Field notes
The Mirror Field blog
Essays on reflective journaling, structured self-inquiry, and the symbolic systems behind the practice.
- 5 min read
Morning pages vs. evening reflection
Two practices that share a notebook and not much else. What each one is actually for, when the time of day genuinely matters, and how to choose between them.
- 4 min read
Journaling for stuckness
Why prompt lists usually fail when you're stuck, what stuckness actually is underneath, and one specific journaling pattern that reliably moves it.
- 5 min read
Journaling for grief
What journaling can and can't do for grief, why the popular guides oversell it, and a practical pattern grounded in the dual-process model of bereavement.
- 11 min read
How people actually decide
How people actually decide, what the research has found, and why most decision-making frameworks oversell what reflection can do for hard choices.
- 4 min read
Digital and paper: does the medium matter for journaling?
What the research actually shows about handwriting versus typing, where the popular advice is overstated, and how to choose between paper and a screen for reflective writing.
- 4 min read
Decision regret vs. decision quality
A decision can be high-quality and produce regret, or low-quality and produce relief. Why the two come apart, and what to actually evaluate when reviewing a choice.
- 4 min read
Bullet journaling vs. reflective journaling
Two traditions that share a notebook and almost nothing else. What each one is actually for, why people conflate them, and how to decide which the moment calls for.
- 4 min read
Big decisions and small ones: what actually differs
The popular advice to treat big decisions slowly and small decisions quickly is partly right and partly misleading. What the actual difference is, and where the dividing line should be drawn.
- 4 min read
Ambiguity tolerance and choice
Why some people can sit with unresolved decisions and others can't, what the research shows about the trait, and how to work with whichever end of the spectrum you sit on.