Spontaneous Journaling 1. Find a photo of yourself at your CURRENT age. (you can photo-copy the face)
2.From a magazine cut out the body of someone you would like to look like
3. Paste your head/face on the body, pasting both in your journal.
NOW . . .
- Focus your attention on your portrait picture.
- Imagine that the portrait is communicating intuitively with you and she’s telling you something about herself
- Imagine your portrait is dictating and you are writing down what it dictates:
- Complete each statement below as quickly as possible
- Do not think or judge, just write.
- Do NOT edit, even if it makes no sense to you.
(This is what I spontaneously wrote (in italics) when I looked at my picture)
I want you to know that I look terrible as a blond!
- I think others will stare at me and not approve
- I feel like having fun
- I look like I don’t care what others think
- I am happy that I don’t care what others think
- I am sad I don’t have the guts to dress this way more often
- I am fearful I am too old to ever dress this way
- I am mad I was so conservative in my youth
- I want to buy a wig and go incognito and listen to what people say about me
- I look a bit foolish
- I like to be myself
- My secret is I shop in stores for teenagers wishing I was young enough to wear the crazy clothes
Processing
How do the statements reflect your current attitudes, situations, desires, life, hopes, fears etc.?
I’m a psychotherapist and I am not suppose to look or act crazy — at least not in public. As my closest friends know I can be a bit, how should I say, whimisical. . . ., creative . . . I love things that are a little out of the mainstream. And I ADORE color. The more colorful the better. There is a big part of me that would just like to cut loose and wear anything I wanted. My picture is telling me that not wanting to look foolish and people not approving is still a big enough part that it actually wins out most of the time
I think I need to talk to her more about my wardrobe.
