Past Authoring Program

COMMENT 1: After spending many hours one night working on my autobiography, pouring my life on to the pages, as the instructions suggested, I transitioned directly to sleep. Upon waking the next morning an extraordinary experience ensued, where I inadvertently caught my mind in the midst of a new activity it had decided to occupy itself with throughout the night. To my surprise, it was in the middle of systematically going through free association after free association, memory after memory dissecting, categorizing and recontextualizing these memories, fitting them into elaborate coherent narratives. This process was two-fold: first the mind would look at the memory or association and analyze it; then it would look for how it was connected to any other events. Then it would be placed into the context of ever-larger dominate narratives. What was deemed irreverent was, in a sense, discarded. After having spent numerous years in Jungian Analysis, as well as regular meditation practice (including many long intensive retreats) to enhance my personal growth, this was a truly unique experience. Never before had I witnessed the mind reorganize itself in such a fast paced, complex and plastic manner. In addition to this inner experience subjectively I awoke from what I would probably consider the best sleep I can remember. I was so well rested, so at peace and felt ready to tackle anything.

COMMENT 2: The Past Authoring program was particularly valuable to me. When I began it, I struggled to think of experiences to include. I thought that my life was mundane, that I lacked significant/pivotal life events. With some thought, I began to remember experiences that I had not thought of for a while, that involved early family conflict. Working through the exercises for chosen experiences made me understand their significance and their persistent influence on me. Working through the exercise personally made me organize my thoughts and feelings about these experiences.

COMMENT 3: The autobiography was a painful, yet important experience. I feel that everyone should do it at some point in their lives. I managed to isolate all the negative events in my life that still bother me, to this day, and took the necessary steps to make it better. Furthermore, since there was a limit on the amount of memories I could write about, it helped me prioritize the negative events that could be fixed, and distinguish them from others that just needed to be forgotten. On a positive note, I identified the common patterns and themes that mattered to me the most: the challenge of relationships/triumph of friendships, the relationship with my parents and the associated volatility/instability, and the need for competition and inspiration to help maximize my own potential.

COMMENT 4:  I've begun to notice a pretty radical change in almost all the aspects of my life after going through these programs. There were points in my writing that were extremely upsetting, and unexpectedly so, making me grateful that I was alone while I was writing. The Past Authoring program also prompted me to explore behaviours I engage(d) in that upset me but didn't understand, or at least not to completion. I wrote my autobiography in chronological order, so it soon became shockingly clear to me what experiences early in life influenced my "unexplained" behaviour later on. There were also several points where I had to pause after analyzing an event just to say "wow", and come to terms with what I had just unearthed. I felt a great deal of relief and clarity once I was done. But what was interesting was that soon after (maybe after a few weeks) I noticed I also became very very angry about things I had been passive about before. For a few weeks I was fuming over my own contribution to my own problems, and how I had allowed them to come to fruition. I was more angry than I had ever been in my entire life. It shocked most of the people around me, because soon I began to confront issues in my life very quickly in a direct, constructive, and articulate manner, that caught people off guard (probably because I had never really stood up for myself to begin with). I began to realize what I should want and expect of the people around me, and of myself. I also became aware of the behaviour I was prone to that upset me and began to see how people had, and could, take advantage of me. As a result my social circles changed pretty rapidly. I also stopped drinking as frequently as I used to (it was a rate I was neither proud of, or comfortable with), and soon after came to realize that my self-destructive, emotionally manipulative boyfriend probably wasn't the greatest outlet for my desire to help people, and dumped him pretty fast. These were all very positive changes for me, although they really sucked at first. I am really beginning to reap the benefits now. Overall I'm grateful for having gone through both programs, and I feel I've gained great clarity and focus in my life.

COMMENT 5:  I definitely enjoyed doing the Past and Future Authoring programs.  It was fun reminiscing about past events, working through past struggles and concretely identifying where I've come from and why I'm at where I'm at.

COMMENT 6: Trying to figure out which experiences were more significant than others was challenging itself. However, as the process continued and we had to analyze our experiences more in depth,  the pieces of my past seemed to fit together. I obviously knew what my past consisted of (in terms of the things I had experienced, people I had met, etc.), but I had never thought about them in the way this program forces you to. Overall, completing this assignment has shed a new light on my past, making me realize and aware of the significance of my experiences, and the influence they have had on shaping the person I am today.

Present Authoring Program

This is a new program, and feedback from users has not yet been received.

Future Authoring Program

COMMENT 1: The Future Authoring program was enjoyable and rewarding, and it helped me realize how attainable certain goals of mine were, with work. I aspired for a lot of things, but I thought that some were just lofty goals instead of actual possibilities. Even though these were exercises that I might have been able to do without guidance, their structure and thoroughness were very helpful. I really enjoyed them and appreciated the opportunity to do this kind of assignment in a university class. I wish I took the class earlier (before my final year of undergrad), so that I could have used what I learned from the Future Authoring program in my academic endeavours more.

COMMENT 2: I did find a great deal of value in writing my ideal future and my worst possible scenario and frequently refer back to these in my daily decisions. I feel that after defining these I have much more direction in what I do every day. I spend much less time on time-fillers like facebook and tending to my phone because I'm more aware of the things I want to do (or should do) to achieve my goals.

COMMENT 3: The Future Authoring program was a great way to solidify and identify my goals, heading towards the future. Now that I've explicitly stated them, how to succeed and avoid falling short, I feel that I can no longer run away from them or make excuses because responsibility now weighs heavily on my shoulders. It was an eye-opener thinking about the worst-case scenario in my life, and I realized how badly I didn't want that.

COMMENT 4: Being asked to write out your goals, and question why these goals are important, and how they are going to influence your life in the future, can be challenging. The future authoring assignment really made me think about where I wanted to be (or where I saw myself) in the next three to five years.  However, upon completing the Future Authoring program I was able to visualize my ideal future. Furthermore, critically thinking about and analyzing each individual goal has made me realize why this future is something I want and desire. It has also motivated me to accomplish these goals, or at least strategize what steps I need to implement and plan today to succeed in achieving my goals.
 

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