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Welcome creatives! These are discussions, thoughts, case studies, interviews, and lessons about how our creativity relates to life. The host, Mr Benja, is a former video game programmer / designer for Rockstar Games, Sony Santa Monica, The 3DO Company, and others, as well as a fine artist. -- Be sure to check out the website for more.
My own journal shamed me.
This happened just this past weekend,
and in the new year, I was trying
to get myself together, thinking
about what I'm going to do, the new
things that are going to happen,
the old things I'm leaving behind.
As you know, I love the new year.
I love the whole rejuvenation process.
Whole thing about January and yes, even
going back to the spirit of Janice,
looking back in the past and looking
forward to the future at the same
time, gives you this great perspective.
And it has a whole thing that wraps
up with my particular ideology of a
trajectory that matches up with my goals,
aspirations, ambitions, and so forth.
But this time, when I started
to look back, I went way back.
And when I went way back,
I saw some things that I.
Didn't know that I wanted to see it's
the power of journaling But you got you
got to understand if you really start
journaling man, it's gonna start it's
gonna challenge you Journaling will
actually challenge you and that's what
I'm going to talk about here today on
Creativity threads life the podcast by mr.
Benja that goes over all of the
Creative elements that I've experienced
that I'm looking to understand.
I just want to talk about, and we try
to cover what's happening in the world.
And you know what, we create
our own worlds around us.
We create our environments, we
create our homes, we create our
schools, we create our lives.
And in all my years of developing,
uh, video games, art events, and so
forth, I've come to understand that
this thing we call creativity is much
more than just wearing funny clothes.
Wearing interesting outfits and
having weird, you know, habits and
idiosyncrasies that people say,
Oh yeah, that guy's a creative.
I'm talking about actually
creating the world around you.
What is that all about?
And that's what this
podcast is here to explore.
Now, since we're starting this in
2024 at one of the times where I'm
looking at the whole idea about
creativity and creating yourself.
And it's happening around
the new year's time.
A lot of this is going to be based
on resolutions and getting resolved
and getting your stuff together.
And journaling comes along with that.
So that's what today's
topic is really on about.
If you wait till the end, uh, we'll
discuss some things about what's going on
in my current life and everything else.
I know a lot of podcasts tend to front
load that up front to get you to listen
to all that, like ads or whatever.
And then they put the
real podcast at the end.
I want to go straight into the podcast.
I want to go straight
into the information.
So that's how we're going to do it here.
Executive decision.
I've decided that's how I'm going to
run this podcast straight to the info.
No chaser.
So yeah, here's what happened.
I was enjoying my new journaling practice
and I did the initial version of it a
couple of years ago and kind of played
around with it, some composition books.
And I was like, okay, this
is kind of interesting.
It kind of started morphing into a to
do list and you know, an opportunity
tracker and some other things.
But at some point I really got good
with what a journal I thought should be.
And that was around 2021.
And in 2022, I started really
nailing it down and putting this
into a much better practice.
Now I've always journaled in some
form or fashion, but I really,
really haven't taken it seriously
until now, um, 2021 that is.
And so in 2000, by the time 2022 rolled
around, I had made it a regular practice
where it was a daily kind of thing.
I was like, okay, I can do this daily.
I can really.
Get down my thoughts.
I can really put down some good
information and keep going about my life.
And I know the journaling
is helping me out.
Now, before I go any further,
uh, what is journaling, right?
Um, what is this practice that
everybody's so goofy about?
Is it just a diary?
Is it just a ledger?
Is it just a record?
Are you just writing down stuff
to, to be writing down stuff?
Well.
It can be all of that.
The thing is journaling is going to be
different for everybody that does it.
So if somebody said As they have the
perfect way to journal, they have a way
to journal and it may work out well for
what they're trying to accomplish and
for what you're trying to get out of
it, but it could be a lot of things.
The idea is that you're taking information
that you have in your head, or you're
taking raw data, raw feelings, raw
emotions, raw sensations, and you're
taking the time to stop, translate,
Whatever it is into words and then
store those words in a written format or
maybe a visual format or a Video format
or whatever I know a lot of people use
vlogs as their their type of journaling
a lot of people use Facebook as their
public journal You know, et cetera.
But the idea that you have to take
something out of your head, formalize
it, say, wait a minute, I know I have
these random impulses, thoughts, you
know, synapses are firing in my head.
I know I have these random things,
but what does it mean for me to
put it together to congeal it into
a, even if it's not good, that's
why I use the word congeal here.
Even if it's not good, it's, it's a
form it's formalized in some relatively
concrete form and you put it on paper.
And you have to go through a
lot of processes to understand,
Hey, I'm feeling this right now.
What is the word for that?
Okay, let me say there's a word for this.
Let me put it in together into a
sentence that makes a string of
sentences that makes a paragraph
that makes a journal entry.
That's what's happening today.
And over time, you start to get better
at recognizing what's going on within
you because you're putting it on paper.
