning how to care for my spirit to identify what helps and what harms my spirit.
My log has the following categories:
My five physical senses: What do I see, hear, smell, touch, and taste that helps or harms my spirit?
Actions: What do I do that helps/harms my spirit?
People, places, things: Who helps/harms my spirit? What places help/harm my spirit? What things help/harm my spirit?
Events: What events help/harm my spirit?
Thoughts: What thoughts help/harm my spirit?
Imaginings: What do I imagine that helps/harms my spirit?
Memories: What memories help/harm my spirit when I review them?
Getting Started
To get started, take small steps.
Take no more than 30-45 minutes to use the categories above to make your initial list of what helps and harms your spirit
I like that you provided a concrete method to help me get more in touch with my own spirit. And I’m a big fan of journaling as a way to gather information about myself. The idea of starting small also intrigued me, so of course, I decided to give your technique a try!
ReplyDeleteI’d like to share my experience of this with you. I don’t mean the content of my writing as much as my experience of the process, though I may use some examples.
My initial effort was just as you suggested—about 30 minutes trying to capture as much as I could over all of the areas of exploration you proposed. Whew, that’s quite an extensive list! Essentially I just started writing, trying to add at least something to each of the categories.
I found it was easy to come up with sensory experiences that helped my spirit while I had a hard time identifying something here that was harmful, other than the obvious like eating collard greens. And I suppose that’s helpful to some. . . .
With actions, it was the opposite—easier to come up with that which harms rather than helps. People in general seemed to be a double-edged sword, depending on the circumstances. Yes, I could name a few people who are for the most part so very helpful.
I had trouble differentiating between thoughts and imaginings—how do you view these two as different? I’m curious.
All in all, I discovered that spending just 30 minutes on this only scratched the surface. And many of the helps and harms I wrote down seemed to require further exploration. Beyond that, after I finished, I began thinking about other sensations, experiences and people that I hadn’t even captured yet.
So, given all of this, is the idea to keep building the list, or to invoke specific helps and avoid specific harms? Or maybe it’s both. Or maybe the use to which this is put depends on each individual’s spirit.
Just so you know, I did use a specific memory, something that happened long ago that I had forgotten about, to move my spirit from a place of sadness to a place of more contentment with what is. Thanks for sharing. I look forward to seeing what other tools you might suggest for us Thumonauts to explore.
Sara, it's very helpful to me to read what you shared about the process. Thanks! I take it that you found the process productive. That's great!
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question about the difference between our thoughts and our imaginings, thoughts are our self-talk and imaginings are our mental images.
For example, say to yourself "Don't slam the door." What mental image do you see? The image of a slamming a door? If so, you see waht many others see.
However, our self-talk was "Don't slam the door." So, our thoughts and our imagings can differ.
As for your other question, the idea is to use this process to your own benefit. If you find it helpful, go with it!
I appreciate hearing from you!