Read your journal from a year ago. It’s the only proof you have that you’ve changed in ways you didn’t notice.
REFLECTION
WHAT THIS MEANS
Change is slow enough to be invisible from inside it, which is why you mostly feel like the same person who has been stuck for years. Old writing breaks that illusion, since it preserves a mind you no longer have and shows what has quietly moved. Things that were enormous then are often not even memorable now.
Read something you wrote a year ago and resist editing it or cringing at it. Note one worry that has since resolved itself. Keep writing, if only to leave the same evidence for next year.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
How have you changed this year without noticing?
MORE IN PERCEPTION & ATTENTION
- When plans cancel, notice your first feeling. Relief or disappointment tells you whether you wanted to go.
- Look at your room like a detective would. What does it say about the person who lives there?
- Tired and bored feel the same on the couch, but one needs sleep and the other needs a spark. Know which one you’ve got.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.