Journaling: A Powerful Tool for Spiritual and Personal Growth | Guest: Kathleen Adams | Ep 131

 In this episode of the Evolving Humans podcast, host Julia Marie interviews Kathleen Adams, a psychotherapist and journal therapist.

Adams discusses her upbringing in a literary household and her journey to discovering journal writing as her life's work. She emphasizes the healing power of journal writing, describing it as a form of written meditation that can provide catharsis, insight, and personal growth.

Adams also shares techniques for journal writing, such as the five-minute sprint and the dialogue technique, which involves a written conversation with oneself or a spiritual entity.

She advises listeners to date every entry and protect their privacy when journaling.

The episode concludes with a reminder of the transformative power of journal writing.

RESOURCES:
Journal Therapy Website
Kathleen's FREE OFFER

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Transcript

This transcript was generated using ai, and therefore may contain errors.
Julia Marie (00:00):
Journal writing can be a powerful tool for both personal growth and spiritual transformation. This episode is loaded with techniques and takeaways you can put into practice today. You don't want to skip this one and now part one of a two-part conversation. Welcome to Evolving Humans, the podcast for Awakening
Souls. I'm your host, Julia Marie. Settle in and get ready for another spirited conversation. Kathleen Adams is a psychotherapist and journal therapist. Her life's mission is making the healing art and science of journal writing accessible to all who desire self-directed change. She's the author of 14 books, including the bestselling classic Journal to the Self Welcome to Evolving Humans. Kathleen, I'm looking forward to our discussion.
Kathleen Adams (01:08):
Thank you, Julia Marie, I am looking forward to it as well.
Julia Marie (01:12):
My first question is always the same. What was it like growing up in Kathleen's house?
Kathleen Adams (01:20):
Oh wow. That's a great question. I am the middle of three daughters and with two loving parents who were madly in love with each other from start to finish. They were married 48 years before my dad passed away, and my mother lived another almost 20 years and wore her wedding ring the entire time because
she was still married to 'em even though they weren't physically together anymore. I grew up, my mother was an avid reader and had wanted to be a writer when she grew up, but that wasn't in her path, but she was very well read, very literary. I learned stories from super early age and my older sister, who's three
years older now, has a doctorate in education, and when she was six and I was three, she would come home and play school with me and teach me everything she learned in first grade that day.
(02:30):
So I learned how to read when I was three, which was magical. It was wonderful, and it kind of freaked out my parents a little bit, but when they caught me hiding behind the couch reading books, they decided it was better to not squash that and make me think that reading was illegal activity. So they embraced it.
And my mom was always, my dad was more rational. He was an accountant, but my mother was an avid supporter of my career as a writer and as a reader, and I just loved having a literary household that I grew up in. I didn't know other kids didn't necessarily have that. I thought everybody made story time a family
event every single night no matter what. And it was a great upbringing. And I will always remember that first wash of imagination. The first time that I saw things in my mind that were being read to me out loud or that I was reading to myself, just, it was so magical to have pictures appear in my brain without just from the written word.
Julia Marie (03:58):
I try to explain to people how intuition works and intuition uses that same imagination channel to bring information to us. So we should never discount that input and say, oh, that was just my imagination. Yes, it was your imagination, but it wasn't just your imagination. How did you find your way to the field of
journal writing, although I can kind of see how the seeds were planted very early on in your upbringing.
Kathleen Adams (04:32):
Yeah. I knew from the time I was a little kid during that story time that I wanted to be a writer when I grew up, I wanted to write stories that were as magical as the ones that I was hearing, and so I kind of imagined that I would be writing fiction. It turns out that I'm not a very good plotter, and so fiction, I have very interesting characters who don't do much, so I do nonfiction instead. And I woke up one day and just went, this is not my soul work. I know I want to continue to write, but I don't want to be doing this. It's not my work. So I left that lucrative and comfy position with integrity. I hired and trained my replacement and went off kind of on a quest, but I kind of rattled around. I did a lot of personal growth work and
spiritual development in that 18 months and was on a quest for my life's work.
(05:43):
