When I was in elementary school I was intrigued by magic and how it worked. I wasn’t as interested in performing the tricks as I was in understanding how they worked. In one of the magic books I read there was information about invisible ink and how to make it and then decrypt notes written in invisible ink. I recall the main ingredient of the ink was lemon juice and when it dried, the writing disappeared. If you warmed up the paper by holding it close (but not too close!) to a light bulb the invisible ink turned brown and you could read the note.
Writing in your journal is a bit like holding the paper to a light bulb: you begin to see some parts of you life that were invisible to you. You see patterns. You see your previously hidden personal belief system, your set of assumptions that you live by whether you are aware of them or not.
Are there tricks of the trade that help you see the invisible? Yes. One trick is to write about your mentors. Mentors are your advisors and your role models who deeply influence your thinking and in all likelihood influence your belief system.
Make a list of mentors in your life: particular friends, teachers, siblings, parents, parents’ friends. Select one that had a big impact on you, and then write about what you learned from him or her. How did they help form your personal belief system? Did they help change your personal belief system? Do you still subscribe to that belief system? Do you want to?
Once you see things that were previously invisible, you can decide more consciously how you want to proceed. And then you can decide: Is your newfound knowledge the result of magic, or is the result of your own insightful reflection?
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