The other day I was thinking about how my passion for Traveler’s Notebooks is strangely at odds with my disinterest in travel.
My summer stationery line-up is hardly suitable for hot weather or for light packing: Harris Tweed covers, TNs thick with full refills, clips, and pendant fountain pens, and passport holders used for notebooks rather than actual passports…
The idea of “going nowhere” amuses me, because to my mind, these notebooks can take me anywhere I want to go.
And if you’re feeling stuck this summer, allow me to share this perspective with you.
Summer Journal Prompts to Get Unstuck
Your Passport Out
If you’ve been feeling like you’re stuck in a Stasis; going through the workaday round, and watching other people (appear to) have their fun in the sun…
Your passport out of it may be a notebook.
This notebook isn’t for jotting down your dream travel itinerary, though. Oh no. It’s for:
- Writing down what you love about exactly where you are at exactly this time.
- Realising that where you are is always where you will be, in the HERE and NOW.
- Recognising you got “stuck” on purpose. I love this quote from Bashar: “You’re not stuck. You’re just exploring the feeling of stuckness.”
- Recording all the ways in which where you are is the stepping stone to where you want to be.
Print Out Your (Journalling Prompts) Boarding Pass
I designed this fake boarding pass for you so you can keep your journalling prompts with you wherever you go (or don’t go).
☞ Hint: You can always add extra text using your PDF software. Specifically your ‘true name‘ (surname first, if applicable).
Tour Guide of the Soul
This journalling exercise is about learning to listen to your inner guidance, and learning to follow the white rabbit.
- Write down the first word that pops into your head.
- Google it, look it up in the dictionary, or ask AI to tell you about it. Take notes. You might like to use the following template:
WORD: ____________
DICTIONARY/ENCYCLOPAEDIA DEFINITION: _____________
WHAT CAUGHT MY ATTENTION: ___________
RELATED WORDS: __________ - Over the course of the day, be on the lookout for anything that relates to your word or to the notes you took. Again, note down your observations.
- Next morning, sit down with your journal to consider what message this word might be conveying to you specifically.
The Hero’s Holiday
Many people mistakenly associate the Hero’s Journey with action-heavy Hollywood films.
When you read The Hero With a Thousand Faces, you realise that the cycle described by Campbell is the very opposite. It’s about a journey within, where you leave the crowds behind and holiday with your own sweet soul.
- Write down something you’d like to accomplish. This could be a dream, a long term goal, or just a quotidian chore.
- Experiment with changing your thoughts about the goal or task.
- How close can you come to accomplishing your dream, goal, or chore without undertaking any physical activity?
For example:- You might imagine a scenario in which unseen forces conspire to help you accomplish your dream (or a part of it), without you lifting a finger.
- You might think of a plan for making your chores obsolete.
- You might remember a secret trick to reaching your goal quicker, and easier than you’d previously assumed.
- You might decide that your well-being is more important than any goal, and take a nap.
- You might research the subject avidly, and study what others have done in your situation.
- You might journal yourself into acceptance of your dreams and goals, and a belief in your own worthiness to attain them.
- You might have a mental conversation with someone that leads to an epiphany.
The aim isn’t to reach a conclusion or to get motivated; it’s to close the (imaginary) distance between you and your desires, so that they feel closer than they did before.
Summer Housework
Feeling somewhat detached from your life is no bad thing. It means you have an awareness of yourself as a separate consciousness. In fact, feeling “out of touch” with your own reality is the perfect opportunity for getting an overview of your life’s narrative and you observing your “self” in a more impartial light.
- Watch this video.
- Note down patterns you notice in your life.
- Recognise the way you retrace these patterns, but as a different person each time — proving you have changed, and you’re never standing still.
No Shades
In the Underworld everything is topsy-turvy. This exercise is about integrating the opposite of who you feel you are (your Shadow self), and becoming the ‘Master of Two Worlds’.
- Take one subject that you enjoy complaining about, that you enjoy disliking, that makes you feel angry, frustrated, or failing.
- Practice thinking about this topic in a completely new way. Just as a mental exercise, take up the exact opposite opinion on the subject, and play devil’s advocate. (Again, watch this video if you need some guidance.)
- Note down your explorations.