You're taking the internal and moving
it to the external, and to do that
appropriately requires many functions
in your brain and body as well.
So when you're journaling, and
as I said, it can be any way, you
can just be writing things down.
You could be recording them, but the whole
process is in fact a creative process.
And this is what, what keyed me into
really wanting to get into journaling
was this creative aspect of it.
As you're marking this stuff
down, what are you creating?
What are you, what are you formalizing?
What are you remembering?
What are you keying in on?
And this isn't just me thinking
that, hey, it's a good thing to do.
Um, many scientists and researchers
have actually done work in,
uh, behavioral psychology.
They've done work in sociology figuring
out that, okay, no, journaling actually
has a lot of really tangible benefits.
It's good for your creativity.
You start to understand more about
what you're thinking, what you're
feeling, what you're experiencing.
When you put it down in some physical
form, a lot of artists and any type
of developer can tell you that, yes,
something is in your head is one thing,
but when you actually start creating
it and putting it into the real
world, it's a complete other thing.
So the whole idea of putting down
your thoughts, it's actually making
you a better thinker as well,
because you're thinking about
what you're doing and literally.
Transcribing it into something
real, quote, unquote, real.
So it helps you with your creativity.
It also helps with your mental health.
And by the way, I'm getting
this from Google barred.
I don't have a source.
Exactly.
I don't know where it sourced its
information from and I didn't.
Take the time to go deep looking into what
Bard was doing at the time, but usually
outside of source But it's also good for
your journaling is also good for your
mental health if you've got issues going
on You know, sometimes talking about
them can really help move you forward.
You're formalizing all your thoughts
You're you're going through the Process
of making something real once again, and
part of the process of making something
real means it's outside of you once
something's outside of you, you can
see it a little more appropriately.
You can never get fully
outside of your own viewpoint.
But ask anybody who's ever done
any video work or audio work.
They think they sound one way and then
they record themselves and play it back.
And they're like, Oh geez, I sound
completely different than I thought.
Who is that guy?
Who is that girl?
What's that?
What's going on?
Same thing with video.
You don't know that you walk a
certain way and your gate has
a certain hop and Bob to it.
You're like, Oh, okay.
I walk like that.
Interesting.
I didn't know that.
Thank you for showing me this video.
I'm outside of myself.
I can see it better than I can understand,
but it's still you and you can never
completely get away from yourself.
And one thing that journaling
did for me, I'll get to that.
I got to go through this list here.
Uh, goal setting journaling
is also good for goal setting.
If you're trying to figure out where
you're going, keeping a recorded record.
Measurement.
Um, keeping track of everything
you've done and what you're
thinking and where you're going.
This is also definitely good
for getting to your goals.
You start to see where you're on
track, where you're off track.
You're like, Hey, why
was there a spike here?
Oh, okay.
That was when my family's in town
and my family really motivates me.
Wow, okay.
I didn't realize that was so much
of an effect on what I was doing.
Let me check the other times in
the journal when my family showed
up and boom, there it goes.
So you start tracking measurements
and you reach your goals faster.
Journaling is also good for communication.
So if you're just trying to
communicate something, as I said,
you don't really know what you're
communicating until it's outside of you.
So the more practice you get on putting
something outside of you and then editing
it, and then looking at it from a, a more.
Objective point of view, not a
completely objective point of view,
but a more objective point of view.
Then the more you're able to communicate
those ideas properly, because you know,
when you say these things or when you put
them out into the world, when you write
them down, you know they're going to be
translated in a certain way and you get
better at the translation process and
you start thinking about things better.
Speaking of thinking.
Journaling is also good for critical
thinking, critical thinking.
Whenever you're tasked with the idea to
think critically, something comes up and
you have to think on the spot, on the fly.
You have to be critical and
say, this belongs over here.
That belongs over there.
This is this, you have to critique
something, put a value judgment on it,
say it's good, bad, fast, slow, strong,
weak, impressive, lackluster, et cetera.
You start having to critique things
in the real world in real time.
And journaling helps with that process.
I know Theo from the show versus business
podcast is really big on predictions at
the beginning of the year and looking
back on all the things that that he
thought was going to happen one way
and that happened some other way.
And it gives you a good look
back like, wow, I thought this
way, but it really was this way.
Interesting.
Okay, so that works well
with critical thinking.
Um, and let's see the last one
we're going to talk about is.
It improves your memory.
If you just have all these thoughts
going along in your head and you're
not journaling them, you don't practice
thinking a certain way and remembering
things a certain way, your memory.
Isn't like a, a file cabinet where
you just go back into the files and
flip through all your information and
pull out data and pull out sheets and
like, okay, this happened on this day.
Okay.
Right.
Your, your, your way of remembering
things is a form of procedural memory
access, where your brain, whenever you
try to recall something, your brain
doesn't really know what that is.
Like in terms of a file cabinet,
in terms of, you know, strict,
perfect replication of data.
It's a viewpoint.
