The Excavation
In crisis, we often lose the thread of who we were before everything broke. This week begins the quiet excavation of the self that still exists beneath the collapse.
We have been taught to define ourselves by our roles, our productivity, our beliefs. When roles dissolve and beliefs crack, who are we? This week we practice a radical act: we choose to be interested in ourselves again. Not to fix ourselves. Just to know ourselves.
Beneath everything that has broken, I am still here.
This week, notice if you start to write the same complaints in circles. Let yourself be boring. That's fine. The breakthrough isn't in the dramatic entries — it's in the daily practice.
Go somewhere you went as a younger version of yourself — a school, a neighborhood, a park, a type of place (a library, an art supply shop). Let the place speak to you.
Work through these at your own pace across the week. Use the journal space to write your responses — they are saved to your account.
List twenty things you genuinely love to do — not things you think you should love, but things that make you feel alive. Rock climbing. Baking bread. Watching documentaries. Walking at night. Anything. Then write the last date you actually did each one.
How long ago did you last do these things? When did you start abandoning the activities that nourish you — and why?
Draw a circle divided into eight equal slices. Label them: Spirituality, Creative Expression, Work/Purpose, Physical Health, Relationships, Play, Rest, and Inner Life. Mark a dot in each slice — closer to the outer edge if you feel fulfilled, closer to the center if you feel depleted. Connect the dots.
Notice where you are most depleted. Which area has been most ravaged by your crisis? Which, surprisingly, still holds some life?
Look at the last week of your life. Where did your hours actually go? List your five main activities and roughly how much time each received. Now ask: which of these activities would the real you — before everything broke — recognize and approve of?
How much of your time is spent in obligation, avoidance, or numbing? This is not judgment — it's information.
Draw two concentric circles. In the inner circle, write the names of people with whom it feels safe to be honest right now. In the outer circle, write the names of people who, however well-meaning, deplete or destabilize you. This is not forever. It's for now.
Is your inner circle empty or thin? That's important to know. Who could you add, even tentatively, to the inner circle?
Complete this at the end of the week.
How many mornings did you write your Morning Pages? Did anything unexpected come up?
What was your Soul Date? How did it feel to revisit a place from your past self?
What did you discover about the distance between who you are now and who you used to be?
Name one small thing you love that you haven't allowed yourself in too long.
When you feel ready to move forward, mark this week complete.
Week Complete