The Demons Won't Destroy Themselves
Part 1 of 2: Using the power of journaling to explore your mind and reach your potential.
We're afraid of the dark.
This fear is a physiological part of our human existence, and for good reason. We see clearly in the daytime, but we don’t have that super-cool night vision like killer tigers, bears, and hyenas. Many venomous snakes basically have heat-vision like some kind of goddamn Predator alien hunting down Arnold Schwarzenegger in the jungle.
Terrifying.
Every day, for eons, our ancestors kept the fear of being eaten alive on the top of their minds. Today, though, most of us don’t live in fear of our cat eating us at night (sidenote: they want to). Unfortunately, our physiology hasn’t caught up. It still lives in a world where we could be chased down and torn apart at any moment. Think about when you were a kid. You were safely inside your room in your comfortable bed. Yet, when the lights went out, you started to feel that fear.
Subconsciously, you knew: darkness = risk.
As adults, we still carry those same ancestral fears with us in our minds. They never went away. We just discover clever ways of redirecting the fears into our modern lives, which are almost never life-and-death. Now, instead of the darkness of night harboring the sources of our terror, we have migrated the darkness into ourselves. What was once an actual vast, dark jungle - filled with vines, the crunch of the dead leaves, the canopy above, threats all around - we replaced with the dark, vast jungle of our conscious mind, filled with doubt, trauma, insecurity, and limitation.
This shift presents a mental dissonance. Unlike the relatively few acute fears of the past - namely, animals and other humans - our minds can harbor untold thousands of fears. They sit there and multiply into a vast array of obscure, imaginary threats, like some thought-demons having an orgy in our head, reproducing at an alarming rate. Lovely, right? Here’s the thing, though. These “demons” only really exist in that vast room we call our mind. Basically, this room is the sum of our consciousness. Everything is crammed into this room, from the darkest darks to the lightest lights. The same room that houses the demons also keeps what I’ll call the “angels” of creativity, hope, encouragement, confidence, and love.
It’s an interesting party...
If you’re like me and basically every other human, you instinctively realize that opening the door to that room is risky. Sure, the angels could rush to the door and give you a hug. But, the demons could also race to the door and kick you in the groin. What do most people do? You got it: keep that freaking door locked tight.
There’s no amount of awesomeness in life worth risking all the negative crap!
This, too, is built upon our ancestral physiology. Climbing the tree to get the fruit risks being bitten by a viper. The risk is disproportionally higher than the reward. Who needs fruit, anyway?
Today, we almost never have such dramatically asymmetrical choices. Yet, we still treat risks as if they equal death. If only we had the guts to open the door and explore what these demons really are, rather than living in some vague state of anxious fear, we might find that they’re much ado about nothing. After all, opening the door is the only way to access those angels inside us. They’re eternally locked up in the same room.
Herein lies your choice: You can keep the door closed, hoping that the demons eventually go away. In short, you can live in a vague sense of fear and unease for the rest of your life, knowing that there is danger behind that door, even though you’re not sure exactly what those dangers are. Or, you can suck it up, grab your mental flashlight, and go open that door. You can start the work toward illuminating this room, one square foot at a time, until the lights are always on and you’re fully aware of what’s in there at all times. Talk about enlightenment!
Ready to find out how to do this?
It’s called journaling. You already knew this from the title of this article. Seriously, though, journaling is the single-best practice I can recommend for literally everyone. It’s the true fountainhead. It lays the foundation for everything else in life. I rank it as Champion in the list of all the beneficial practices in my own life.
After decades of journaling, I have a powerful method that helps me reach my potential every day. I want to share how you can unlock this same power.
Why Journaling?
Journaling works in a few key ways. First, it invites contemplation and exploring your mind. You’re in a situation where you must stop and think. This is much harder than it sounds, especially before you’ve made it a habit. Our world is literally designed to keep you from stopping and thinking. Like learning a new instrument or how to code, this is going to take practice. You’re going to suck at it when you start. That’s perfectly OK, and completely expected. You just have to keep working at it.
Second, journaling provides you a physical space where you can record the thoughts in your head. This is where I find journaling to be far superior to any other method of exploring your mind. If you’ve ever felt the peace that comes after creating a to-do list, you’ll know what I mean. Once you have the thoughts recorded and locked down, it’s as if your mind immediately thanks you for storing the data somewhere else. It no longer has to remember it and ruminate on it.
You’re literally freeing your mind to think about new things. It allows you to grab each of those demons and rip them out of your mind, pinning them down where you can study them, one-by-one, on your terms. You can then organize your thinking and attack complex challenges or opportunities in a much more deliberate manner. Plus, you get the bonus of being able to quickly and easily review your thoughts again, learning from them and expanding upon them.