I just was waiting for spirit to show me the way. And there came a time when some friends asked me if I would teach them a little class on journal writing, and I said, get a notebook. It's not hard. And they said, well, it's not hard for you. So I said, okay, well let me think about this and put it together. And I taught a
four week class that was three hours per session, so 12 hours total. So I went through my journals and realized that I used a lot of creative writing techniques and journalistic techniques, just different ways to write that it have different outcomes, and I had adapted them for personal growth for my own personal
process. I was a first semester graduate student in my counseling program at the time, even though I didn't know if therapy was my life's work, I figured it couldn't hurt, it would support pretty much anything that was my life's work. But I looked at the clock 40 minutes after that course started in the very first week,
and I knew this was it. I knew the intersection between writing and healing was my life's work, and I have never looked back.
Julia Marie (06:51):
Well, I think it's important to point out the insight that you had about the juxtaposition of the journal writing and the healing.
Kathleen Adams (07:03):
There's
Julia Marie (07:04):
Something really powerful in writing down our feelings, what we're feeling, what we're thinking, that catharsis is healing,
Kathleen Adams (07:13):
Catharsis is healing, and so is developing insight and understanding into personal patterns, personal places of vulnerability, places of brilliance. Catharsis is a fabulous outcome of journal writing, and it's not the only benefit. There's lots and lots of other things that can happen, and I think when people are on a
spiritual path, particularly, there is something very, some mystical and marvelous things can happen unexpectedly. And also with intention and purposeful writing, you can not just wait for inspiration to fall out of your pen, but you can self-direct a process that will engage both hemispheres of the brain and the
gut brain and the heart brain that make it so powerful. The writing can be a very powerful experience in a lot of different dimensions.
Julia Marie (08:34):
Is that a process that you can describe?
Kathleen Adams (08:38):
Yeah, sure. So who's out there listening to this? Just tell me a little profile of somebody who might want to know how to achieve something that they are interested in and focused on. Who's your audience here?
Julia Marie (08:54):
Most of the that listen to this podcast are people on a spiritual path. Great. They're looking to expand their self-awareness, which is why I was prompted to ask you if you could describe this process, it would be a very helpful takeaway for them.
Kathleen Adams (09:09):
You bet. You can start simply with letters. Let's just start with something that everybody already knows how to do. Letters to God or to your guardian angel or to your spirit guide or to your inner wisdom can be
a marvelous place to begin. And it just starts with, dear God or Dear Angel, or my spirit guide's name is Ani. So I write to Ani a lot, and there's just a heartfelt get acquainted. I'd like to have a conversation with you is can you write back to me? I promised to listen, love. Kay. And then turn the page and center
yourself and maybe do whatever you do for meditative practice, light a candle, say a prayer, set an intention, whatever it happens to be. And then in the voice of your addressee from the prior letter, just listen and wait in silence for a thought, an inspiration, an insight, an urge, and just write it down.
(10:22):
And then it's helpful to put your own name at the top. Dear Kay, thank you for it. That's my name. Thank you for reaching out. I'm happy to talk with you and here's what I want you to know. And then just wait to
see what comes and write it down without judgment, without worrying about whether it sounds right, whether it's really true, whether you're making it up. Yes, you're making it up, but out of everything you could be making up, this is what's coming to you. So I really have a lot of faith in the power of, we were
talking about imagination before and the concept of active imagination to take yourself to a place that you intentionally want to go but don't really know the root to yet a letter back and forth between yourself and an entity can be a simple but profound way to begin
Julia Marie (11:27):
That was worth the price of admission.
Kathleen Adams (11:32):
Well, we got a bonus right after the unsent letter, or in this case the sent letter. It's sent magically. Ira ProGo was a analytic psychologist in Manhattan in the, he was doing his work from the forties on, but he was in my world. He entered in his work during the 1950s when he studied with Carl Jung in Zurich on three different postgraduate fellowships. And he was developing a methodology that he was calling holistic depth psychology. Depth psychology in the analytic community in the fifties probably still is a way of going past the ego into the unconscious. And the psychiatrist or psychologist who is an analytically trained person knows how to go there. But it often, the old joke about analytic therapeutic
