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It allows you to express your feelings and thoughts, but not only. Thanks to the expressive diary, you can streamline the events of your life, learn how to make informed choices, deal with creative blocks, outline changes and bring them to life. Art therapist Lucia Cappaccione invented this method in the last century. And now she has released a new guide to keeping a diary with a series of exercises.
How does Lucia Cappaccione’s approach differ from the expressive writing method developed a little later by James Pennebayeker? The essence of his method is in reacting and “ejecting” negative emotions in a crisis situation. Pennebaker suggests writing about your experiences for 20 minutes a day, thus relieving stress.
The writer himself chooses the direction of his letter, he does not have a special “action plan”. Keeping an «expressive diary» of Lucia Capaccione is aimed at personal growth. It allows you to better understand yourself, comprehend your emotions, learn how to make choices, think about changes and bring them to life.
To do this, the author has developed a set of exercises arranged in a certain sequence. They combine writing and drawing (or collages) and involve the functions of both hemispheres of the brain, especially the right, which in turn activate creative thinking.
We have selected four exercises from The Art of Finding Yourself that will give you an idea of Lucia’s program and aim to free your true self.
To work, you will need a notebook, pen, pencils, pastels or felt-tip pens.
Exercise 1 «How do I feel right now?»
1. Turn your attention inward and ask, «How do I feel right now?» Close your eyes and think about this question. Pay attention to your physical sensations and emotions. Watch the images or words that come into your mind that can express how you feel at the moment.
2. While your eyes were closed, you could see images, colors, words, or symbols, or simply experience some physical sensation or emotion. Express them in any way, in any style: with scribbles, strokes, any shapes and patterns, in images or words.
3. When you’re done, take a look at what you’ve got. Does it evoke any feelings in you? Describe your reaction on the next page of your diary.
This exercise is especially helpful when you are overwhelmed by strong feelings that are difficult to deal with. It encourages you to stop and think, to defuse and express your feelings, to parse and clarify them, and perhaps become more aware of what is happening to you. And then decide how you want to deal with these feelings in a particular case.
Exercise 2 «The story of my life: the time line»
1. Think about your entire life up to the present moment and ask yourself: “What events and experiences in my life do I consider key?” Go back to your earliest memories and start moving slowly through life. Close your eyes to visualize past events more clearly. Pause to reflect on the most important events and periods. Try to recreate the experiences and emotions associated with them as vividly as possible.
2. Draw a vertical line in your notebook. Mark key years on it, starting with the year you were born and ending with the current year. To the right of the time line, write the words or phrases for each key event or experience (for example: “Age 6: Started learning to play the piano/Severely ill with pneumonia, Started painting”).
Opposite these words, to the left of the time line, write down the sensations (physical, emotional) that you experienced during this event or period of life. (For example: “felt happier, loved the music, got praise and encouragement.”) You might want to color each period on the ruler using a color that reflects your past experiences.
3. When you’re done, examine your timeline. Describe or draw the thoughts/feelings you have about a particular period of your life or life as a whole when you look at it in retrospect. Tell us about the patterns, cycles, themes, lessons that emerged from this work.
This time line is an invaluable tool, a map for further exploration of one’s own personality through autobiographical notes, stories, poems, drawings of scenes, events, or people. This exercise is also useful for exploring the recurring patterns and cycles of your life.
Exercise 3. «My critical self»
1. Close your eyes and ask: “What am I saying to myself that is offensive?” Listen to those little voices in your head that are attacking your self-esteem — your messages to yourself about being flawed, bad, unlovable, etc. Listen to how damaging your accusations and criticism sound.
2. Divide the page vertically into two parts. Start writing with your dominant hand in a column on the side of that hand. Name the column “Inner Critic” and write down in it all the offensive messages that you address to yourself at this time in your life. Write them in the second person, for example: “You are incompetent. You will never get this job”, “There is nothing good about you. You don’t deserve happiness» or «You’re stupid and you’ll never reach your goal.»
3. Reread the insults. Express your feelings in the opposite column. Use your other (non-dominant) hand to answer.
It is an incredibly effective tool for confronting negative self-image and building higher self-esteem. When performed repeatedly, it helps to cope with self-hatred and doubts about one’s own worth. By fighting against destructive criticism from both inside and outside, you build your self-confidence.
As the aphorism commonly credited to Eleanor Roosevelt goes, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” By noticing and resisting internal attacks on your self-esteem, you learn to deal with insults from other people as well.
Exercise 4. «Five years later»
1. Close your eyes and think about your current daily routine. Imagine waking up in the morning doing your daily chores. Imagine the conditions around you and the people you interact with.
2. Now imagine your typical day five years later. Visualize yourself waking up in the morning and going about your daily activities. What is the environment around you? Imagine the people you interact with, the different places you go to, and how you feel about your life. Briefly describe your imaginary day in five years. Write in the present tense as if it were happening now.
3. Repeat this journey into the future, but this time imagine yourself as a person of the opposite sex. Write about it.
4. Review the three visualizations you’ve created and see if there are major differences between past and present, between feminine and masculine? Write down what you found, and then ask yourself, “What am I already doing to be where I want to be in five years?” «What else can I do about it?» Write down all the thoughts that come to mind in response to these questions.
This exercise can be used to work with any time period. For example, you can examine your view of life in a year or less.
The exercise activates your ability to fantasize about the future and also helps you realize that you are the creator of your life, just like an artist paints a picture. You can try out different options in your imagination and after that choose which direction you want to go. If you are aware of what you really want, it will be easier for you to take the next step, that is, to develop the skills, find resources and develop the behavior necessary to achieve your goal.
Other exercises that allow you to better understand and release your true «I» can be found in Lucia Capaccione’s book «The Art of Finding Yourself. Expressive Diary (Genesis, 2019)