Journaling can be an incredibly rewarding and productive experience. Of course, just like many other activities that we know are good for us, it can be hard to stay motivated or even get started. Fortunately, the Endless Beautiful Method makes journaling much easier.
You can do the following journaling exercise in a group or as an individual. We always encourage participants in an Endless Beautiful Workshop to share what they came up with, but there are situations where that might not be appropriate. And that is fine! Do what works for you and your situation.
Let’s Get to the Fun Part: Journaling
For this you will need something to write on, something to write with, and of course, Endless Beautiful audio, and a computer or cell phone to play it. Make sure you can hear the session clearly through either speakers or headphones.
You have a few choices for your audio. The first choice is the EB Engine, or the play button, near the top of our landing page. This is a randomized playlist of all our sounds. With 700+ sounds in the bank, you should never get the same combination. The second choice is one of our curated sessions. These can be found on the HQ Sessions page. They are 15-minute blocks with several sounds arranged to help maximize creativity. Either choice, the randomized experience or the curated block, should be more than enough to help you journal productively.
You are going to want to write while you listen to the audio. The only rule here is that you can’t stop while the audio is playing. It’s okay to play the audio for a shorter length of time when you are first getting started. Seven-and-a-half minutes is a good starting point, especially in a group setting. However, we think you’ll be surprised how fast the time goes while you’re journaling. Below are a few ways you can utilize the sounds in the sessions as a journal prompt.
Memories
Chances are good you have years of memories stored within your mind that haven’t been accessed in a long time. Users of the EB Method are often blown away by how detailed the memories are that they can conjure up. The memories don’t need to be from a long time ago either. Try to focus on specific details from scenes earlier that day.
Beside being a lot of fun recording the sounds, we specifically use sound clips because they leave a lot of mental space for you to recall memories and thoughts. We also use recordings that have several subjects and actions within them. This allows two different people to take away very different memories or other influences from a single soundscape.
Emotions
Different sounds produce different emotional responses in people. Explore that in your journal writing. Not all the sounds used in our EB Sessions are meant to make you feel comfortable. We include things like mechanical grinding or other jarring noises along with birds chirping and soothing sounds. This gives you room to explore a wide emotional range during your journaling. By writing down your fears or the uncomfortable associations that you make during the session, you are releasing that stuff. You are also getting it on paper where it can be examined and processed externally with your intellectual mind. This can be extremely powerful.
Challenge
Some EB Sessions have 7 sounds in them. Some have twice that. Some force you to work within a specific soundscape for 2 – 3 minutes and others switch in under 30 seconds. The EB Engine is completely randomized, so you get something new every time. This demands flexibility during your journal writing. Embrace the challenge and see where it takes your mind.
Discipline
Journal prompts are a great way to instill discipline when it comes to journal writing. The great thing about the Endless Beautiful Method is that although no session or individual recording is the same, you can determine exactly how much time you want to journal. Each session is 15 minutes long. The EB Engine has a stopwatch below it that you can activate to watch the time. Just remember – Don’t stop writing until that final chime!
Get Creative!
A lot of times when we run Endless Beautiful Workshops, we get questions like, “Is it okay if I write in this way?” or “I know this is supposed to be this, but I want to do this.” Do yourself a favor and throw that unproductive logic out the window! Maybe your journal writing will have bits of fiction or poetry in it. Maybe it will be entirely memories or emotions. This is for you! Be open and don’t worry about boundaries. The Endless Beautiful Method is meant to be a loose framework for you to launch off of. Where you end up going with it is entirely up to you.
We have a few more tips:
- Make a routine (once a day, once a week, in the morning, before bed)
- Wear headphones and concentrate on your journaling
- Try sharing what you came up with
- It’s okay to use the same session repeatedly. EB users often come up with very different results using the same session twice
There you have it. Go ahead and browse our collection of High Quality Endless Beautiful Sessions or press play on the EB Engine and use them as effective and fun journaling prompt today!