The Meditation Journal: What it is, Why, and How to keep one

One of the most beneficial things that you can do for yourself is to keep a journal of your work, whether for meditation, pathworkings, divination, or a whole host of other things, keeping a journal of what your experiences are and what you did or were told, will benefit you for years to come. I’ve only just started to realize it’s potential for this as I have just started a really serious meditation regimen since meeting my own higher self. On a side note, just to show you how nutty my higher self can be, while at work (yes I do have a day job) right as I finished writing that last sentence I received a call (I work in a tech support call center) from a woman whose name matches one of the guides I had met in meditation. Coincidence? Possibly, but not likely as earlier today I was wondering what I should meditate about for today’s session. My higher self just provided me with that answer, however it does show the value of keeping a journal.

What if I didn’t happen to write down that meditation? Would I have still recognized the name? I may have, but I don’t have the best memory so I probably would not of remembered the name. The very act of writing it down however solidified, or at least made a marker in my mind for that particular name. The importance for journaling comes when you go back and review what has transpired in the past week, month, and year. It gives a rather surprising overview of where you have been and allows you to make striking links to where you currently are. I can not count on one hand how many times I’ve gone back and reviewed a meditation only to have a duh moment where I realize the answer to a problem that I had been having was right there in an old meditation. It’s quite frustrating sometimes.

At any rate, that brings us to how to actually keep a meditation journal. One of the easiest and cheapest ways is to use a notebook and pen, just like a dairy. Other means are to use a voice recorder or cell phone to record your commentary, though that is much more suited to dreams and channeling than anything else. I find that an electronic journal is the best as it allows you to arrange your journal how you want and gives you the ability and flexibility to do a search to bring up multiple entries on a particular search term such as looking for all entries with the term “donuts” in them. Also, electronic journals allow you to sort entries based on date, which is very useful in and of itself. I use the software package called The Journal produced by DavidRM. It costs $39.95 US dollars (at the time of this writing) for the basic edition all the way up to $109.95 US dollars (at the time of this writing) for the complete edition which includes some snazzy templates. You can also buy the templates as a separate package. He also provides a try before you buy download (that’s what hooked me) if you want to try it out.

I didn’t need all the bells and whistles so I went with the basic edition and have created my own templates. There are other programs like Microsoft OneNote that is part of the Microsoft Office 2007 suite, or you could even use Google Documents as your electronic journal. Either way you go, I do find that a good idea is to make sure that you print out the entries so you have a hard copy on hand. That way if you have a computer problem, you’ll know that your journal is safe and sound.

Now, I organize my journal based on a categorical and chronological system. In The Journal you can make tabs so I have a tab that is called meditation. Here the entries are broken down and organized by year, month and day. As I mentioned above I have my own template that I use to make it easier to remind me of what information I want to record. It goes without saying that you can simply write this out on your notebook in advance rather than use a template. Some good information to record would be:

• A title
• The phase of the moon
• The place you meditated
• The time of day
• The description of the meditation
• Any commentary, notes, or observations you made

The title is often overlooked but is a good way to make the meditation stick in your memory as well as to make it easier to figure out what the meditation was all about. For example, in my meditation log I have a meditation called The Library of Alexandria. It should come as no shock to anyone that the meditation was about the lost library of Alexandria and not a chicken named Sam. The phase of the moon is also important as it will allow you to see when you have strong meditations or weak ones and will allow you to pick out patterns after a few months of charting. Not to mention that esoteric things, like meditation, are often affected by the phase the moon is in. The place you meditated is also a good thing to record as it allows you to see how different locations influence the strength of a meditation. It is quite interesting to note however, that you can meditate while walking or even while in the shower. You don’t have to be sitting down and going “ohm” to have a good meditation.

The time of day is also important as this will allow you to figure out what time is ideal for you to meditate at and when you are at your best. If you are just starting out with meditation though, it is best to pick a time when you will not be disturbed and stick to it. For me this happens to be at night after I take my shower but you should choose what works best for you. The description is self explanatory. This is the bulk of the meditation. The ‘what you did’ and ‘what happened to you’ part and the reason for keeping the journal in the first place. And finely, you want to add a space that you can add any thoughts on the meditation when you go back and review it at another time. Any revelations and such would be recorded there as well.

So that, as they say, is that. Is there anything else that you like to keep in your journal that I didn’t mention? Have a nifty trick to journaling that you want to share? Go ahead and leave a comment below, inquiring minds want to know!

)O(