Character Sketch - Journaling Tool

Our relationship with one person can bring insights on our relationships with everyone and everything else.

"Underground issues from one relationship or context invariably fuel our fires in another." -- Harriet Lerner

"The people we are in relationship with are always a mirror, reflecting our own beliefs, and simultaneously we are mirrors reflecting their beliefs. So relationship is one of the most powerful tools for growth... if we look honestly at our relationships we can see so much about how we have created them." -- Shakti Gawain

With Character Sketch, you describe another person or yourself, now, in the past or in the future. Close your eyes and imagine this person or yourself in front of you. What do you notice? What do you feel? What qualities do you sense in this person? What may be their motives or intentions? What do you imagine is on their mind? What is the meaning and purpose of your encounter with them? Be very descriptive.

EXERCISES

Getting started:

• Pick a friend or family member. Close your eyes and bring them to mind. Answer the questions above for this person.

Go deeper:

• Bring to mind someone with whom you've been upset recently. Contemplate the situation and the pain. Describe their character. What did they do that upset you? Why would they do such a thing? Do you think they did it intentionally? What meaning does this have for you?

Reach higher:

• Project yourself 5 years into the future doing what you ideally want to do. Connect with your soul and write from its perspective. What does your environment look like? What qualities are you living? What are you especially good at doing? What are your big accomplishments? Who else is around you? What gives you meaning? How are you helping others? Characterize this future you in detail.

"I believe that we are always attracted to what we need most, an instinct leading us towards the persons who are to open new vistas in our lives and fill them with new knowledge." -- Helene Iswolsky

Go back and check out our other 50 Journaling Tools.