It's a, an abstraction almost where
every time you think about the
past, your body has to go through
all these impulses to figure out,
okay, what was I thinking then?
Who was I at the time?
Okay.
What was, what was that like?
Uh, uh, it was kind of re
related to this and that
from the past into a translation
that works for you in the present.
It's not necessarily
the quote unquote truth.
If you ever remember anything that
happened as a kid, like something happened
to you as a kid or something, you went
through a certain experience and you had
a very strong feeling about that as a kid.
Now, when you look back at that, it's
interesting and amazing that your feelings
are pretty much the same or unless you've
altered your, your feelings on the matter,
you look back and say, yeah, that teacher,
she was a jerk and blah, blah, blah.
And that may not actually
be how things went.
But because you're just recreating or
trying to piece together memories from
when you were a kid, you never really
updated those feelings and thoughts.
You just kind of always assume
that yeah, it was like that.
Or even better example, have you
ever gone, um, you, you, you're
out somewhere with your friends or
family members or people you knew
from a long time ago and you say to
yourself, yeah, this thing happened.
Let me recall this memory and
bring it up to the people.
You recall your memory.
It's like, yeah, you remember we
all went to that baseball game and.
And I got sick and then they
had to take everybody home.
We had to leave the game early, but it
was really cool because we got to sit
home and play video games and we were
all together, you know, at uncle Barry's
house and everybody starts laughing.
And then, you know, like your
cousin or somebody says, no, no,
uh, it wasn't a baseball game.
We went to the movies and.
You didn't get sick.
I was the one who got sick
and everybody's like, oh wait.
Yeah, that is right And you totally
misremembered that that's because when
you were putting together the memory
or trying to recall the memory You were
putting together all the pieces of it.
Where'd you get baseball from?
You didn't go to a baseball game.
It was a movie theater.
Where'd you get that from?
I don't know.
Maybe they were, maybe something was,
uh, maybe there was an ad for a baseball
movie, major league or something, or
maybe you saw baseball within the movie.
And for some reason, your kid self
honed in on that baseball memory.
And for some reason you
thought you were at a game.
And then your cousin was
like, no, you didn't get sick.
I got sick.
And you're like, wait a minute, really?
Is that what happened?
And everybody nods their head.
You seem like a crazy person.
You seem like a fool.
Well, this is how memories work.
So journaling can help with that.
Journaling is a way to at least take a
record of what you were thinking of at a
certain time, at a certain time, a certain
place, a certain situation, you can make a
record of how you were translating things
and transcribing them in any given time.
And when you look back on it,
it's going to reinforce a bit of
the truth or a truth that you put
down on paper or you record it.
So yes, it can help with memory.
So what is journaling good for once again,
creativity, mental health, goal setting,
communication, critical thinking, memory.
And one thing they didn't list
on here was it does better with
your, your general feelings.
I suppose they meant to put this
under mental health, but I found that.
Processing feelings and
processing emotions and attitudes.
Really?
It really goes a long way
when you're journaling.
Um, journaling really takes you to that
next level of understanding the way
you feel your emotional state your.
Your current vibe.
Because once again, a lot of times
we think that we're the, the people
that we think we're having all these
feelings, but in an hour from now we'll
be a different version of that person.
Like we may be hungry for dinner and
the person an hour ago just wanted to,
you know, get finished some project
that that person was working on.
Same person an hour ago, but
totally different set of feelings.
So working through your
feelings is another good one.
I'll add that as.
I'll add that on the list.
Creativity, mental health, goal setting,
communication, critical thinking,
memory, and feelings slash emotions.
It's all good, good for that.
And et cetera.
Probably sure it's good
for a lot of other things.
Um, a lot more technical things as well.
When you're just taking notes and
it allows you to create better in
the future, et cetera, et cetera.
Point is, journaling is good for you.
Let's fly back to what I was talking about
before and how I ended up getting shamed.
I was in 2022, two years ago, starting
up my, my power journaling practice.
I had, I had taken it from just playing
around to being a power journaler,
power archiver of my thoughts,
feelings, aspirations, goals, et cetera.
Taking great record.
It, it was, it was awesome.
And this was the first year I'd
really gone in power-wise and
started doing this every single day.
So I broke out my composition books,
started, you know, laying down all the
information, the details, the data.
I was feeling good about it.
I did it once in the
morning and once at night.
So it's a two part process I have, and
I'll outline this at some point in the
future, but it's a two part process.
I have in the morning, I write down
all my goals, objectives, aspirations.
trajectories, strategies,
tactics, whatever.
I just write a bunch of them
down without thinking too much.
It actually comes pretty quickly.
Some I write in the, some I
write in the future tense.
Some are right in the past tense.
Some are right in the present tense.
It doesn't matter.
I just need to get these thoughts
and feelings out in my head.
I like this.
This is where I'm going with this.
I'm going to be this and that I
exercise every day, et cetera.
I was just writing down stuff.
Happens in the first part of the day.
