When Meditation Isn’t Working, Try Journaling to Stay Sane.
I’m always looking for ways to counteract my future-oriented Type A tendencies that make me a tangle of stress. They say try meditation. I tried to sit still, not focusing on anything, and think about not thinking. I succeeded, but the real breakthrough came when I started keeping a diary.
Until a couple of months ago, I always thought of magazines as something to laugh at as a teenager. But in fact, pen and paper writing has become a powerful therapeutic intervention to help me stay sane, grateful, and grounded in my “always on” life. The meditative effects were primarily twofold.
First, my journaling is a free form of creative expression where I can write whatever I want and no one else can judge me. This is especially liberating because 99% of what I write is seen by others and thus filtered. But when I keep a diary, I can write about everything . I can be extremely selfish and unflappable, which makes me write down all my worries, stress, fears, and any other unpleasant thoughts that pop into my head.
Painstaking writing of these thoughts on paper led to many revelations that I would not have come to if I had just sat and pondered over them. The second benefit sounds more meditative. By journaling, I feel fully present in the moment, fascinated by the repetitive movements of my pen and watching my thoughts materialize on paper. This is very different from when I write words on my laptop. It’s just relaxing.
If you do decide to try your hand at journaling, it is important to give up any notions of being “perfect” in this regard. I know people who have spent too much money on pens and notebooks, but they have blank pages. If you like premium pen and paper then this is cool. I’m fine with a notebook from a store that sells Japanese dollars and a good enough pen. Just remember to write.
And don’t get too hung up on what to write about . Lots of random thoughts come to my mind throughout the day, but usually one resonates deeper than the other. I used to let these thoughts languish and end up on the air, but now I spend 20-30 minutes pronouncing them and just writing – there shouldn’t even be any conclusions or conclusions here! This is the great thing about it. In addition to catharsis, you learn to become more aware of how certain things make you feel and why.
It’s never too late to keep a diary. And I say this after so many years of writing.