What is “spiritual journaling?” You may have heard of it. There are even products available you can buy to learn how to do it. One reputable site that offers guidance without trying to sell you something is http://therapyinphiladelphia.com/selfhelp/tips/keeping_a_spiritual_journal/. A wise teacher and healer, Dr. Ernest F. Pecci, also a former lecturer at John F. Kennedy University here in Walnut Creek, California, provided a six step approach in his wonderful book, Guidance from Within-You can Have a Conversation With God. In teaching the new holistic discipline of Integrative Psychology, Pecci combined the results of his psychiatric treatment methodology with spiritual teachings. He connected the mental anguish and suffering of his patients to their unfulfilled spiritual needs and desires. Keeping a journal of their psychological and spiritual progress was a routine he frequently recommended to them. There are many possible ways of spiritual journaling; most people are able to evolve their own with a little outside help.
We writers, poets and journalists are accustomed to keeping notebooks or journals to capture ideas, themes we want to explore, metaphors, insights etc., and these notes become a source for our articles, prose and poem pieces. Although I had not heard anyone recommend before the writing of a journal for therapeutic purposes, it immediately struck me as a great idea. In reality I’d already been doing it for years, unconsciously at times. On those occasions when you are gripped by anger, hate, or fear, it is helpful to write through the experience, working out your feelings in the process, including a note of what healed the conflict, a prayer or meditation that helped with the negative emotions.
One of the things Pecci’s patients were asked to record was a list of the resistances they felt to having a conversation with God or “the Helper,” (p. 51) a term Pecci uses, which he states is equivalent to the “Holy Spirit.” What reasons could they give for their resistance to listening to the “still small voice within”? Many thought God was too high up and remote in his perfect goodness, removed from evil, to be a source of wisdom and hope they could contact. Many did not esteem themselves worthy of talking with God. Shame often causes people to retreat from the intimacy of relationship.
“The Father desires all his creatures to be in personal communion with him … Therefore settle in your philosophy now and forever: To each of you and to all of us, God is approachable, the Father is attainable, the way is open; the forces of divine love and the ways and means of divine administration are all interlocked in an effort to facilitate the advancement of every worthy intelligence of every universe to the Paradise presence of the Universal Father.” (UB 5:1.8)
Pecci devotes a whole chapter to the fear of love that affected most of his patients. Such fear needed to be overcome in order for them to be healed. “The love of God strikingly portrays the transcendent value of each will creature, unmistakably reveals the high value which the Universal Father has placed upon each and every one of his children … (UB 12:7.9)
One process I discovered in myself by writing it down in my journal was a behavior that happened when I felt insecure or fearful about a public appearance, or an important meeting. This recurring fear caused me to withdraw into myself. There I built a safe fortress, strong walls to hide behind. It is a trait I learned within my family system. Because the fears of the children were minimized or even belittled when feelings of weakness were confessed, the children trained themselves to be stoical, to never show their vulnerability. Ideally, our loved ones should create a safe place with each other where anxieties can be discussed and voiced out loud. “Being sensitive and responsive to human need creates genuine and lasting happiness, while such kindly attitudes safeguard the soul from the destructive influences of anger, hate, and suspicion.” (UB 140:5.16)
From journaling my feelings, I learned to see that creating a stone wall of cold unresponsiveness as protection was precisely the wrong thing to do in new situations I was insecure with. I learned to pray for strength and insight into the situation so I could take down the wall, and go through the experience with an open friendly demeanor. I wrote down in my spiritual journal the essence of the prayers I made. If while in meditation I found a symbol that gave me strength, I noted that as well. Almost always I noticed that my prayers and meditations helped.
Pecci believes our institutions neglect “to teach our young how to examine and change their thinking patterns,” (p. 161) One way to do this, he recommends, is to “quiet the thinking area” altogether, allowing a space for spiritual wisdom from the “Higher Self” to enter our minds. This is precisely one of the goals of spiritual meditation that is taught in Eastern traditions, and echoed in the Urantia Book. Pecci’s method of spiritual journaling and his healing practice successfully blended the wisdom of the east with the psychological knowledge of the west. The youth of the modern world need this more than ever before.
