Task 2B 'My Journal experience'

Over the past few days I have been experimenting with different methods of Journal writing based on the Moon and Reid framework. In this blog I will reflect on which methods I feel worked well for me and which methods I found challenging or less effective.


Description: (what happened?, where?, when?)
I began with this method as it was a way of writing in which I was already familiar with. I was confident that this would be my favourite method of writing. I really enjoyed describing what happened as I had a really productive day. I felt a sense of achievement after reading back on how many important tasks I had completed, however; throughout the day I experienced a range of emotions due to the workload and busy week I had ahead of me. I found myself describing a particular event of the day and then feeling the need to elaborate on that event by writing down 'how I was feeling?'  and 'why I was feeling that way?'  I then began to think of other methods that would allow me to follow through with these questions in more detail.


Initial reflection:
I found this method of writing very therapeutic. I began by jotting down a few questions I found in the module 1 handbook, which I could ask myself about to help me reflect on my day.

• How did I feel?
• Did anything out of the ordinary happen?
• What mood was I in?
• what was I thinking?
• How did i react?

I felt this method really helped me  learn a little more about myself and release all tensions and emotions which had built up throughout the day. I approached this task by creating spider diagrams.

In the centre of each diagram I wrote key events of the day. I then drawed arrows off each event writing answers to the above questions.

 Overall I think the initial reflection method combined with using spider diagrams was a great way of writing. It was much quicker than writing full paragraphs of description and allowed me the freedom to explore how different experiences made me feel.

It’s also interesting looking back at the correlation between my thoughts and moods when experiencing new or challenging events. My only criticism would be that after looking back at my diagrams a few days later, I struggled to link thoughts, moods, feelings and reactions with the events I felt were less important throughout the day. I worry that after a long period of time I would also struggle to link the above with events I considered more important. I will use this method again; however I will also incorporate the descriptive method by adding brief descriptions in order to link why certain experiences led me to think, react and feel the way I did to avoid confusion in the future.

Lists

I already use lists regularly in all aspects of my everyday life. 

• Lists of goals I wish to achieve
• Lists of tasks I wish to complete each day
• Lists of things I need to remember

'The list is endless' No pun intended!!

When considering lists as a method of journal writing; my initial thought was this was a very vague way of recording experiences. I was unsure on how a list of words could help me learn from experience.  I decided to do some research on www.listography.com

After experimenting I discovered that writing words down in categories such as 'Did Felt Saw'  would help my remember more clearly experiences of the day and help me write my journal entry that evening in more detail however I felt this method alone was to vague and restricting.However it was interesting to reflect on words I had wrote during experiences at the end of the day. 

Evaluation

I really enjoyed this method of writing. Similar to 'initial reflection' I felt it worked best when also incorporating a brief description of experiences. I believe this method would assist my learning the most; this is because once I had evaluated what my strengths and weaknesses were, noted things to avoid, reflected on new things I had learnt. I could then create an action plan to improve and make the most of similar experiences in the future. I also found that a brief evaluation of my 'initial reflection' entry will clarify what experiences and parts of my professional practice influence positive and negative thoughts and once again create an action plan.

Graphs and charts

 I could not relate to this method at all before or after experimenting with it. I felt, similar to the list, this was very vague. This in no way helped me reflect on my day or experiences, however  I will continue to look into this method more in my free time. I recorded my levels of fun, freedom and stress onto a graph and compared it to a day last week. I much prefer to express myself and I worry that I will not remember what caused the changes in my levels of fun, freedom and stress. Maybe combining this method with others will be more beneficial.

What If?

I had ALOT of fun with this method. It was interesting to record all of my goals and dreams in a journal entry. Naturally as a performer I am a very imaginative and creative person a found my thoughts escalated from Being cast as my dream role in a West End show, progressing onto Broadway then becoming a Hollywood star and living the high life in LA! Some 'what ifs?' I wrote down were achievable how ever a lot of them were highly unlikely to happen (winning the lottery). I looked at the clock and noticed I had been thinking about this and writing for over an hour, this brought me back to reality! I needed to focus on what was happening in my life now and how I could develop for the future rather than dreaming of my fantasy life. I will not be using this method regularly; however I will consider writing 'what ifs?' every now and again to see if my aspirations are changing and to see if any of them came true (fingers crossed) 

I also realiszed that What ifs? could encourage negative thoughts depending on the situation and mood of the specific day I was writing about. I become stressed  and anxious really easily and did not think it was a good idea to look further into this, however it was a thought that crossed my mind.

Another view:

It was interesting to see how my mum had reflected on my day compared to myself. My mum believed i had worked really hard as I sat at my laptop for hours working on BAPP. She felt I had achieved a lot and should tommorow consider taking a break. I on the other hand never completed every task I set myself and although I worked hard I believed I should carry on with the same process the next day. I usually would ignore a comment like this and carry on. This time i decided to act on my mums view and take a rest the next day. This was a very good idea as I then returned to my work recharged and with a much more positive attitude. This made me realise that 'peer evaluation and reflection' can be very beneficial as they often see a situation or experience of your day different to you. This could be due to differences in mindset. I also found this method could become quite negative. an example of this occurred yesterday. I had a singing lesson and felt as though I was not performing as well as I usually would,as a perfectionist I got very frustrated. When reflecting on the lesson in my journal i couldn't help thinking what my singing teachers view would be about that lesson. I immediately began to think she thought i was a terrible singer (very irrational considering I had been taught by her for years)

It suddenly dawned on me that one of my weaknesses is worrying about what other people think of me and valuing their opinion far too much. I believe writing these views down would hinder my process rather than improving it.

Overall I found out a lot about myself during this task. I now look at Journal writing in a whole new light. I have came to the conclusion that 'initial reflection' and 'evaluations' will benefit me most whilst also adding brief descriptions. I will also use technology tools such as my mobile phone too record voice notes of me singing and short video clips of rehearsals and performances too help me reflect on  my performance from a visual point of view.