Understanding Your Soul Through Journaling and Automatic Writing

What do you think of when you hear the words journaling or automatic writing? It may call in memories of angsty teenage years, but did you know they can also be powerful tools on your spiritual journey? 

On today’s episode of Adventures With Spirit, we dive into both journaling and automatic writing practices, discussing what these tools are, why we use them, and how they can help you understand your soul more fully while helping to create a direct line to Spirit. 

We invite you to join our conversation and come with an open mind to leave old, and maybe even triggering, definitions behind and to create space for a uniquely crafted practice that can support you throughout your life adventures.

This episode, we discuss:

[2:51] How Jessica went from hating to loving journaling‍

Journaling was not something Jessica was passionate about until a few years ago. In 2017, she took an Oracle Card class and was told that If you journaled about your cards, you would get the most out of the class. 

Being me, if you tell me to journal, I'm going to journal but I really hated journaling and I didn't think that there was any value to journaling prior to this class. I used to believe that if I sat down and thought through things, I didn’t need to write it down. I noticed when I started writing things down, that everything started to open up - like peeling the layers of an onion back. I’m not sure that this would have been possible without journaling. After that experience, Jessica was completely sold on journaling. The beauty of journaling is that there is not one right way to do it. 

[4:38] Our personal reasons for journaling

Jessica uses journaling kind of like a self care tool. She uses it to understand herself more fully. Sometimes that looks like trying to understand her emotions whereas other times it looks like trying to understand her belief systems or soul lessons. It also helps her organize her thought process.

Andrea likes to use journaling as a stream of consciousness. Other times she uses journaling when she wants to understand things more deeply. The journal entries that stand out the most in Andrea’s mind are the ones where she is concerned or scared about something. By writing this down, she is taking these thoughts and feelings to her spirit guides and loved ones and see what comes from there. Both Jessica and Andrea start with their inner voice and end up with their guides. 

[7:38] What journaling can look like and what it can do for your spiritual journey

The act of journaling can be a form or tool to process the world around you. Journaling does not have to just be words on paper - it can be anything you want it to be. However your soul wants to express itself, it’s perfectly wonderful. 

Your journaling process can be as simple as brain dumping your thoughts or utilizing specific morning prompts or questions because sometimes it can be easier to start with a specific question to answer. 

Some morning prompts can be: 

• What are your expectations for the day?
• What do you hope to accomplish at the end of the day?

Some evening prompts can be: 

• What are you grateful for today? 

You can also use your journal for positive affirmations or quotes. You can also journal about your cards. 

[10:54] The purpose of a dumping journal

This is a separate journal where you just dump all your thoughts and just rant and put all of your emotions out there so that you can begin to work through the process and give yourself some mental space. 

[12:04] Benefits to journaling

Journaling helps us settle our mind and in turn, helps us sleep better at night. Journaling can help you really organize your thoughts and help with creativity. 

A few other journal prompts to consider:

• What gave you energy today?
• What was good today?
• What is your hope with something that’s been added to your life? 
• What drained your energy today? 

Jessica has experienced a lot of self-healing with her journaling the past few weeks. When she notices that something is coming up repeatedly, Jessica will flip through her journal and see how long it’s been happening for. 

Journaling is a really helpful tool to utilize. If you think that you are not a journaler, have an open mind because you might be surprised. Play with it and make it your own rather than going off of what you have been told about journaling because there is really no one right way to journal. 

Back when Andrea taught high school, each of her students was required to have a journal and write in it for five minutes each morning. 

[15:22] The process and value of automatic writing

Andrea and Jessica are both big fans of automatic writing. Automatic writing is another way to connect with spirit and receive messages. Some people also refer to this as channeling information. The idea is that you are stepping aside and letting spirit come through you directly to your paper, computer, or art easel. 

It does not mean that you have to space out and leave your body and not remember anything. You can be present and do this or you can go into a meditative state and do it. It’s all about what is most comfortable for you. 

Automatic writing is just receiving a message and writing it down. Some of you may hear that message while others may just uncover this as you write. Some people may see things that they want to draw or see symbols or images you want to describe. It could also be feelings that rise up that you want to describe. 