Lastly, journaling invites you to align your thinking toward what you really want. You can deliberately focus on what brings you the most peace, perspective, creativity, and basic self-power that enables you to get the life that you want. Especially once you get the hang of it, journaling becomes less about dealing with your past issues and much more about embracing your own power and realizing your full potential. Eventually, there won’t be many demons left to strangle. You will earn the freedom of clarity, where your attention shifts to your higher purpose.
Then, you’re free to party with the angels - the ones who want you to have an awesome life.
Getting Started
There are a few initial considerations to work through when starting your journaling practice. I line these out below so you can get the most out of the experience.
Format
Choose between writing in a physical notebook or typing your journal. I used to physically write with a pen in a notebook. I have filled dozens of notebooks. I now type for my journaling practice. There are positives and negatives to either option. Physically journaling has a natural feel to it, where you see the imperfections and ink smudges as you go. If you’re more highly visual, you can draw arrows back to ideas, or even quickly sketch around while you think. Some data suggests that physically writing is more concretely tied to your mind. There’s a sense of, dare I say, “holiness” to a physical journal, too.
Typing is much faster than writing. I find that I can almost keep up with the speed of my thoughts when typing. It makes physically writing feel quite slow. I like being able to quickly search through digital documents, and I can easily lift certain sections to use in another article when I want.
There is no right or wrong here. Use whatever format you want, or both. Just make sure you’re getting the words out of your mind and captured somewhere.
One final note on the format. As you journal, you will cover topics that are very personal and entirely private to you. Make sure that you’re using a format that you’re completely confident will be read by you and you alone. You don’t want to find yourself in a place where you would like to explore an idea, but avoid it because you’re concerned someone else might read it. You need to feel 100% safe. A physical journal cannot be hacked, but it can be opened by another human. A digital journal can be password-protected, but no digital data is completely safe.
Schedule
I block out 30 minutes to journal every single morning. Some days, I go for 15 minutes. Other days, much longer. It just depends on the demands of your day and what you uncover in journaling. For me, this is the first time block of my day.
Setting
I treat journaling as a sacred ritual.
I’m not exaggerating here. A ritual not only implies growth through routine practice, but it also promotes a particular mindset that is useful and venerates the experience. You’ll need to come up with what works for you, but here’s what I do: I write at my studio desk. It’s a comfortable environment, with plant life, natural light, and objects that remind me of what’s important. I have these noise-blocking curtains that I draw over the French door entrance. This helps me feel like I’m in a warm, little comfortable setting.
I always have a cup of coffee when I’m journaling. Since it’s right at the beginning of the day, this is my first cup of coffee out of like 27 cups. The caffeine isn’t even kicking in yet, but the aroma and the ritual of it anchors me in the moment. There’s also some good science behind eating or drinking and its connection to brain activity.
I have noise-cancelling Bose QC35s. I have an instrumental playlist that I play. Any music with lyrics totally jacks me up. I also like the same songs for this ritual. Some people find the same song on repeat helps them.
Finally, I light Nag Champa incense. I’m a product of the 90s. My happy place is a used CD store on the main drag of some college campus and some half-stoned college kid greeting me with “Hey, what's up, man?” This is where I first learned about Nag Champa, and I’ve been hooked ever since. You’ve probably heard that smell is the sense most strongly tied to memory. Use it to your advantage. Use a candle, incense, a scent block, or whatever brings you sense a of comfort.
Once you lock down some rituals and tie them to the journaling experience, you'll begin to look forward to the entire experience. Figure out what works for you, and make sure you plan it through the lens of reverence for the activity.
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Do Your Homework
You now have some homework. Set a goal to get your journaling environment set up and ready. Get yourself armed up and prepared to hash it out with those demons in your head that want to hold you back. Start getting excited about hugging some angels. Look yourself in the mirror and say, “I am willing to be the hero who climbs the tree to get the fruit.”
In the next article, we’ll dive into a powerful journaling framework that I use every day to keep my life on course. In the meantime, warm up your writing by exploring a few questions.
What “demons” from your past do you expect to confront?
Where do you find people or systems in your life that you feel are holding you back?
Who or what in your life currently supports and celebrates you? (By the way, there are literally thousands of people you could personally know. Hundreds want you to have a good life. Dozens would actively support you to the death. You just have to find them. More articles on that later.)
What one thing would fundamentally change your life right now if you attained it?
What are you willing to do to get that one thing?