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March 8, 2022

E232: How I Journal | CPTSD and Trauma Healing Coach

In this episode, I want to talk about my process of journaling. I want to go through this process of journaling with you to have a little bit of a better idea of the understanding of the insights to what I do in my day-to-day when I sit down and journal.
See show notes at: https://www.thinkunbrokenpodcast.com/e232-how-i-journal-cptsd-and-trauma-healing-coach-1/#show-notes

In this episode, I want to talk about my process of journaling.

I want to go through this process of journaling with you to have a little bit of a better idea of the understanding of the insights to what I do in my day-to-day when I sit down and journal.

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Transcript

Hey! What's up, Unbroken Nation! Hope that you're doing well, wherever you are in the world today. So this weekend, I did one of the biggest speaking events I've ever done to Tom Bilyeu Impact Theory Discord, which is a group of over 60,000 people and we had a ton of people who participated listened live. And my speech was meant to be 45 minutes and on the backside of it, do some Q&A. And in that, Q&A it actually turned into an hour and then that turned into an hour and 15 minutes and next thing, you know, this was a two-hour event and it was really incredible because people just kept asking me these really interesting questions about healing, about therapy, about the way I think about the world, the way I operate in my day-to-day, why I do this and all the other things that come along with that and it was really beautiful experience I'm so happy and excited that I got to have it.

I wanted to share two things, one will be sharing that as an episode of the show and the coming days so I'm really gonna, I'm really excited about that. But for right now, what I want to talk about actually is my process of journaling, it was one of the questions that came up the most.

Now, you probably have heard me say this in passing, but I've have multiple journals, so if you're watching on video right now, you're going to see four journals, four different colors, red, brown, blue, and yellow. And I want to go through this process of journaling with you all so that you can have a little bit of a better idea of the understanding the insights to what I do in my day to day when I sit down and journal.

And I will say this as a caveat to this conversation, I've recently started doing my journaling in my iPad because I realized I could actually do that and it actually it's carrying around an 8-ounce piece of machine and technology versus what I would say is the equivalent like three pounds of journals, maybe five, I don't know, it's pretty heavy.

And so I am moving away from this system, but I still built the same system in my iPad with an app that I use called Goodreads. And I'm going to start, I'm going to talk to you first about my yellow journal because that typically is the journal that when I wake up in the morning and I just kind of sit down and like, oh, I have just thoughts I need to get out, that's the journal that I go to. So when I grabbed this guy, it's really just about where am I at? What's top of mind? I'll give you an example, I'll read you a note that it says in here…

Real value comes from who we are community needs to be heard because we don't feel heard.

And so that's kind of like this idea that came to me and you know, the morning as I sat down going through my day.

So the yellow journal is one I will say this, I do not frequently use it but it is a journal that I go to when I'm like, I just have a lot of crap in my brain, I just need to get out and it's not necessary particular around anything is just okay this is a brain dump and I've tried to do those kind of brain dumps on my computer by typing, but it just has never felt the same so I really prefer that.

My actual, my go-to is a journal called the Monk Journal, this is a brown journal, this was given to me by Akbar Sheikh, who is an amazing human being. And this journal, I really, really enjoy for a couple of reasons. One, it's kind of been a staple for me for a while and so you can kind of you're watching here, you can see there, maybe you can't because of the lighting but now you can't.

There are multiple different sections here, I've used about every Journal that you can imagine in the personal development space. I've used the Impact Theory Journal, I’ve used High Performance Habits Journal, I’ve used Marie Forleo's Journal, I’ve used Tony Robbins Journal, I've used them all and I keep coming back to Monk Journal because of the simplicity. There are a couple things I don't like about it but there are a couple things that I really love that continue to bring me back to it and let me be clear as you guys know; I'm not sponsored by any of the stuff.

So I'm going to tell you kind of the layout of Monk Journal because everybody always asks me, so it always starts with date and at the top, it says a habit to focus on and then a theme and then there's three sections for priorities and those are what I look at as the most important things that must be done that day. There's a to-do list and then there's a gratitude list.

There is a question that says, I or up statement has I'm looking forward to and then you can build on a schedule. So the scheduling part is the part that I will say don't like, because my entire schedule is in my online calendar I would never be able to use this. And then there's a couple sections in the evening on the other side of the page or you can reflect on highlights of the day. There's a statement of I was at my best when and then I felt unrest when and then one way I can improve tomorrow.