Um, second, second half of the day or
end of the day, I do it again and things
kind of change a little bit, but I
wanted to make sure I do that at night.
So I get to sleep on these
ideas and come wake up fresh
in the morning and do it again.
And that's the basics of it.
There's a lot to it.
I said, I'll outline it all later,
but I started doing that in around
October 2022 and did that straight.
Every day until today, up until today.
I haven't stopped, but I've done it that
long, that straight and unbroken streak.
Even if I don't have my journal next
to me, I'll take some notes down on
my phone and copy them over later.
I'll type something up on my computer,
print it up and tape it into the,
the journal, the physical journal,
whatever the case is, I always make
sure I journal something at least
once a day, usually twice a day.
So in 2024, I'm going back
through all my journal notes.
I'm going back through my previous
years, just as an exercise.
I was listening to Dr.
Benjamin Hardy, um, a
behavioral psychologist.
He was talking about the benefits
of journaling and he has this
practice of looking back.
Now I traditionally don't look back
too much unless I'm trying to remember
something I'll think, wait a minute.
What was I trying to accomplish when
I did this in October last year?
And then I'll go flip back to
October and see what it was.
So, you know, it's a good
record for that, but the way Dr.
Benjamin Hardy was saying to do this
was, you know, you look back and you
see how far you've come, what gains
you've made, what things you can add.
The thing that no one ever told me
about the thing that no one ever
warned me was could be coming.
Was this idea of looking back in
the past and seeing something.
That you didn't like
that still happens today.
And when that realization hit me that
there were things that bothered me
then and are still bothering me now,
like a year and a half later, that was.
Oh crap moment.
I was about to curse but Meta's all on on
my on my behind about my language Until
I get to Gary V's number of followers.
I'm gonna curve my language
slightly terrible I know but I
look back at this journal and I
was trying to find I don't know.
I was just looking back because
Benjamin Hardy said the process
of looking back was valuable.
And I was like, all right, let me start
really looking back a little more often.
Let me try to take myself back to where
I was to see how far I've come, where I
could be going, just how things are going.
And man, I saw an entry in
there that said, I will blank.
And I was like, okay.
I was like, wait a minute.
This is a year and a half
ago, almost two years ago.
And I still go through this.
I'm still looking to accomplish this.
Holy crap.
This thing's been sitting with me
and I hadn't even noticed it was
a bad habit that was so natural.
I didn't notice I was still doing it.
So I flipped through the pages again and
every couple of days I kept complaining
or saying I would do something about this.
And I'm like, Holy crap.
This thing has been with me all this time,
but my mind decided to push it out of the
forefront and not even bother with it.
This is fascinating to me.
Because I'm looking at my journal
entries of today, in January 2024, and
going back into September, October of
2022, and seeing the similar variations
on that, and I'm like, there's an
area here I haven't been improving.
My journal is shaming me!
It's telling me, look, you still do this.
You still have this problem.
You're still in this state, man.
What's wrong with you?
When that realization hit me, that
there were things that I could be
Bummy about, that I could just be
Lackluster on and not really have
the self realization to notice it.
Maybe my mind and body
was protecting itself.
It's like, no, no, no.
You're cool the way you are.
But at some point, some part of me said,
you know what you need to fix that.
And I kept saying that never got
around to fixing these certain aspects.
And I felt a little bit shamed, man.
I'm usually okay with, yeah, things
like this, I'm like this, whatever.
It's all good.
But my journal shamed me.
And I kind of stopped and
put my pen down and was like,
what in the hell is going on?
How is this even possible?
You know, people that have an issue and
you think they, you think they would
know that they have this issue, but
they go around life like they don't.
They may even talk to other people
about it, about their issue.
And you're like, you know, dude,
you've got a problem yourself.
So this particular issue that came up back
in October of 2022, September, October
timeframe, and is now coming up again.
I wondered how long had I been doing that?
How long had I had this way of
thinking before I started journaling?
So I asked a friend about this.
I was like, Hey friend.
And she was like, yeah, how's it going?
I'm like, good, good.
Let me ask you, there's this thing I do.
And she's like, yeah.
I was like, I don't like doing that.
And I've been doing this for a while.
I need to stop this.
And she's like, yeah, I just kind of
thought you were, that was what you were.
That's you decided to do that.
And you've been on that for a little bit.
And you've, and you know, that person
just kind of accepted that, yeah,
that's how I was with this issue.
So the whole world just
would let me have this issue
and really not give me much resistance.
And I'm like, this is unacceptable.
In fact, somebody might have actually
come up and told me about this issue.
But because I was in whatever
mode I was in, I didn't take it
seriously and didn't address it.
So now, I'm feeling ashamed because my
own journal My own version of myself
told me, Hey, you have a problem and
you've had a problem for a little while.
You need to fix that.
And I can't ignore it now because I've
written it down for the past year and
a half and didn't really recognize
it.
It was incredibly eyeopening for me
to see my own thoughts like that.
Shout out to everybody in the chat.
Thanks for dropping through.
