Rumination, 4

Writing releases the echo of rumination. Writing steps back from the curb. Ruminations become separate from you, not merged with you, not overtaking you, not all of you. Journal Prompt: If I stepped back I would see...

Rumination, 3

Floundering in the overwhelm of rumination, there are signals—a white flag waving, a yellow light blinking—there is something trying to get your attention. I am exhausted. I am really hard on myself. I need help. I need boundaries. Journal Prompt: My rumination is signaling...

Rumination, 2

Rumination plucks you from your senses and submerges you into thoughts. When rumination wins, you are miles away, down a long hallway, in the corner of a dark room, with the door closed, isolated. Journal Prompt: The isolation of rumination feels like...

A Journal Prompt for Rumination

Ruminate: To fixate or obsess on thoughts in a cyclical, unrelenting pattern. Rumination is a bully, distracting you from living, weighing you down with negativity. Journal Prompt: I ruminate when...

A Journal Prompt for Projection

Too close to see our own hypocrisy, we miss that what we condemn, is often what we do not want to see in ourself. Journal Prompt: What do I project on others, that I do not want to see in myself?

Thinking Patterns, 8

Someone is angry, it must be my fault. - Personalization, the thinking pattern that over indulges in responsibility for others. It believes you are responsible for what other people are experiencing. Like a kitchen sponge, when feelings are spilt out into the universe, you anxiously soak them up. Over burdened. Over responsible. Over functioning. - Journal Prompt: I feel over responsible when...

Thinking Patterns, 7

Catastrophic Thinking. Worse-case scenarios and a rolodex of fear-mongering possibilities. It sounds like... A fire truck is headed in the direction of my house. I probably left the stove on. My house is on fire. The insurance won't cover it because I was a day late on my last payment. We will have to move away. Change schools. Get new jobs. And life as we know it will be altered forever. It is primal. It functions to prepare and protect. Your brain sees a possibility—it ignores probability—and races to be ready for survival. Journal Prompt: My catastrophic thinking says...

Thinking Patterns, 6

Unfocused / Avoidant Inattentive states are compensated. They reward you with blocked emotions, filtered memories, and diluted pain. A safe, chaotic distance. Consequently, it also keeps you from a connected life. Journal Prompt: Unfocused thinking helps me...

Thinking Patterns, 5

I am alone, screams the cornering thinking patterns of shame. Journal Prompt: ...are the thought patterns that leave me feeling alone.

Thinking Patterns, 4

A thought pattern of minimizing teaches you to distrust yourself. The person I am in a relationship with talks to me in an abusive way. It's not all the time... It’s not that bad... As if you are talking yourself out of a lived experience, minimizing the problem, the impact, and experience. Minimizing happens when we are afraid of change, conflict avoidant, or having difficulty being honest with ourselves. Journal Prompt: I find myself minimizing when...