And so that's one of the things that is really interesting and I wrote here.

I actually read this;

Sabotages doing things that you already know will destroy your life. That was one of the things that I wrote, in the way that I can improve tomorrow's, not actually like a literal way, but it was a thing that came to mind. So I've been using this journal for a long time, they are a little pricey, I'll tell you but if you go check out, I think they're on monkjournal.com or something like that. Then there is my blue journal. So if you're looking online, this thing is covered in different colored tabs, it is color coordinated, this is my what I call my education Journal. This is where I sit down and I go through and I write in my twofold, one is for business and then the other is for learning. So if I'm in personal development or things like that, but mainly I use this for Business and Entrepreneurship. So, when I'm actually sitting down, I'm in a business course, I'm learning from a master mind, I'm at an event somewhere that's my go-to, and I always know that's my go-to and I tab it for a reason.

So, I have a couple different items on here.

So one of the tabs, there's an “A” which means Action. That's something I want to take action against because I know that it's going to work or I believe it's going to work and so feels important.

There is an “I” and the I tab means idea. So, it came to me and I was like, oh, this might actually be a good idea, whether it's a business or in trauma space, whatever, that may be.

The yellow tab is to-do, that means, okay, this is a thing that must be done, and then there's some other tabs as well, but also may I use that for that.

The last journal and what I would say is probably the most important Journal that I have is my red journal and the red journals most important, because this red Journal is where I often take all of the fucking chaos in my brain and I put it in a place in which I can like get it off of my mind where I can let effectively let go of it because I know previously in historically in my life when I carried weight of anger, of pain, of suffering, of guilt, of just being pissed off at the world it got in my way. And one day I was talking to my therapist and he was like, you know, you should consider like journaling and getting this stuff off your mind, I was like, yeah, okay cool, I'm a writer, I do love to write, let me do that.

And I sat down and I started doing that one day and I never forget so this is probably red journal number seven or eight somewhere in that window and the first night, I'll never forget, it was like this freezing cold December day in Portland and I was walking home from my therapist office because I had missed the bus and I have a car back then you don't really need a car in Portland but I also don't want to take uber and I was like, all right, I'm just going to walk, it's about a mile and a half. So I'm just walking after the session and I'm just thinking I'm like, upset, I'm hurt, I'm going through all the motions and I'm having this thought where I'm like, you know, I don't want to be here right now, why am I here? Why do I have to go through this? And just being really upset and I got home, I grab this journal, it just happened to be read there was no real rhyme or reason to it other than that. And I made it my anger journal, and that holds true today when I'm pissed off because, like, one of the things that I know about myself is I've massive anger issues, if I don't displace them, if I don't put that those sensations, those emotions somewhere, practical, right?

You've heard me talk about how sometimes a leverage, the dark side to build, and create and grow Think Unbroken, but it was really 6-7 years ago when I got serious about writing in this journal that I stopped carrying the weight of it every single day. We're just I was not anger every single moment of every single day and that has had a tremendous amount of impact in my life because I've realized that being angry and in terms of like a daily doesn't really serve anyone and it doesn't serve me and you know, I don't want to be that person. And so this journal is actually being very practical and my journey for giving me the space where I can get that stuff out and I write stuff in that journal, never share publicly, all right, obviously, or maybe not, obviously, I don't know, but that's where I put these thoughts.

And so what someone asked me this question, they wanted me to go deep within so I want to share that with you. And I would highly suggest if you're not journaling and I know you guys have heard me say this a million times.

If you're not journaling, you really should be. You should be taking the time to get things off of your mind and out of your head and onto paper or on your computer or wherever. So you can free up your mental energy.

And, you know, again, these are just my recommendations.

I would consolidate right? If I were you, which I'm in the process of doing, but ultimately, it doesn't matter how you do, it could write on the back of a fucking napkin like doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that you do journaling, you take that space. You get quiet with yourself and you try to make meaning of the situations and circumstances of your life.

So, Unbroken Nation.

Thank you so much for listening it means the world to me.

Please, like subscribe, comment, share.

Tell a friend.

And Until Next Time.

My friends, Be Unbroken.

I'll see you.

Michael UnbrokenProfile Photo

Michael Unbroken

Coach

Michael is an entrepreneur, best-selling author, speaker, coach, and advocate for adult survivors of childhood trauma.