Recording the journey: the importance of keeping a journal on the spiritual path
July 2nd, 2008 by Kavi
One of the most important spiritual practices is the keeping of a personal journal. Yes, keeping a journal is a spiritual practice! I will be honest, it’s something that up until now I haven’t payed proper attention to. I only just recently made the commitment to start journalling, and it is one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. I am kicking myself for not beginning sooner, as so much has happened in the past 7 years.
Keeping a journal can help you to:
- see how you’ve grown
- document important spiritual experiences (no matter how good you think your memory is, you won’t be able to remember every detail ten years from now)
- sort out your true feelings about something (helps you be honest with yourself)
- reveal patterns about yourself and your life
- uncover your fears
- improve your writing
- improve dream recall (if you keep a dream journal, which I highly suggest)
If you don’t already have a journal, I suggest starting one today. It doesn’t matter how you do it, just do it. Use a pencil and a notebook or open up a word processor. If you are using Mac OS X I recommend the program MacJournal. It’s a great journal app and it also can be used to post blog entries (I’m writing this entry in MacJournal right now).
The other day I came across a hand written journal I started keeping when I was 17 or 18. The first entry documented one of my first kundalini experiences and most of the other entries were of dreams and out-of-body experiences I was having at the time. It was fascinating to read over these experiences from the point of view of who I was back then, but after a few pages I noticed that the entries became spaced further and further apart in time, and then all of a sudden they just stopped. This was a bit of a disappointment, and I couldn’t help but wonder what I had forgotten since then.
A little while ago when I sat down to write my first journal entry in a long time, I hesitated for a brief moment, then it was as if a torrent was unleashed. I wrote non-stop for twenty minutes and was amazed at what came out. Stuff I didn’t even realize was lurking inside me came out onto the screen for me to examine.
A Note About Dream Journals
One of the most important things you could possibly journal are your dreams; they are a direct window to what is going on in your subconscious. If you want to improve your dream recall and/or experiment with lucid dreaming, starting a dream journal is the best thing you can do.
When you wake up from sleep don’t immediately drift into mundane thoughts of the physical realm (i.e. what am I going to wear today?). Just lay there and think back to what you were last doing. Once you’ve tuned into your dream memory, work backwards through the dreams, like following a trail of bread crumbs. Write in your journal as you go, or speak into a recording device and write it down later.
Resist the temptation to get up and do something else before recording your dreams. The memories may seem quite solid as you lay in bed, but if you get up and immediately pre-occupy yourself with other things they are not likely to stay intact.
Someone famous worth mentioning who insisted on keeping a dream journal was Robert A. Monroe. He recorded all of his out-of-body experiences and dreams. His journals later became the foundation of several classic books on the subject.