This process is going to look different for everyone. Sometimes you may be connecting with your higher self, other times you may be connecting with your inner voice. You could also be connecting with your spirit guides or loved ones, but likely you will know if that is the case. It’s not always necessary to identify who is bringing forth this message. Even if it is your higher self delivering this message, it is just as valuable as if it was your spirit guide. 

[18:51] How to start automatic writing

Some people start by making squiggles on the page and just let their hand flow and start creating words. For Andrea, she just begins to write the words immediately. Jessica will often start writing and connect to her inner voice first and then she will begin to notice that she has shifted from writing “I” to writing “you” and her handwriting starts to get a bit messier and the words flow a lot quicker. With automatic writing, Jessica cannot seem to keep up with how fast the words are flowing onto the paper. 

Andrea also experiences the same changes that Jessica mentioned. She does not notice it as it is happening, it is when she looks back that she realizes that the handwriting looks different. 

With automatic writing, you are not really thinking about it ahead of time. It is just easily flowing out onto paper. 

[21:37] The process behind automatic writing

When Andrea is automatic writing, a lot of things change like the handwriting, pronouns, etc, but the language is all her own even though the words are not. She notices that when she is in the automatic writing process she uses much bigger words than she normally would.

[23:03] What to do with your automatic writing

After Andrea finishes with her automatic writing, she will read it back after and will either let it sit there and never looks at it again or she is all of a sudden six months or more later drawn back to that page and reads it again. 

Jessica on the other hand will usually sit with it and read it back when the process is done and then poses the question to herself “What do I need to do with this?” Do I need to take action to shift something or change something?”. The answer to this question varies, and sometimes it is just a matter of letting it all integrate into her energy. 

[24:49] Examples to get you started with automatic writing

First, you need to get into a focused, quiet and present space for yourself. You need to make a clear intention for yourself to get the process moving. Like we mentioned earlier, you may start off doodling or you may start off casually journaling and then it turns into something else. 

Andrea also has heard that some people will use the 528 frequency to get the process started. The goal here is for you to shift into receiving mode. Automatic writing is evidence and validation that something is going on bigger than yourself. If you’re doing this and find that nothing is happening, do not give it up. It takes a little bit to tap into it. 

[28:35] How to create a safe space for automatic writing and journaling

In order to create a safe space for yourself, you need to first ground your energy and clear your energy and put up some protection and invite your guides in. 

[29:32] Soul journaling and automatic writing prompts

Journaling really is the key to automatic writing. When you know what your voice sounds like you will be able to tell the difference between your voice and your spirit guides’ voice. 

The first step is to take a deep breath and anchor yourself down by planting your feet on the ground, laying down - whatever feels right for you. This idea of anchoring into the Earth's energy to help you come into the present moment.

Imagine, or feel an anchor dropping down from the base of your spine, and going all the way to the center of the earth. And as it sort of settles in the core of Earth, you feel this grounding energy coming up and flowing through your body. And it's almost as if all the versions of you finally come together into one place, right?

As you feel yourself center, reach out and ask your angels or your spirit guides to help you clear your energy to help you release what you're carrying anything that isn't yours. Just imagine them taking it away. Imagine them lifting that burden from you, and just clearing your full energy out of your body. 

When you're ready, I want you to find a pen, or a pencil and some paper or maybe it's typing on a computer or speaking to text, whichever works for you. There's no one way to do this. 

Think about these questions: 

• What's been on your mind lately?
• What might these emotions be telling you? 
• What messages come up with those emotions?
• Does it remind you of anything you've experienced in the past? If so, how does it remind you of that past situation? 
• Does it feel triggering or were you successful in navigating it? Do you remember having some wisdom that came from it? 

Now that we have answered some of these questions, it is time to start squiggling on paper and trying your hand at automatic writing. Just let it all flow out and write down what you receive. 

Now, you may have connected to spirit, you may have connected to your higher voice, you may have just connected to yourself some more. And whatever happened, it was perfect.

If you loved this episode, or have questions about our topics today, go ahead and send us an email at hello@adventureswithspirit.com and remember to subscribe to our newsletter to get access to extended episodes and live reading opportunities!