5 Reasons You Should Keep a Meditation Journal

Meditation is becoming a necessary survival skill in this busy, distracting world. Every day, there are thousands of distractions trying to tear our awareness away from the present moment.

Meditation is important, yet it can be hard to tell if it’s working. That’s why a meditation journal is so important to stay engaged with our mindfulness practices.

If you’re new to the practice of keeping a meditation journal or just looking to make the most of your mindfulness memoirs, here are are a few pointers to keep in mind.

Reasons To Keep A Meditation Journal

Keeping a journal around your meditation practice might seem a bit counter-intuitive. Isn’t meditation all about remaining unattached to outcomes and ideas? That might be true, but that doesn’t mean we don’t notice things.

If you’re looking for a notebook for a meditation journal, consider this all-weather notebook.

Reason #1: Remember Beginner’s Mind

A spiritual ego is one of the greatest dangers for the meditation practitioner. It takes all of our efforts towards dismantling our ego and just builds a different ego. Which is much harder to even notice, let alone dismantle.

It’s easy to feel like you’re improving at meditation. You can improve at anything if you do it enough. Meditation isn’t really about improvement, however. It’s about recognizing where you are and disengaging from your thoughts.

Re-reading your journal will remind you of your journey and all the steps along the way. Humility becomes ingrained when you remember your first meditation sessions.

Reason #2: Transcend Thoughts And Emotions

It’s so easy to get caught up in the powerful feelings we experience while meditating. Some early childhood memory might rise to the surface out of nowhere, bringing powerful emotions in its wake.

It’s so easy to get blindsided by these experiences that we don’t notice larger patterns at work. Writing them all down makes them more obvious, upon later re-examination.

Reason #3: Evaluate Your Technique

You might consider your journal as a scientific report of your inner consciousness. You’ll notate the outcomes, but you’ll also examine the physical components of your meditation sessions.

Simply noting that certain sitting positions are uncomfortable can offer insights into obstacles you might stumble over on your journey.

Reason #4: Meditation Journals Are Motivational

Meditating every day is the easiest way to reap the maximal rewards of mindfulness. Like any exercise, meditating every day is difficult even though it feels so good.

It’s like the memory of the euphoria of letting go of lifelong complexes fades away quickly, leaving only the memory of aching muscles and uncomfortable psychological truths.

Reason #5: Encourages Honesty

Meditation is not about becoming perfect. It’s about becoming your most authentic self. It can be tempting to highlight all of our most noble traits, after meditating for a while. We can start to see ourselves as saints and sages.

But what about all of the uncomfortable truths that come to light during meditation? While we might not broadcast them to our friends and neighbors, it’s important to be honest with ourselves. Otherwise, you run the risk of simply building a new spiritual ego.

Meditation journals help us to make sense of the streams of words, thoughts, and impressions that flood our minds and hearts during meditation. Don’t grasp for thoughts and ideas. Simply jot down your impressions at the end of each session. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to be real.

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