"Droste": A Frame of Metacogniton

To know what a "drost" is in a journal, you have to know what the Droste Effect is. Here is a brief history.

The Droste Effect is basically an image with an image of itself inside.

The name of the effect comes from a brand of Dutch cocoa powder, "Droste Cacao ", the one you see pictured above.

What I refer to as a "droste" in journaling is a frame of metacognition. Let me walk you through that.

Notice how the image inside the image is smaller than this last? This reminds me of how events, feelings, and thoughts, etc., feel "smaller" once you have journaled about them. You gain a "distance" that allows you to view them more objectively, less personally, more intellectualism less judgmentally.

When you reflect on your thoughts, you are thinking about thinking. When you think about your metacognition, things get smaller and smaller, and you enter deeper "drostes" or frames in the figurative image or frames of thought.

Now that we've gotten the basic stuff out of the way, let's get into the majesty

I wish I could describe to you, in full, vivid, capturable detail, what the "droste" effect, in journaling, is. I wish I could give it to you confidently, but this is my blog, isn't it? And how I describe it is just how you're going to have to take it.

If you take away "oh, the droste effect is just that feeling you get when something feels like less of a big deal because you've journaled it out!". No, if that's all I'm getting to you, I'm failing.

Seeing a situation, mindset, or period in your life as a "droste" means you are doing something profound. You are seeing that droste as something in the mirror as opposed to the mirror itself. Your holistic few grants you a deep understanding and the ability to notice details you may have missed when that droste was your whole picture.

Consider why maps choose a bird's-eye view and why your GPS favors a street view. What are the different uses? What causes you to toggle between the two rather than choosing one or the other? Are that not both showing you where to go?