Journaling: Drama, Wellness and Finding Your Path By Juliette O’Brien I don’t like journaling, it just doesn’t come naturally
come under the umbrella of gratitude. What both
to me. When I was a teenager many a New Year
of these journaling processes have in common are
came with the resolution to keep a journal. I think it
the notions of mindful awareness, of consciousness
was partly with a mind to write something that was,
of intention, process and outcome and that word
in the words of Cecily Cardew, ‘simply a very young
again, of making connections.
girl's record of her own thoughts and impressions and consequently meant for publication.’ It never
But how do we create this in a meaningful way for
happened and every year I soon gave up. It just
our students? As a non-journaling journaler, here’s
wasn’t meaningful for me.
what I’ve learnt and what helped make the process meaningful to me and I have tried, in consequence,
Yet journaling is something of a hot topic in two
to pass on to my students:
fields that intersect with my world: drama and wellness. A couple of years ago I found myself not
Divide and Conquer
only asking my students to keep a drama journal, but having to keep a journal myself as part of
I soon figured out that, for me, one linear journal
my yoga teacher training and I began to wonder
was not a useful tool. If I put all my notes, my ideas,
what these two areas had in common that made
my progressions, my goals and my reflections,
the process of journaling so intrinsic to both.
revelations and gratitude into a day-by-day, week-
Furthermore, I found myself considering how my
by-week format then when I came to look back on it
process of yoga and wellness journaling might
I could never find anything I needed.
inform my understanding of the drama journal and help shape both into a meaningful experience.
The mind works in, what psychologists call, ‘chunks’ or ‘schemas’ - ways of grouping information. It
Yoga means to ‘yoke’, to connect: in this case the
therefore, arguably, makes sense to organise
holistic connection of body-mind-spirit. Yoga or
our thoughts and the tangible collection of our
wellness journaling speaks to this same goal: to
thoughts in a similar way. Students can do this
make connections between what we do, what we
through separate notebooks, digital documents,
learn, the journey we are on and how we develop
blog pages, YouTube playlists or however else they
along the way. In addition, a wellness journal can
work. The point is, each is distinct and has a clear
have many purposes, but three common ones are
purpose. Our students may find their own ways of
tracking a goal, reflection and gratitude. As drama
doing this; here’s what works for me:
and theatre teachers, we understand that the process of journaling has many similar intentions
Progress and Goals
and concepts. We want our students to make the same connections and to track their progress
This is the working part of the journal and the one
and goals, to reflect and perhaps to see their own
in which chronology is most important. Whatever
development as a practitioner and learner could
the student is working on, this records where they
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