- WISER Newsletter
- Posts
- Daily Practice for Peace
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes, 10 seconds
Today’s WISER Newsletter is written by my good friend and visual creator Pejman (PJ) Milani.
 | If you like my visuals, you will LOVE PJ’s. PJ, also known as Milani Creative, is a visual teacher simplifying complex ideas with visual metaphors. With over 20 years teaching experience, he’s about to launch his 10th cohort of Thinking in Visual Metaphors. |
But before I share more about how you can learn to create eye-catching visual metaphors like he and I do, let’s hear PJ’s nugget of wisdom for today.
Let’s get WISER together. Over to you, PJ!
Journaling won’t solve all of your issues; it's not a one-pill wonder.
But journaling is more like a daily vitamin. A repeatable, reliable practice to keep your heart and mind healthy.
Try journaling today.
This visual was inspired during the first few weeks I tried to meditate.
It struck me that meditating is a lot like journaling.
You have to be present in the moment
Time slows down to take notice of things often unnoticed
An ambient calm comes over you after you complete the session
Also, there’s no “wrong way” to do either. It’s a practice, not a game you win or lose.
The rep is a success if you’re able to pause long enough to let the snowglobe of thoughts and emotions settle.
“I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.”
Writing is a bit like releasing a pressure cooker. You can’t open up without first releasing all that pressure.
There is something comforting when you enter into a truthful conversation with yourself. And this is something AI will never touch or replace.
All you ever need is just a few honest minutes with a pen and paper.
The months leading up to the birth of my first kid were so stressful. Paralyzing even.
Most nights the anxiety was so overwhelming I couldn’t get an ounce of sleep. It felt like my chest was a giant Japanese taiko drum jamming to an EDM concert.
One night, instead of staying in bed to let the swirling chaos of thoughts consume me till morning (which WASN’T working), I went upstairs and opened my journal.
I put each fear down on the page.
Am I selfless enough to be a father?
Will my marriage survive this?
Did I put the car seat on correctly?!
Each fear was a dark cloud. And each time I identified its source, it felt like I was squeezing the rain out of that cloud.
On the page it felt tangible. And manageable.
2 hours later, miracle of miracles, the anxiety in my heart eased and I was able to turn in for the evening.
Of course, nothing I had written had “solved" the problems. But it gave voice to the problems.
I realized that relentless overwhelming feeling was actually a result of a tangled web of ambiguity.
Just like in your house, cobwebs form in places you don’t visit or ignore. Journaling forces you to clean out the cobwebs and there is peace to be found in the untangling.
It's not a one-pill wonder. Journaling is more like a daily vitamin. A repeatable, reliable practice to keep your heart and mind healthy.
The next time you feel the BOOM BOOM POW in your chest (and you’re not jammin’ out to the Black Eyes Peas hit), try it out.
If PJ’s encouragement hasn’t convinced you to try putting pen-to-paper, I don’t know what will.
Consider journaling your responses to the following questions:
What do I feel most anxious or overwhelmed about at the moment?
What are the sources of the anxiety or overwhelm? What is the thing behind the thing?
What other practices help me manage my wellbeing?
Today’s resource is PJ’s Thinking in Visual Metaphors Course.
His passion for visuals combined with his 20+ years experience as a teacher makes him the perfect person to learn this skill from.
And don’t just take my word for it! Here’s his stats from the course hosting platform Maven:
I have been fortunate to see the insides of his course, and I wish I had this before I started creating visuals for Wisdom Made Easy.
Even though I had already amassed a following of 100,000 by the time I took his course, I learned so much.
But you’ll have to move fast - the next one starts Monday 17th March!
WISER Newsletter readers can enjoy a special discount here:
⭐️ Rate This Week's Newsletter!Your feedback helps to make this the wisest newsletter possible. |
If you have any feedback on the WISER Newsletter, I would love to hear it! Simply reply to this email, and I will get back to you. Alternatively, just DM me on social media.
Catch you in the next issue!
Thanks,
Michael