Why Use a Journal While Microdosing?
There are two main microdosing camps. The first uses microdosing to achieve specific emotional outcomes (reducing depression, alleviating anxiety, experiencing joy, etc.). The first camp focuses on getting the dose "right" so that you consistently feel more of the desired emotions and less of the negative ones. In moderation or as a bandaid, there is nothing wrong with this approach.
If you start to rely on a substance to consistently give you the same feelings, you will find yourself in a familiar trap. The trap of self-medication. In attempting to only "feel good," you'll find it harder to actually feel good. This is because you are trying to escape half of your lived experience. As the saying goes, wherever you go, there you are.
The second camp of microdosing (and the one this Journal was built for) understands that microdosing is a tool for self-inquiry. As such, it's part of a larger process, the process of your lived experience. Approaching microdosing from this angle allows you to integrate all your experiences on the journey, giving you a complete emotional landscape.
Why I Created the Journal
I created the Soul Sprouts journal for people who want to use microdosing to improve their overall life experience. The Journal was built and refined during a 64-day microdosing experience in the fall of 2022. During my own microdosing regiment, I found there were three critical elements to facilitating a transformative experience:
Setting intentions
Checking in physically & emotionally
Reprogramming your reality with affirmations
Setting intentions
It's been said that our reality is constructed by our attention and intentions. Our attention is mental and is everything that we choose to think about. Our intentions are emotional and grounded in our desires. The Soul Sprouts journal focuses on both to facilitate a holistic practice during your microdosing journey.
The first two exercises of the Journal ask you to be very honest about your intentions. In the process of becoming honest about your desires and articulating those on paper, you set overarching intentions for your six-week program. These underlying intentions help subconsciously guide you through the process, facilitating the change you seek to create.
Getting clear with your intentions ensures that you are in integrity with yourself. In other words, setting your intentions means consciously choosing, which is quite different from simply trying to feel better.
Checking in Physically & Emotionally
The science is finally starting to catch up with a seemingly common-sense truth. We are not separate from our bodies. We are mental, emotional, and physical beings (for a comprehensive understanding of this, read The Body Keeps the Score).
Going through any transformation process requires physical, mental, and emotional integration. This is why each daily page includes a question asking you to check in with your body.
The prompt has the added benefit of building a habit of checking in with the body and, when reviewed after the regiment, allows you to see patterns in your physical health. In retrospect, combined with the thought patterns you record, you'll start to see that your body and emotional blockages are intimately connected.
Reprogramming Your Reality
Transforming requires change, and changing yourself requires awareness and reprogramming. First, you must see the unconscious patterns that no longer serve you. Then, you need to replace those patterns with new ones that serve you.
The Journal includes a daily "open" prompt asking you to write about any feelings or thought patterns. Sticking to and writing out whatever comes up each day increases awareness.
The affirmations section of the daily practice provides a tool for replacing unwanted patterns with new thoughts congruent with the life you'd like to live.
The Journal as a Journey
Every great personal endeavor is an adventure, an invitation to explore the topography of the Self. If you've read this far, Soul Sprouts is your invocation to dive deeper into your microdosing practice. If you head the call, you'll have a helpful guide. Know, though, that no matter what, you will have to do the work, and any transformation you achieve will be from your own intention and attention.