Be Prepared For Your Subconscious To Act Up

Be Prepared For Your Subconscious To Act Up

You are going to start this journaling thing, pursue it for a few months, solve all of your issues, and go on to live your best life, right? Not so fast. There are going to be a lot of bumps on the way. Most of them are going to come from your subconscious acting up in an ill-conceived attempt to protect you.

 

It will be easier for you to handle its attempts if you are prepared for them. These are the most common ways your subconscious will try to sabotage your journaling efforts.

 

“This is stupid. You should quit.”

This one will happen multiple times. Sometimes it might be that obvious and other times it might be more subtle, but your subconscious is going to try and convince you to stop journaling many times. This will happen with increasing frequency as you start to make real progress. After a certain point, however, it will realize that the tactic does not work and quit.

 

“Squirrel!”

Distraction and misdirection are also common tactics. You will find that you get easily distracted when you sit down to write on certain topics. Or you will discover that your attention shifts, and you are suddenly writing about a different topic entirely. This is because you do not want to deal with the actual issue and your subconscious is trying to keep you from doing so.

 

This one will be more common when you first start journaling and when you switch topics. It may also occur frequently when you are getting near the truth of something, such as what lies behind a sensitive subject. When it happens, redirect your attention and try again. Do this as often as you need to until your subconscious gets the hint.

 

The Panic Button

Some of the things that people commonly work on in self-development journaling are intensely emotional and/or the result of trauma. Your subconscious really, really does not want you to work on these things. It would rather pretend they do not exist.

 

As a result, it might hit the panic button and activate your fight or flight system. If that happens, your journaling session will effectively be over, and you will need to take care of yourself. How do you handle this one? Try again when you are calm, or your next session comes around. And again. Eventually, you will become desensitized. Then you will be able to start making progress.