JOURNAL
Mindfulness Meditation Journal
EXERCISE: Keeping a Mindfulness Practice Journal
A good way for the spirit of your practice to show up more often in daily life is to simply journal your daily experiences with it. If you can, it is a good idea to have a dedicated notebook and pen to keep right next to where you do sitting meditation practice. That way you never have to go looking for it.
End your practice and note what your experience was like. This could take the form of your standard journal entry, a poem, possibly a haiku, or even a drawing that sums up what today’s session was like. Later, we will map out the parts we meet in parts work meditation. For now, establish the brief and simple habit of tracking your experience. Just a couple of minutes can go a long way.
In addition to deepening integration in the moments after your meditation practice, it can be powerful down the road to pick up that notebook and see all your writing in it. Even if you never read your notes again, you have concrete evidence of how you’ve been showing up and investing in yourself.
Some things it might be good to keep track of:
- Positive emotions that arose in your practice like calm and spaciousness, even if they were only there for a split second
- Sensations you noticed in the body, including the new ones you’ll discover as your awareness refines
- Insights and little “light-bulb moments” that dawned
- Small victories, like treating yourself with kindness and mercy
- Questions about the practice or your experiences you’d like to ask a teacher about
Keep it light and, whatever you do, just keep going with it.