Mindful Spot

Buddhism, philosophy, art.

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Donate

Spiritual Journaling: Christina Baldwin on Bridging the Outer and Inner World Through Writing

May 30, 2021 by Gavril 2 Comments

Book cover“We call spirituality a journey and speak in metaphors of travel, yet many of us never leave the neighborhood. The journal becomes the metaphor made real, a travelogue of the mind,” writes Christina Baldwin in the opening chapter of her book Life’s Companion: Journal Writing as a Spiritual Practice. “On days when I’m not sure what the journey is or why I’m on it, I can still be sure what the journal is and why I write. I can hold onto my journal, write in it, lament and question and celebrate.”

Keeping a spiritual journal is a revelatory experience. It allows us to see everything we’ve done, thought, or been in retrospect, showing us what we managed not to see. We marvel at what we were and that we now see we’re not. We look at our pages as we look at our past life, a field lit up by the sun when it breaks through the clouds, and we note with metaphysical astonishment all our deliberate acts, our clearest thoughts, and our most logical intentions. As our awareness grows, we start to see that some of the things we wrote about we didn’t even act out. We were the role that was acted. At most, we were the actor’s motions. Christina Baldwin writes:

Imagine walking down a path, participating in everything around you. You notice actions near and far, you interact with people and deal with obstacles and opportunities along the way. This is the walker: the active self. Imagine a mirror path running parallel to the path you’re walking. The mirror path reflects feelings, thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs about what is happening. This is the watcher: the reflective self. Together these two selves create consciousness: the awareness of ourselves within our own existence. … We hear the mind think. We observe our own behavior.

Image
Christina Baldwin.

When we take up a spiritual journey, we gain the ability to experience our consciousness as an ongoing, intimate dialogue within the self. We become intrigued by the processes of our own minds. As conscious people, we can see the guidance available through this invisible channel of wisdom, directions that come from within. But how to keep track and make sense of it all? Baldwin counsels:

So, now imagine a quiet place from which you contemplate the paths of action and reflection. From this quiet place you can observe both the walker and the watcher. You hear what the mind says. You record what the walker does and how the watcher responds. This is the writer: the self who acts and reflects on paper. … Writing bridges the inner and outer worlds and connects the paths of action and reflection.

As we sit down to write, the blankness of a piece of paper becomes the canvas on which we paint the inner workings of our minds. It becomes our way to visualize the elusive stream of consciousness, harness our thoughts, and shape the essence of who we are. Christina Baldwin concludes:

My journal is my life’s companion. The format changes, the pens change, the contents vary, the cast of characters comes and goes. Yet this tangible object reminds me that my life is being lived on many levels; it reminds me that I need to act, watch, reflect, write, and then act more clearly.

Life’s Companion, full of practical exercises, writing prompts, and inspiring examples of spiritual journaling, will change the way you put your thoughts on paper. Writing will become your window into the interior conversation with the wisdom of your consciousness, your newfound friend on your life-long spiritual journey.

Donate & Support

Since I started this website 4 years ago my only aim was and still remains helping all of my readers to discover the path to inner calm through spiritual growth and cultivation of wisdom. I spend all of my free time and resources working on this project and your support plays a vital role in helping me to improve and make this website an invaluable resource for you. If my little virtual home uplifted your spirit or made your day a little bit better, please consider donating to support its further growth.

Your Support Donation

$
Select Payment Method
Your Name and Email

Donation Total: $7.00

Subscribe

Mindful Spot has a free weekly newsletter where I share my findings across Buddhism, philosophy, literature, art, and other sources that allow us to expand our inner world and feel greater connection to each other. Subscribe below:
Subscribe
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Email Share on Pocket
Filed Under: Spirituality

Related Posts

  1. The Paradox of Ego Awareness: Alan Watts on Not Taking Your Self Too Seriously – Mindful Spot says:
    November 28, 2021 at 11:17 am

    […] and the “conditioned self” in the context of racial suffering, Christina Baldwin on bridging the outer and inner world through writing, and Carl Rogers on what it means to enter another person’s world without […]

    Reply
  2. Zen in the Art of Writing: Ray Bradbury on the Value of Work, Relaxation, and Don’t Think! – Mindful Spot says:
    June 27, 2021 at 9:16 am

    […] start to finish. Complement this particular portion with another deeply creative endeavor, that of spiritual journaling as taught by Christina […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Donate & Support

Since I started this website 4 years ago my only aim was and still remains helping all of my readers to discover the path to inner calm through spiritual growth and cultivation of wisdom. I spend all of my free time and resources working on this project and your support plays a vital role in helping me to improve and make this website an invaluable resource for you. If my little virtual home uplifted your spirit or made your day a little bit better, please consider donating to support its further growth.

Your Support Donation

$
Select Payment Method
Your Name and Email

Donation Total: $7.00

Subscribe

Mindful Spot has a free weekly newsletter where I share my findings across Buddhism, philosophy, literature, art, and other sources that allow us to expand our inner world and feel greater connection to each other. Subscribe below:

Subscribe

Recent Posts

  • Beautiful Day: a Picture Book of Haiku-Inspired Poems Celebrating the Four Seasons
  • The Butterfly Lovers: The Chinese Legend of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, Animated
  • The Hermit-Monk Ryokan on the First Days of Spring and How to Maximize Our Aliveness
  • Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings
  • Your Life Is Your Message: Eknath Easwaran on Finding Harmony with Yourself, Others, and the Earth

Search

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy Copyright 2017-2022 Mindful Spot
Affiliate disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I may earn commissions from qualifying purchases. In more simple terms, this means that whenever you buy a book or a product on Amazon from a link on here, I receive a small percentage of its price.