What is stream-of-conscious journaling, really?
I originally wrote today’s essay in September 2023. Back then, I was using Instagram and Mailchimp to share my writing about journaling, feelings, and parts work. Now, years later, I find myself being called to write about those same things—just with more context, experience, and understanding than I had then. (Growth is an upward spiral.)
I’m sharing it today because I stand by it, because I think it’ll help you in your journaling practice, and because Seth Werkheiser told me to. He writes in this blog post:
“You’ve put out years of thoughts and ideas and observations into the world, never to be seen or heard from again, so don’t be afraid to revisit them!
You can copy and paste them, or just write a whole new take on an idea you had five years ago – whatever you do, it’ll work because it’s from you, and where you’re at right now.”
So, this is where I’m at right now. I hope it meets you where you’re at, too.
Last week I met with D., someone who’s journaled all his life and considers writing a big part of his identity.
But lately he’d been feeling bored with it, especially stream-of-conscious writing. He described how tired he was of only ever analyzing his thoughts and feelings when he wrote, and how he was considering moving away from journaling altogether to focus on more creative writing.
This stood out to me, alarmed me, because stream-of-conscious writing is hands down the most life-changing thing I’ve ever done. It’s helped me better understand myself, heal old wounds, find my voice, unleash my creativity, and write more than ever before—in my journal, yes, but also on other, more public projects.
AND
Analyzing my thoughts and feelings is only a sliver of what I do when I write stream-of-conscious.
It seemed like a big misunderstanding, like stream-of-conscious writing was just this one thing, and this one thing was exhausting and boring.
So we talked about that. Really got into it. We opened up the perspective and shed some light on all the other things stream-of-conscious writing can be and help with.
Like expanding gratitude and appreciation for life.
Like noticing details and using words to describe them.
Like letting your mind wander and play on the page.
By the end of our session, D. felt excited and hopeful about his stream-of-conscious writing practice. I was sweaty and invigorated!
But I kept thinking, “If D. felt that way about stream-of-conscious writing, then other people probably also feel that way. They don’t know all that it can be for them.”
So here I am, writing this email to you to hopefully set the record straight and encourage you to reimagine your relationship with stream-of-conscious writing.
To tell you that all it really is is the act of noticing your thoughts and writing them down, again and again, without editing, filtering, judging, or criticizing.
Just noticing and writing. Noticing and writing. Noticing and writing.
Sometimes what you notice is a feeling that you’ve had before and don’t particularly enjoy and that discomfort leads to analyzing it. Why am I feeling this way? What does it remind me of? How can I avoid it in the future?
But sometimes what you notice is a thought like “Wow I love how the sunlight is hitting the building outside my window, it’s so beautiful.” And so you write that down, and that leads to more thoughts about how beautiful light and life is, and so you write that down, and on and on. No analyzing necessary.
You can’t control what thoughts come to mind, and that’s fine, because the point of stream-of-conscious writing isn’t to control, it’s to witness—whatever thoughts, feelings, memories, details, etc. present themselves.
That being said, witnessing everything all at once can be overwhelming. I get that. That’s why I’ve created a few prompts to help you narrow the focus and influence the direction of your thoughts. Use them to practice noticing and writing down what comes to mind as it does.
3 stream-of-conscious writing prompts:
1. Check in on yourself. How are you feeling? Write down the first thing that comes to mind. Then ask yourself again how you’re feeling, and write down the first thing that comes to mind that time. Repeat this process until you’ve filled one whole page. (If it helps, you can write down the question, too!)
2. Drop into your senses. What can you see from where you sit? What can you hear? What can you feel? What can you taste? What can you smell? Write down as much of each of these as you can, or focus on just one sense in detail. Fill a page with whatever you notice.
3. Free associate. Write down the first word, object, or feeling that comes to mind, then write a sentence about what it makes you think of. What’s that then make you think of? And then what? These thoughts don’t have to be logically connected at all—you’re just following your mind where it goes. Consider each sentence a step on the path, and follow the path to the end of a page.
Because your feelings are always coming and going, and your environment is always changing, and your lived experiences are always adding and taking away from your mental clutter, each of these prompts could get you through pages and pages of writing, if not more.
Give yourself permission to try them out, to really lean in and write down whatever comes to mind, to remain open to where they may lead. Alter them to better suit your needs, play around with them—you have my permission to really make these prompts your own.
Then, when you’re ready, email me and let me know how it’s going so we can celebrate!