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Guided Journaling for Uncertain Times — Day Three: Going Deep & Revealing What’s Hidden

Take a minute and check-in with yourself.

Cutting Loose
by William Stafford

Sometimes from sorrow, for no reason,
you sing. For no reason, you accept
the way of being lost, cutting loose
from all else and electing a world
where you go where you want to.

Arbitrary, a sound comes, a reminder
that a steady center is holding
all else. If you listen, that sound
will tell you where it is and you
can slide your way past trouble.

Certain twisted monsters
always bar the path — but that’s when
you get going best, glad to be lost,
learning how real it is
here on earth, again and again.

Now might be a time to go ‘deeper.’ What might deeper be about? How can we break through into levels and dimensions of radical self and communal inquiry that would serve this intention? I have thought quite a bit about ‘what going deeper’ is about — for me as a human, father/partner/friend, a coach and professional. I can’t just throw a few words at what arose — but some of the heart of it was about opening up the inner territory inside, beyond even my best stories about myself, to myself. That is a reveal. It’s interesting to note what I don’t even want to know or surface overtly to my very own self.

Consider the simple sentence for reflection: “I am the person who always ________________.”

Lean into that inner level, beyond even what those who know us well might say. We are so good at presenting ourselves and still having curtains (except when we’re not) that it’s possible that there are levels inside of us that others might or might not discern, especially when they are looking and relating with us through their eyes of love, respect, and appreciation. To uncover other dimensions, consider these questions:

• What am I best at hiding about myself (even to myself)?
• What scares me the most about who/how I am as an imperfect human?
• What do I work hardest to not reveal?
• What are my biggest go-to strategies for keeping folks a layer away from what is really going on inside?
• What is the most positive dimension of ‘I’m the person who…’ and what is the darker/shadow side?
• What other questions are tough to recognize and ask?

Missed Day Two of this series? Find it here. Continue on to Day Four…