The Importance of Journaling: Your thoughts...

[Lotus7]

Hiyo Bums,

 

Thought I would start a topic on keeping a journal with a regular practice. I have seen a lot of posts about "practice" and subjects on the like but not much on keeping record of it. I have always been keen to keeping a journal, ever since I was young I suppose. I always thought it was really interesting and fun to look back on entries from a few months ago or even a year ago.

 

Going a bit deeper, apart from an intellectual experience: What do yo bums find to be helpful about keeping a journal with your spiritual practice? Or do you find it to be of no use?

 

I bring this up after reading Rawn Clark's commentary on IIH, specifically his section on listing the good and bad qualities within oneself and being ruthlessly honest with yourself on paper. I find it hard to lie to myself, (some may differ ), especially when I am writing down my thoughts at the moment and trying to analyze my own actions or qualities. Anyways, I find journaling to be very important to my practice! What about you?

 

Love and Light, Mateo

[Aetherous]

I've been finding it to be essential.

[Lotus7]

Thanks Turtle! If you have the time, would you care to elaborate on why it is essential to you?

 

On the list of many other benefits, I find that I am better able to observe my progress in any particular area and sometimes find mistakes or overcome obstacles. I am a natural writer, so maybe it is just my artistic side being able to communicate with my intellect .

 

Love and Light, Mateo

[Aetherous]

I have been doing a lot of journaling lately...

 

Writing down dreams upon waking, in order to remember them better, and also to go back and see how it correlated to daily life.

Sorting thoughts.

Making a daily list of things to do, and simply doing one thing at a time (helps to not get overwhelmed)...soon enough it's all done, and I am free for a lot of time.

Making a weekly or longer term list, and once each thing is done, erase it...when the time comes to work on it, add it to the daily list.

Lists of career necessities, exercise things to get and things to try to do, self improvement steps, etc...

 

Here is how I've been doing work with goals...

1) Problem board. Write down all issues in life...every single problem. Be totally honest. Sort them out by category (career, relationships, etc).

2) Solution board. Write down all possible solutions to those issues, in each category. If there isn't a solution, that's fine, because there is the...

3) Dream board. Write down all dreams, however unrealistic. What is the ideal life I would live, if nothing could hold me back? Whereas the problem board focuses on the totally negative, the dream board focuses on the purely positive.

4) Do it board, or 'action board'. Write down all realistic steps toward accomplishing the solutions and dreams. This is the most important one. This is what I do my actual work from. "God helps those who help themselves."

5) If-then board. Write down options for if the actions fail, what your plan B or C will be.

I think pretty much no goal can escape from this process...

 

I also do the thing where you go over how the day went, and ask specific pointed questions...with the intention to improve character from doing some reflection.

 

Along the same lines, I have contemplation where I write out the ideal person that I want to be. Similar to a vision board, but only for character.

 

I do a little bit of law of attraction work...where if I have a "dream" of something I want in life, I will write down about imagining it being reality already. Focusing on the feelings of already having it...such as "it feels great, I am so blessed" etc. Making it a very positive feeling can at times make it happen in life.

 

Basically...writing things down is a process of turning chaos into order. Life will start to flow much more smoothly for people that do it. It worked for me.

 

(I should keep a journal that I date, and keep. I tend to erase all things. But I think keeping it may help cultivate memory, or at least a better sense of the past, which would be good for me)

Edited January 13, 2013 by turtle shell

[RiverSnake]

DP

Edited October 31, 2014 by OldChi

[d'avid]

I was recommended from several sites to go backwards through my day at the end of it, recollecting the impressions, thoughts, words, deeds...

 

 

I had a hard time to keep up writing daily. The time I did so (like I currently do), i.e. enter my daily self-observations before preparing for the bedtime, I had more determination, motivation and self-awareness, even if I just wrote down that I didn't accomplish what I planned and how I wasted my time.

 

I note self-observations, thoughts, ideas, major events and / or activities.

 

I track f.ex.

-my felt energy level / my libido (sexually and transformed)

-my practice time on different areas in my life (study, job, outdoor, moving/sport/gong, spiritual, play and restoration, relationships...)