psychoanalysis is that it takes a long time, and it did take a long time. ProGo had this idea that he could help his clients with something that he was referencing as a psychological notebook, which was a journal.
(13:05):
And he imagined that a series of what he called practical procedures could be developed so that people could learn how to interpret their own dreams to work with their own unconscious material in a safe way with the guidance, but not the direction of an analytic psychologist like he was. And I was a child in the
fifties, but I'm just imagining these days that the analytic community in Manhattan was, their heads were kind of exploding over this idea that people could do their own work for them. But he persevered and developed what is now known as the intensive journal workshop, which is one of the most profound
spiritual experiences I have ever had was the first time I've taken it several times since the first time in 1982 that I took a pro gof workshop. An intensive journal workshop was literally life-changing for me because one of the techniques that he uses that he created is called the dialogue Technique.
(14:18):
And it is literally a written conversation where you write both parts and he has six different types of dialogue with the body, with a person, with your events and circumstances, with societies, with your work. And the sixth one is the dialogue with inner wisdom. And that is where you, for lack of a better
word, and channel a spiritual connection. And it just begins with a simple question, thank you for speaking with me. What would you like me to know? Or if you have something on your heart, how can I resolve my grief? What is my next step in my struggle with my child? How do I create more intimacy
with my partner? Any of these kinds of questions, what is my life's work? I had so many dialogues with my life's work, and it always told me, you will know me when you meet me.
(15:39):
Don't worry about it. It's going to happen. And you don't have to struggle, you don't have to, don't have to make it happen. It will happen when you aren't looking for it. So just have faith. Every single time I did a dialogue with my life's work, it restored and refreshed me and gave me hope and faith, and I was calmed
and grew in my certainty that I could trust not only myself, but this process. So the dialogue technique with the inner wisdom figure or with any circumstance or situation in your life can also be a profound and beautiful way to start. It takes some time. It's not snappy. Is that making sense?
Julia Marie (16:38):
Oh, it totally is. And I always say practicing at anything is going to make you better at it. So be patient with yourself, be kind to yourself and be consistent. Just stick with it and your efforts will bear fruit.
Kathleen Adams (16:59):
Yes. And that is so true with the journal. And the other thing about a spiritual journal is that you get to notice and pay attention to your own journey. I go in and out of whether I keep separate journals for separate things, sometimes I do if it feels important, and sometimes I just throw everything mashed up
together. Ine Rainer who wrote this brilliant book called The New Diary, said, lemme see if I can quote this accurately. When the dreams lie next to the political statements and the shopping lists next to the fantasies, they all to learn from one another. And so that was her advocation for a advocacy for a one
journal that holds everything. But sometimes I go through times when I really want to just have my spiritual journal segregated and contained so that I can look through it all at once without having to
piecemeal it through.
(18:16):
One way to piecemeal it through actually that I've learned is to leave the last four or five pages of any journal blank, and then when I finish, I go back and index it so that I have a way of capturing all the spiritual things are in one section. I can go to page 17 and then 32 and then forward. But sometimes it's
just easier to keep it all in one place. So that's a decision, like all kinds of choices that are available in the journal. There's no wrong way to do it. There's only the way that is right for you.
Julia Marie (18:57):
Well, for people that maybe get down on themselves because they don't sit in meditation, this sounds like a perfect alternative to sitting meditation because you're engaged with a specific part of your brain and
also connecting to your higher wisdom, your expanded awareness.
Kathleen Adams (19:21):
And we actually call it written meditation. I mean, that's what I call it, is written meditation. And people in my circles have adopted that term for their own meditations as well. And it can start just, one of my
most popular techniques that I teach people is called the five Minute Sprint. And it's exactly what it sounds like. It's five minutes written without at a pretty brisk pace, taking the first thought you hear and going with it and ending when the timer rings after five minutes. Because what we really want to do is be