Keep journaling your life.
So yeah, it was incredibly,
it was just mind blowing.
Shocking, almost.
This is one of those realizations
of how the mind works.
How you actually operate.
How things really are.
Like, your version of reality
is not really reality.
That's just a translation of your
senses through your brain filter.
Which has been massively
affected by many, many things.
And doesn't include things that we
don't know how to process or sense.
It's a, our, our senses are a lens to
the world, not the actual world itself.
But this journal can help this
journaling thing can help you
get a little closer to reality.
So now I have a new knowledge
of self through my journaling.
And yes, it's only shaming, but
after I got over the, Oh my gosh,
I don't believe this kind of thing.
A part of me started a little
maniacal laughter inside.
I got really interested in this idea
that I could retune and refine myself
just by looking back at my journal
entries, just by clipboarding myself.
Clipboarding is a phrase I use to whenever
you're taking a tally of everything
in your life or, or what's going on.
It's like when you walk around
with the clipboard, you know, you
always see the guys in the lab
coats, some big engineering project.
They've got clipboard and they're
walking around taking notes
and checking off status items.
When you clipboard your own life,
that's what I'm talking about.
Clipboarding may have to
do a podcast on that too.
But stepping back and being able to
look at this whole array of things.
That I can check off my status on
just blew my mind, blew my mind.
So now I'm thinking, okay,
this whole journaling thing.
Isn't just a tool.
It's like an evolutionary, it's
like an evolutionary mechanism.
Like they say, they say one of the
differences between humans and.
And animals is that we have
the unique ability to, well,
one of our unique abilities is
the ability to recognize self.
Like some, some animals aren't able
to recognize themselves in a mirror.
They think it's somebody
else or some other thing.
They can't make that leap from this is me.
And that is a vision of me in a mirror.
But we have that.
Another level is just being able
to understand that, yes, everybody
else is another version of, not me,
but they're, they're another version
of the same species that I am.
If I see something, I kind of realize
that, well, yeah, if I see something
and I have eyes and everything, I know
who I am and I can see myself from
the outside, I can kind of understand
that other people do that as well.
So there's this relational understanding.
And then there's another level
where it's the ability that humans
have to think about thinking.
The fact that we don't just
think we can actually stop and
say, huh, why did I think that?
Or what do I think about?
Or last week I thought, why
did I have that thought?
I wonder what they're thinking.
So the idea that you can think
about thinking is something
that higher level creatures do.
The journaling keyed me into another
evolution, another evolutionary
step, which is a mental tool.
Now, We've seen, we've
seen primates use tools.
Like they'll take the blade of grass
and stick it in the, in the pile.
And when it has ants on it, they
eat the ants or whatever, or eat the
larva and grubs, and they use tools.
A lot of animals use tools, crows.
Chimps, you know, different types of birds
and whatever you see animals use tools.
That's one thing, but combining the
use of tools with the mental acuity
that we have now, we have this
ability to extend our brains in a
way through the tool of journaling,
extend our minds and our consciousness.
In a way that's talking back to us.
So we're not consciously
talking to ourselves.
We're intentionally separating ourselves
in journal form into some other entity.
And it's talking back to us.
I almost think of it like
archiving all of your thoughts
into AI and talking to yourself.
I suppose we're getting to that
point somewhere in the future.
We're pretty close to it now.
But this idea I had about my, my
journal talking back to me and that
representing a certain level of evolution.
Dog, it's kind of mind blowing.
If you watch anime and you think
about Naruto, how Naruto was able
to, to improve himself by practicing
with himself in a way that nobody
else could really do at his level.
That was the kind of moment I had when
I realized my journal was shaming me.
Another version of me was looking at me
like, say man, what's wrong with you?
What's up with you?
What's going on?
And yes, I really mean
another version of me.
By the way, you're not always the
same version that you always are.
We tend to think that we're always the
same person, but we have versions of
ourselves that change over time and
that change depending on situations.
So the same version of you that
was at your uncle's funeral is
not the same version of you that's
playing pool and getting drunk with
your friends on a Friday night.
It's the same you, but a completely
different set of operations are going
on that determine how you act, how you
feel, and how you comprehend things.
Like, if you're playing pool, you're
probably thinking of, you know, bad
math or whatever and trying to figure
out the angles on the, on the board.
When you're at your uncle's funeral,
you're thinking more on the social
and emotional side of things, etc.
You get the point.
But, um, but this is what
journaling can really do for you.
There's, there's a lot to it.
And.
I am not like a behavioral
psychologist or a sociologist
or any type of mental scientist.
What I have done is created
things for people all of my life
and with people's usage in mind.
And there's a lot of psychology that
goes into video games and figuring out
how to make them behave in certain ways.
But I have no formal
education on the matter.
I really have looked into a lot of it.
And this journaling thing snuck up
on me as something that I was, I
can't believe, I almost can't believe
I let it go for this long without
realizing how badass it could be.
Shout out to Enigma32.
What's up, man?