-my sleeptime, when I go to bed and when I get up

-my weight and my diet (like: liquid, raw, vegan or vegeterian, supplementals)

-goal/intention, difficulty, overcoming, correction and gratitude of the day

-efficiency: how many of the set targets I achieved (roughly) and Eisenhower Matrix (how much time went into urgent/important, non urgent/important, urgent/non important, neither urgent nor important)

 

I tried different forms (sheets, handwritten books and different software, freestyle or tightly guided by parameters). I stuck to software so I could search for keywords and compare the changes over time.

I now use a (portable windows) software called smartdiary (there is a free edition which you might like to try out). It allows to track and display freely configurable life factors in a versatile way. The programmer is really friendly, updating it rather often and answering to all mails with feature requests I sent him...

 

I also put down notes in the morning about what I remember from the night (dreams mostly:-). If I can make it timewise. That often brings more subconcious memories and "hidden hints" to the daylight - sometimes only later on.

 

My journaling takes me about 15 to 20 minutes a day, but forces me to face responsability for my time.

By doing so at the end of a day (before the harvest is transfered to the central self and the body adjusted according to the imprints received throughout the day), I go to bed with a feeling of having added some experience, some work, some difference to my life and sometimes the life of others too:-). Even if I had to realize that I missed the mark and got entrapped again by old habits - I knew it at least and had the chance to release it from the subconcious.

 

Without doing so I might miss a fruit. The fruit of fruits seems to be self-awareness. I very rarely go and read my old entries. It's mainly a tool to remind me of myself.

Edited January 14, 2013 by d'avid

[Cat Pillar]

I'm finding that keeping track of how long I practice every day in a physical practice log helps keep my motivation up. It's unpleasant having to write down that I didn't practice, so that alone helps motivate me to practice.

 

I'm also tracking what time I wake up every mornintg, since that's been an issue for me.

 

I don't keep a real diary/journal, though.

[Birch]

Various writings. Some are about past events and experiences with people (this is for therapy). I find writing and then waiting and writing more forces me to be truthful about the events and people. It's not the sort of journaling I occasionally dabbled in when I was 16 and left out the truth.

 

Some are letters to people that are not going to be sent to them. These are more exorcism-like. They tend to be hate-filled angry things. But they also have to be true.

 

Some are 'want-lists' and get sealed in envelopes (different 'areas') have different coloured paper and put in a box in a corner. They have a bit more of a 'magical' thing about them. I've come across a few of these and been able to cross off everything on the list after some time has passed. I can't remember what's on them at the moment.

 

To do lists (sometimes an item from a want list ends up here:-))

 

Fire letters. Random writing to be burned. Not as insistent on truth in these.

 

Scribbles in notebooks, phone notes, things I have to remember:-)

 

I'm thinking I should force myself to 'gratitude-journal' but it smacks of New Age annoying to me (yes I know the colored paper sounds kooky but I don't see it as the same thing)

[Lotus7]

I have been doing a lot of journaling lately...

 

Writing down dreams upon waking, in order to remember them better, and also to go back and see how it correlated to daily life.

Sorting thoughts.

Making a daily list of things to do, and simply doing one thing at a time (helps to not get overwhelmed)...soon enough it's all done, and I am free for a lot of time.

Making a weekly or longer term list, and once each thing is done, erase it...when the time comes to work on it, add it to the daily list.

Lists of career necessities, exercise things to get and things to try to do, self improvement steps, etc...

 

Here is how I've been doing work with goals...

1) Problem board. Write down all issues in life...every single problem. Be totally honest. Sort them out by category (career, relationships, etc).

2) Solution board. Write down all possible solutions to those issues, in each category. If there isn't a solution, that's fine, because there is the...

3) Dream board. Write down all dreams, however unrealistic. What is the ideal life I would live, if nothing could hold me back? Whereas the problem board focuses on the totally negative, the dream board focuses on the purely positive.

4) Do it board, or 'action board'. Write down all realistic steps toward accomplishing the solutions and dreams. This is the most important one. This is what I do my actual work from. "God helps those who help themselves."

