Today, a chatty video on the role of journaling in a change process. If you have a journaling practice or want to be someone who journals, this one is worth a watch/listen.
I also offer a couple prompts to write to or think about on a walk <3
Before jumping into today’s short note, I want to extend a thank you to everyone who made it to Harvesting Together on Sunday… wow. I feel so lucky to gather with you all. In case you missed it and would love to have a micro retreat to harvest your journals, saved bookmarks, voice notes, etc. etc., we’ll meet again in honor of the Lunar New Year on January 30, 2025. Sign up here.
One of the foundations of my heart’s work is seeking to understand the nature of change as it occurs in living systems.
In courses and in creative mentorship, a huge part of the experience is unraveling conditioned misunderstandings of how change ‘needs’ to happen. We ground our explorations in curiosity and compassion to support the conditions for emergent change.
My interest in change is informed by the study of paradigms and general systems theory. This was my research in graduate school, where I nerded out on William Morris as I likewise railed against the state of things.
From the beginning, Regarding Dew has been a living devotion to ‘the articulation, cultivation, and the personal and collective embodiment of life-giving paradigms and ways of being’. That’s straight from the original mission statement (and yes, one of my intentions for 2025 is to bring my theoretical underpinnings more to the forefront).
There is so much more to share on this topic and how it weaves into who I am as a person. Navigating paradigms that feel viscerally antithetical to my heart (and, for too many, a threat to survival) has shaped my understanding of the stakes and urgency of paradigm shifts at all levels of scale.
In terms of journaling and bringing about change, like I talk about in the video above, I'm thinking of Nora Bateson’s words:
What if, instead of thinking of a theory of change being produced from an identified preferred goal or outcome, the focus instead was placed on the way in which a system becomes ready for undetermined change? Can unforeseen ready-ness be nourished? While linear managing or controlling of the direction of change may appear desirable, tending to how the system becomes ready allows for pathways of possibility previously unimagined.
In most cases, you don’t need to manage change. You don’t need to figure it all out. You don’t need to create a watertight plan. The focus can be placed on tending to the system.
What does that even mean??
It can mean many things depending on context and scope (of influence, capacity, etc.). In an everyday sense, I think about the power of cleaning a corner. Maybe it’s a single drawer or a rearranging of a room, but attending to your lived environment almost always creates an opening of some kind. Sometimes it’s a subtle shift in energy, sometimes it brings about a totally new perspective.
When it comes to “tending to how the system becomes ready…for pathways of possibility previously unimagined”, in Bateson’s words, I embrace the generosity of systems thinking. You don’t have to worry about working on the ‘right’ thing because it’s all in conversation. Unforeseen connections emerge.
How you dress affects how you think (enclothed cognition). How you speak to yourself affects your cognitive biases. The generosity of spirit you offer to the people in your life ripples in ways you’ll never know… and isn’t that beautiful? A nod to your neighbor matters, asking to understand matters, caring for a plant matters.
I think about this when it comes to mutual aid: we start where we are with what we have and do what we can. In the words of environmentalist Huey Johnson, “You can only solve the whole problem”.
Journaling changes lives because the act of journaling tends to the system of your life, and so much more. We can use it as a tool in specific ways to try to bring about specific change, but even when we don’t, journaling nurtures change like nobody’s business. And I think that’s an everyday miracle.
XO
Maggy
1. Doors are open to Pivoting Toward Wholeness!!
Together, we'll start the year not from grand resolutions, but from meeting yourself exactly as you are—and your life exactly as it is—to craft a life of beauty and meaning from that place.
Pivoting Toward Wholeness is a paradigm based on the idea that your wholeness is your power and you can attune to it a thousand times a day…
I am over the moon to be teaching this course and totally delighted at everyone who has registered so far. If you feel curious about it, please check out the offering page and feel into this invitation.
Early bird registration is OPEN and tiered pricing and payment plans are available. I’d love for you to experience the magic of this course. Learn more and register here.
2. Two more Journaling Circles: one this Sunday 11/24 and Sunday 12/29.
We circle up and journal for 30 minutes to reflective writing prompts. Here’s where you can learn more and save your spot:
Share this post