Neutrality
Updated: Oct 12
Why is "Neutrality" so important in Zero Effort Journaling?
Neutrality is the operative in Zero Effort Journaling. What makes it worth highlighting, is what it asks you to do, be, how it asks you to see things, and what it implies.
What it's asking you to do is three-fold:
Take notice.
We all take passive notice to things. Stuff is out there. It's going to slide into your awareness.
Take notice on purpose.
Going out your way to notice something is a different exercise.
It's not slidng in, you're pickng it up an inserting it.
Take notice on purpose within a particular category.
Now you're sorting though your experiences to pick something up, and inserting it.
And funny enough, neutrality isn't all that neutral itself. It is still loaded with potential.
It's as neutral as 0. It can be a seen as nothingness, evenness, or a multiplier depending on how you look at it.
It can been seen as an improvement from the negative.
It can been seen as still lacking, regardless of the improvement.
You can hold all of these stance at the same time.
You can hold it as bittersweet.
You can hold it as "challenging, stressful, and worthwhile".
You can hold it as "it is what it is, I'll do my best".
You can hold it as "I'm grateful for the opportuniity, I'll accept".
You can hold it is "I this really upsets me. How can I best navigate this?".
You can hold it as "I'm uncomfortable. I'm also aware and incharge.".
It's less about is it half-full OR half empty.
That's a false dichotomy.
It's more like
"I have a glass. What can I do with my glass? What are the possiblilies with this glass? What are the limits with this glass? This is my glass and I'm willing to find out".
In Zero Effort Gratitude journaling, I did structure the neutrality portion of the practice around finding things that are not bothering you. I did this because if you are in a state where gratitude is difficult to access, tell you to "have a neutral attitude" would be met with a well deserved side eye.
The Zero Effort Gratitude journaling practice asks you to practice noticing what you already have a neutral attitude towards. That's a lot more welcoming than forcing one.
Whether neutrality, as I've describe it here, is something you are conscious of or not, overtime through journaling, you'll notice how you categorize things.
It's up to you what you do with them, what you house in them, and how you'll employ those categories in your life.