5) If-then board. Write down options for if the actions fail, what your plan B or C will be.

I think pretty much no goal can escape from this process...

 

I also do the thing where you go over how the day went, and ask specific pointed questions...with the intention to improve character from doing some reflection.

 

Along the same lines, I have contemplation where I write out the ideal person that I want to be. Similar to a vision board, but only for character.

 

I do a little bit of law of attraction work...where if I have a "dream" of something I want in life, I will write down about imagining it being reality already. Focusing on the feelings of already having it...such as "it feels great, I am so blessed" etc. Making it a very positive feeling can at times make it happen in life.

 

Basically...writing things down is a process of turning chaos into order. Life will start to flow much more smoothly for people that do it. It worked for me.

 

(I should keep a journal that I date, and keep. I tend to erase all things. But I think keeping it may help cultivate memory, or at least a better sense of the past, which would be good for me)

 

Thanks Turtle! That was a fantastic and extremely helpful post! I love the idea of different boards. I find that I am much more at peace when my life is organized. When I am writing down thoughts and trying to sort out my characters progress I am much clearer and more successful in my endeavors.

I just turned 25 yesterday, and I just feel that the time has come for me to really get my life together and organized. I am aiming to really work on raising my level of self awareness and actually put the action for the change necessary to where I want to be. Anyways, awesome and inspiring post!

 

Love and light, Mateo

[Lotus7]

Hey all! Great replies! Turned out to e a pretty great thread so far! A lot of really great ideas!

 

There was something that someone mentioned about recording dreams in a journal. I have heard of this practice before, however never really understood the significance of this. I get that dreams are deeply rooted in the subconscious, which is directly affected by our daily thoughts and experiences; but other than a select few "interesting dreams" mine tend to be extremely random and about nothing in particular. Any thoughts?

 

I am beginning step 1 in IIH in the morning and am so looking forward to it!!! It has been a long time coming, and like I said in a previous post, I have been drawn to it time and time again. I plan on keeping a journal (or journals) specific to my hermetic practice. That is kind of why I started this thread in the first place, just to get some feedback on how you all approach your writing.

 

Thanks again and let's keep this going!!

 

Love and light, Mateo

[RiverSnake]

Deleted post.

Edited March 30, 2014 by OldChi

[silent thunder]

I keep a practice journal and a dream journal.

in yoda voice: much help they have been.

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

A very good thread with great advice.

 

Thanks guys, it made me reflect!

 

Now every Word be Magic Spell.

...

[liminal_luke]

Saying something negative about journaling is the taobums equivilent of hating kittens but here goes.

 

Writing about spiritual experience can engage the analytical mind prematurely. Attempt to nail down misty alchemical processes with a relatively clumsy tool like language and a fragile process bubbling beneath the surface might short-circuit.

 

Another pitfall. Using journaling to reinforce our ego as a cultivator, at the expense of the cultivation. I look back at my record and think, "hey, look what a good meditator I am." That's not all bad, of course. There's a place for legitimate pride. But we can cultivate for the kudos (even just the ones we give ourselves) rather than for the sheer joy of the practice itself.

 

Ah, who am I kidding--I love journaling.

 

Liminal

Edited April 5, 2014 by liminal_luke

[silent thunder]

Saying something negative about journaling is the taobums equivilent of hating kittens but here goes.

 

Writing about spiritual experience can engage the analytical mind prematurely. Attempt to nail down misty alchemical processes with a relatively clumsy tool like language and a fragile process bubbling beneath the surface might short-circuit.

 

Another pitfall. Using journaling to reinforce our ego as a cultivator, at the expense of the cultivation. I look back at my record and think, "hey, look what a good meditator I am." That's not all bad, of course. There's a place for legitimate pride. But we can cultivate for the kudos (even just the ones we give ourselves) rather than for the sheer joy of the practice itself.

 

Ah, who am I kidding--I love journaling.

 

Liminal

I love this post.

 

I engage in internal contradiction daily. Externally too incidentally.