Journal. Connect with the Past: Music, Images, Things.
ACDC’s High Way to Hell brings me back to summer camp in Nevada City, before my freshman year of High School …
I close my eyes. I’m in a travel van. My camp counselor is at the wheel. Driving and singing …
No stop signs
Speed limit
Nobody’s gonna slow me down
Like a wheel
Gonna spin it
Nobody’s gonna mess me around
The van bounces with the music – along the rocky un-paved road.
With my eyes closed, I feel pulses of energy in my chest and waves of energy rolling down my arms.
My crush is in the seat behind me. A Part arrives, connected with that time. Those feelings. Like a wheel, gonna spin it.
Music. Connecting within Rhythm.
What does music bring up for you? Does a song come on the radio, Pandora or Spotify – making you want to turn it up? Or turn it off?
Is it a mixed tape or CD? A song list or type of music that brings you back to a time in your life?
Journal questions:
Think of a particular year – what music stands out to you? What was happening at this time – and what memories are connected with this music?
What Parts are connected with these memories? What ‘lessons’ do they want to remind you of?
How were these Parts trying to protect you then?
How are these Parts trying to protect you now?
Pictures. Photos. Images.
Looking at photos on your phone, in a printed album, on someone’s wall, or in social media posts – what memories are connected with those photos of people, places, objects? What feelings arise?
Journal questions:
What Parts are connected with these memories? What ‘lessons’ do they want to remind you of?
How were these Parts trying to protect you then?
How are these Parts trying to protect you now?
Things. 
Walk into a room and look on a shelf, in a drawer, or cupboard.
An old mug. A particular book. A certain pair of socks.
Perhaps you are looking for something. A wrench, a piece of mail, a battery.
Maybe you are in the midst of organizing and clearing things out. You come upon something that brings up memories, theories or questions on how it arrived to that location. Or arrived into your life.
What is there? What memories and feelings do those things bring up? You may flood with thoughts on its history and how it was obtained. People. Places. Parts.
Journal questions:
What Parts are connected with these memories? What ‘lessons’ do they want to remind you of?
How were these Parts trying to protect you then?
How are these Parts trying to protect you now?
Continue to recognize the connections music, images, and objects create with your past.
They are portals to understanding who you are. And your journey.