Enigma32 says, I read a book called
Building a Second Brain, and in there the
author talks about how creating notes are
knowledge we leave for our future self.
Exactly.
Precisely.
It's like another version of you
has already lived through this
cycle and is telling you something.
It's really interesting.
Like, I don't know if you've ever
read a book or watched a movie.
Or just had any type of experience
and you experienced it one way.
Then years later, you may be listening
to that song again and you hear them
say a certain line and you're like,
holy crap, that person meant this.
They were saying it that way.
Oh, that's kind of cool.
It's the same.
You it's the same song, but it's like a
different version of you and a different
version of the song is happening.
So you can key into talking to
your future self in crazy ways.
And journaling is one of those ways that,
that makes it just really interesting.
Um, so I've got a couple ways of, of
journaling that I'm getting into now.
And, um, for just a, just a
little bit more on how this works.
You have something called a
reticular activation system.
And this basically is your mind's system
of deciding what motivates you, what moves
you, what to act on, what not to act on.
In, in gross terms, it's your
mind and body's filtration device.
Not like your liver or
drinking alcohol or whatever.
I'm talking about all the
experiences and signals coming in.
There's so much information
going on right now.
There's so many pieces of information
flying by, so many things to
touch on, to, to scroll past, etc.
That this part of your system called
the reticular activation system.
It's basically, basically a neurological
system coming up from your brainstem that
Decides, okay, um, there's a car coming.
I'm about to cross the street.
I'm hungry.
I'm on my way to get some
food What should I care about?
Okay, there's a car coming.
You don't want to get run over.
It's gonna think about that Okay, um, do I
have enough gas to get where i'm going to
get all these little thoughts start going
around and very quickly And oftentimes,
most more, the majority of the times
it's happening without your knowledge.
You're just going about your daily life,
but this whole RAS system is figuring out.
What you should be paying attention to,
what's important, what's your motivation,
what it's going to present to you.
And then you go into something
like a shopping mall, you know,
you get to the mall where you're
going to go to the food court.
And you realize that you're thinking
about food and everybody else is thinking
about something completely different.
Some people are thinking
about, hey, let's go.
Let's go to the clothing store.
Some people are thinking about
let's go to a hardware store.
Some people are thinking
about let's go eat food.
Everybody's got their own filter.
So somebody else, they may
not smell the food court.
They may not smell the food.
They may be completely thinking about
something else and you're like, holy crap.
What is that?
They're cooking.
That smells delicious.
And they may not even notice because they
filtered it out because their minds on
something else while your mind's on food.
So your mind's on food.
You may trip and fall into the fountain.
Because your mind was so on food
and somebody else that just got
their hair done is, you know, they
don't want to get their hair wet.
So they obviously see the
fountain and don't fall in.
Journaling is a way to intentionally
start to recognize things.
You start recognizing things and
say, you know what, I want to
actually key in on that on purpose.
And you start writing it down.
I want to think about this.
I want to look for this.
I really liked what happened here.
I want more of that.
I didn't like so much
what happened over here.
I'm going to avoid that.
And you can actually train your RAS.
To improve and give you better results on
the world that you're already living in.
This kind of gets into that whole
woo woo think positive thing,
which I, I vibe with, and this
is where they relate the RAS.
So look into that later.
Nigma32 asks, Do you ever
create a commonplace book?
I actually have run across that term,
but I can't remember what that's about.
So, I'm gonna say no, because I
don't know what it's referring to
exactly, or how you're using it.
Um, but no, I will look
that up, a commonplace book.
Google says, A commonplace book is, is at
once a book form and a method of reading.
Commonplacing was a system of using
books in which Readers digested the
books they read by extracting, ordering,
and recording particular phrases or
passages in notebooks of their own.
Uh, that information comes from
the University of Chicago Library.
I assume the University of
Chicago Library knows what it's
talking about in some regards.
So, I'm gonna have to look that one
up and, uh, dig a little into that.
And then starts talking about
what's the difference between a
journal and a commonplace book.
It says, technically, a journal is more
of a personal record of events or ideas.
A commonplace book, on the other hand,
is more like a repository of thoughts and
ideas that you collect from, from other
sources for future use or to reflect upon.
Okay, so I guess a commonplace book, the
way I'm reading it is a little more like
a, you know, a notebook that you would
think about when you're, when you're
doing your, um, When you're doing your
studies, it's a way to compile knowledge.
All right.
So yeah, I'm gonna have to do
a little more research into how
people are using commonplace books
and a lot of the thinking on that.
Um, but as I said with my journal,
you know, a lot of people and here's
the here's the thing that gets me
with the whole new year's benefits
and everybody putting journals out.
Oh, here, buy this 32 journal.
You know, a lot of that is sold to, to
people who have this idea of a diary.
And this is probably what kept
me away from it for so long.
It seemed a little too
frilly for my purposes.
Like I wanted something a little more
mechanical and, you know, actionable,
like, Hey, let's get this down.
