14. Day 7 Again
Here's what I wrote for the workshop that day.
On the 7th I also went to a monthly journaling group, at the local library. I should elaborate beyond "it was nice!" but hey, it was. We were in the community room for event hosting, and in the middle were several tables pushed together so we'd all be facing each other. Off to the side was a smaller table with coffee and teas, and when you walked in there were spare journals and pens if you didn't have one.
The theme was Mindful Journaling for the New Year.
Response: Grounding
Five things I see– immediately: sticky notes, the high walls, the organized things (stuffed animals), our [slide printouts], and different journals.
I feel: this worn table, cold AC (should've brought my heavier coat), calm, and thoughtful (curious). ["my hand cramping, lol"]
The AC, pen scrapings, and traffic dominates my hearing.
I smell my Hawaiiian blend coffee- and I think, the ink from my pen.
I don't want to write about the taste of saliva in my mouth. So I took a sip of coffee and almost scalded my tongue.
Notes and Thoughts on: Working w/ Difficulty
The facilitator suggested the ABCDE technique from Learned Optimism:
- Adversity: What's the problem? (And she is old enough to quote Dragnet: "Just the facts, ma'am.")
- Belief: The story you're telling yourself.
- Consequence: How does that Belief make you feel?
- Dispute: argue against your Belief.
- Evidence: Find Evidence that contradicts your Belief.
This sounds just like Coping Skills for Harmful Thought Patterns, doesn't it? ("Hey, my therapist told me about this!" I shared with the class.)
The person next to me also shared that they got stumped– they had trouble finding evidence for the example they used with ABCDE. Here I chimed in with suggesting another angle or break the issue down to a smaller piece. The point we were trying to get at, I think, was that you can't positively journal your way out of systematic adversity– and we had a brief discussion about how society pressures you into thinking that you can.
some notes to me that I scribbled down
- HEY remember, what's the objective issue?
- What do you do if you can't find evidence? [Try] another angle, break it down, concede if it's a systematic issue.
Exercises I Did
The NOT-To-Do List
- eating terribly!
- overthinking
- doing too much
- spending too much
- worry about things I can't control
- wait to write it down later
More-Less List
(oh shit I have to figure out how to do tables in Markdown!?)
| More | Less |
|---|---|
| expressing | bottling |
| reaching out | isolating |
| JOMO? | FOMO |
| Proactive | Procrastinating |
| Writing | '' |
| Walking | '' |
| Deliberate Cursive | terrible penmanship? |
| Learning | stagnation |
| Compassion | ??? |
| Discernent | Assumption |
| "Let it Go" | Grudges! |
| Seeking Out | Passive |
Response: Self-Compassion in 2026
The last exercise for the night was along the lines of "give yourself compassionate advice– and would you say it to a child? Would you say it to an elder person?" I came away with this:
"I am working with what I have and know."
...To be human is to make mistakes.
I am alive in a system that is not built for me, is hostile to my well-being, in a history of violence no one wants to recon with. IT IS A LOT & HARDER THAN IT NEEDS TO BE.
It takes work to "deprogram."
We were also given sticky notes to make reminders for ourselves.
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