sure that we can tell ourselves the truth and also keep our own agreements with ourselves. So if a five minute sprint isn't enough, reset the timer for as long as you want to, but when it rings, allow it to be a transition zone.
Julia Marie (20:28):
Well, you're being consistent. And I've told people for, well, like you decades now, just give spirit five minutes a day and trust and believe a way will be made and open you up to more of who you are.
Absolutely. And five minutes a day being consistent can change your life.
Kathleen Adams (20:57):
Yeah, absolutely. The biggest benefit long-term from a journaling practice does take practice, practice, practice. But it doesn't have to be hard, and it doesn't have to be daily. And there really are, if there is one, two rules for journal writing, the first one is date every entry so that you can see how your thoughts and
feelings and events and circumstances are shifting over time. And the second one is protect your own privacy. Because there is, I mean, you just have to assertively decide that this is nobody else's business but your own. And I always, in my own journals, I always save the first page of any new notebook for a
title page. I like to name my journals, give them themes, which kind of sometimes foreshadows the content that I'm going to be writing about.
(22:05):
But I always put a little note on the first page under the title that says, this is my private journal. Please don't read it without my permission. And then on the next page, I sometimes write, as I was saying, this is my private journal, please don't read without my permission. And then I leave the third page blank, and
then I start writing on the fourth page. And that doesn't really keep anybody away who is determined to invade my privacy, but it does make a statement to anybody who is inadvertently snooping like, oh, what's this book? Is this mine? Open it up. My husband sees it's my journal. He puts the book away and puts it on my desk. I mean, he closes the book and puts it on my desk. He would never invade my
privacy. But I'm fortunate that way. I hear lots and lots of stories and my therapeutic practice about the betrayal and rage that is evoked in a relationship when privacy has been compromised. So the easiest way
to do it is if you live in a reasonable household with reasonable people say, I'm going to be keeping a spiritual journal. This is what it looks like. It's this blue spiral notebook. Would you please, first of all, don't read it? And secondly, if you see it lying around, if I forget to put it away, would you please just put
it on my side of my nightstand by the bed or put it on the first chair going upstairs and I'll pick it up? And most people will say, sure, no problem.
(23:42):
If you have any doubts about whether people would say, sure, no problem, then put it in a book bag or stick it in a walking file drawer, or make a plan in advance for how you will protect your own privacy so that it doesn't become a place of heartbreak.
Julia Marie (24:05):
I totally agree with everything you just said. And boundary setting can be a challenge for a lot of us. So your suggestions are well taken. That's a very good idea to put it right out there on the front page. Please don't read this without my permission. At least I'm establishing a boundary.
Kathleen Adams (24:30):
Exactly. And you are taking responsibility for your own self-care and that decision all by itself. I mean, you are really doing this for yourself and not for anybody else, but to just stake that claim that I am entitled to private thoughts and feelings. I am entitled to a private relationship with my spiritual source.
There is nothing inherently selfish, negative, bad about taking care of my own needs. And this is one of the ways I do it. And when you have that kind of, here's another thing that is so cool about journals. The journal is essentially the self on the page. So it is directly what in therapy we call a self object. It's a
representation of the self in a externalized form. In many ways, the capacity for relationship with the journal, the positive relationship with the journal is a way of, it's like an externalized metaphor for the capacity with relationship, for relationship with self. And I really love that about it, that it can be teaching
us about all kinds of things while we don't even know that we're teaching ourselves those things.
Julia Marie (26:01):
Well, I can hear Whitney Houston singing in the background, learning to Love Yourself is the greatest love of all. That's our time for today. Part two of my conversation with Kathleen Adams continues on the next episode. I'm grateful to all of you for continuing to support this podcast with your downloads and
subscriptions. If you found value in this episode, please share the link with someone would also benefit from it so that together we can bring more light to this world. You can now leave a text message for the show by clicking on the link at the top of the show notes page. And now here's a quote for you as you go
about your day. Journal writing when it becomes a ritual for transformation, is not only life changing, but life expanding. Jen Williamson