I wasn't so concerned about getting
in touch with feelings or whatever.
And that seems to be where a lot of the
journal diary record keeping kind of
Ideology was coming from but shame on me.
That's my fault for not really looking
into it into journaling as I should
have a long time ago But um, but
yeah, so as I said, um, I write down
I write down my entries what I call my
goats my goals objectives aspirations
Trajectory and strategy I write all that
down two times a day once the morning
once at night about 10 to 15 entries
And I just kind of blast them out.
And that's at the very basic what I do.
Then I also keep some notes.
I also keep tabs on what went well, what
didn't go so well, what I learned, what
I came across, interesting thoughts,
random notes, good ideas, bad ideas, etc.
Um, so throughout the day I'll actually
journal these things as I get them.
As I said, I'll formalize
this whole process.
I've worked it out.
It's pretty cool now.
And, uh, it makes me want to go forward.
But anyway, thanks for
that commonplace book idea.
I really like that.
So, what can you do in the meantime?
Um, and why would I even, why
would I even start mentioning this?
As I said, you can really start
training your mind and training your
feelings, training your thoughts,
training your impulses to behave
a certain way through journaling.
And this, this was the major unlock
for me, where Whereas most of the
things I was looking back on, I was
happy with like, okay, I learned that.
Okay, I moved forward there.
Okay, I need to put a
little work in there.
This was the first time I'd really felt
shame and that was a necessary pain
that I had to go through to understand
just how powerful the system is.
Well, it's like, wow, I messed that up.
I've been talking about this
and haven't been doing it.
So if you have a notebook of any type,
just go ahead and start journaling.
There's no really wrong way to journal.
You're going to start
doing what works for you.
What's fun for you.
If it's, if it becomes not fun at
some point, then your journaling
will actually reflect that.
It's like, okay, this
isn't becoming fun for me.
Why isn't it fun?
What can I do to change this?
What can I do better?
So ashamed at what's happening
that I don't want to write it down.
That's valuable information in itself.
Maybe you need a certain type of notebook.
Some people use, I know a friend
who spends like 10 on every journal.
There are these hardback journals
she has and she keeps them on
a shelf, very neatly organized.
I'm like, cool.
I prefer the 50 to 99 cent composition
books that you can grab at any store.
99 cent store, Rite Aid,
OfficeMax, Target, wherever
you are, you can kind of find.
These cheap composition books.
And I have a whole specific
reason for doing that.
You know, but I also keep these
little jot books is what I call them.
I also keep very small little jot books.
I can put in my pocket, write
down quick little notes.
There's a whole process, but
you got to start somewhere.
And if we're in 2024 and you're still
just kind of shuffling your feet and
starting to lose momentum, starting to
forget yourself a little bit, or what
you were thinking about on January
1st or the end of December last year.
If you're starting to just now fall
out of favor with the new years, which
is what a lot of people do at this
time, strongly suggest trying out
journaling or reintroducing yourself
to some sort of journaling practice.
It doesn't have to be good.
It doesn't have to be right,
especially if you're a creative.
Now I know this is creativity
Threads Life, and a lot of people
don't think they're creative, but
I'm already calling you a creative.
For your creative exploits, you
really should be journaling.
Artists should know how to do
this with dated sketchbooks.
Artists should already have a heads up
or a leg up on this practice by using
dated sketchbooks with your sketchbooks
and have certain dates in them saying
yes, this is how I was drawing then this
is how I'm drawing now this is how my
watercolors look then this is how they
look now and you should see some sort
of change you should see some sort of
progress you may have actually gotten
worse but you're like oh man my whole face
structure looks worse but I'm producing 20
times as many faces as I was doing before
wow my speeds really increased you Or
why is my, why is my facial structuring?
Why is that down?
Whatever artists have a
leg up in that aspect.
So not just writing stuff down, you
should be sketching stuff out also.
Or if you're somebody who does voice,
maybe start podcasting or using your voice
notes app on your phone to journal audio.
I know that Apple just updated and
in their latest update, they've got
a new app that's actually journal.
So journal app, pretty interesting.
I'm actually going to start using it.
Uh, taking pictures of random
things, random moments in my life.
You can do a self record to record
yourself at certain times, and
you just boom, boom, boom, add
this stuff to the journal app.
It's pretty cool.
I'm seeing how it works in with my
whole process right now, but it's fun.
And I used to think that I was
just throwing all this information
into the wind, but that's okay.
Even if you never go back
and look at your journals.
Even if you never go back, the
fact that you're formalizing them
and putting them in concrete form
is amazing and beneficial to you.
So listen, that's all.
That's it for this one.
Um, definitely want to thank
everybody who's been tuning in.
Definitely want to thank anyone who's
subscribed on Apple, subscribed on Google
Podcasts, or subscribed on Spotify and
any of the other platforms out there.
We are now currently pumping out
to all these other platforms.
I'm trying to make sure that
I'm indexed across anything.
Any app.
So when you pick up cast box, or
when you pick up a pod bean or any
of these podcast apps that when you
search creativity threads, life, or Mr.
Benja, this should come up.
Because this is something I'm doing
to actually enhance my process.
And what do you know, it happens daily.
Comes on every, right now I'm
doing this every weeknight,
week, evening, or whatever.
Um, I want to get down to a
perfect schedule where I'm coming,
showing up at a certain time.
But for right now I don't have that.
I also will probably start going,
going visual at some point.
Right now I'm just doing
audio, but that's fine.
The more important thing is to get
in there and do these every day.
I honestly don't feel like screwing
with the camera and the visual part of
it kind of distracts me a little bit.
So that's why I don't jump on
the camera all the time, but I
might start doing that later.
Also, um, I'm still working out.
The creative study lounge.
I remember I mentioned last year, the
creative study lounge was coming all
this random information that I've been
talking about in little bits here and
there is kind of a scratch pad for,
for projects I'm putting together.
And I'm going to be putting it
in the creative study lounge.
You can actually go to
the website right now.
There's not too much up there currently.
You can buy some merch.
If you'd like to help support, I'll be
adding more to that as the year goes on.
And you'll see that progress happening.
I guess you could say I'm somewhat
journaling this on threads, which is
why it's called creativity threads life,
but we'll see what happens with that.
Also, what else is going on?
I'm supposed to be checking
out echo the Marvel show, see
what's going on with that.
I may have some things to say
creatively about what they're trying.
Usually I talk about that on show versus
business, but I want to check out echo.
I just saw, what was that show?
Um, on Netflix, the anime with
the, um, blue eyed samurai.
Yeah.
I just finished checking that out.
It was okay.
Uh, it wasn't bad.
It was well constructed and everything.
It's just when I watch these kinds
of shows, I'm usually looking for a
certain type of Protagonist and this
protagonist was kind of a bit of a
revenge based asshole in my opinion,
and that's fine in some situations
and it can work, but I don't know.
It just wasn't totally connecting for
me in terms of being able to relate to
a character that's trying to bring good
into the world, but I may have some words
on that I want to put down at some point.
What else is going on?
Uh, things are going crazy in the
world, uh, got wars going on and
people ask me why am I doing something
like this and This is what something
that comes up with artists a lot.
Why am I with all this
stuff going on in the world?
Why are you just creating art?
What do you think you're doing?
Well, I make it a point to make
sure that I'm interacting and
Understanding things that are going on.
I do not make it a point to directly
Go after a lot of these issues.
Why not?
Well, I think that you can starve
a lot of these Problems and issues.
I think you can starve them for their
air and when people start flaming
you online people start spewing
whatever One sided argument that they
have I think you can I think you can
successfully drowned out that situation
by providing a positive, creative
outlet for a lot of these situations,
because usually when two people start
fighting, they're, they're very big
extremes and I'm not going to get into
a deep, but, uh, somebody was asking
about, you know, well, what are you doing?
It's like, listen, everybody
I run into, I try to.
Every person I run into, every place
I go, every thing, every endeavor that
I invest myself into, I try to make
it a better place and not a frivolous
place, but an actual better place.
Most people tend to want to throw the baby
out with the bathwater in every situation
and I'm like listen, you're really
concerned about Extreme cases and that's
valid, but let's bring back the more
common sense nature of things Let's bring
back coming together to discuss problems
not argue with each other to discuss
problems Not trying to attack people but
make things better for more More groups.
If I can get along in my own
world and do my own thing.
Great.
Hopefully you can get along in
your world and do your own thing.
Great as well.
But that's kind of the
vibe behind this podcast.
Um, one that I don't think
I've really expressed before.
So all of us stick together, do our
own things, create our own worlds
the best we can and do it without
the need to attack somebody else or
get in all these unnecessary fights.
I spent a lot of my energy, a lot
of my time battling with these.
Unnecessarily negative thoughts and
just spending a lot of energy fighting.
Negativity takes a lot of energy and
a lot of times it's not necessary.
Fighting takes a lot of energy and
a lot of times it's not necessary.
We could be spending all our
time trying to fix problems.
We want to attack some
guy on the internet.
If you don't know what this is like,
think about how much time you've
lost when somebody online or in
person or random in the street has
said something that bothers you.
That can stick with you for weeks and the
amount of compounded time that you've lost
is bad So I'm going to round out just by
saying a listen creativity threads through
life if you're trying to create something
good Don't try to do it necessarily by
attacking bad things try to really focus
in on what's causing your creativity to
Blossom, bloom, flow as best as it can.
And think on the positive, literally
what puts you in your own direction.
Your positive, maybe somebody
else's negative and that's fine,
but Hey, you've got life to create.
Hopefully you're creating a good one.
That's Mr.
Benja for creativity threads live.
Thanks everybody who joins us.
Don't forget to like
subscribe to all your friends.
Tell your mama, uh, send her
a bowl of cookies and let her
know to listen to the podcast.
All right.
Peace.