MEDITATION'S GREAT, BUT...
I’ll be honest: I suck at meditating. At first, it didn’t seem like something to lose sleep over, but as I continued to hear about the benefits of meditation everywhere from my therapist’s office to the mid-pitch banter of the glamorous execs on Shark Tank, I began to wonder if it might actually be more than just a trend.
Sure, I got a little bit better at meditation as I began to practice, but it still just felt so unnatural to my messy brain that I simply never felt up to the task. Before long, I came to see my struggle with meditation as more proof that I was lazy and hopeless.
If you, like me, have trouble meditating, I’ve got good news. Yes, I wish I could give you the vindication of reporting that meditation is a scam, but the benefits of meditation are very real and scientifically verified.
However, psychotherapeutic research into these benefits has found that the transformation involved stems from the development of mindfulness and emotional regulation. Meditation is simply the traditional tool used to develop a mindful lifestyle. There are other ways to build mindfulness, though.
If you struggle with meditation, you need to know about the power of journaling for mindfulness. Simply writing out your thoughts is a much more transformative process than our notions of “journaling” reflect.
In fact, even if you love meditation, it’s absolutely worth experimenting with this alternative tool. Supplement your meditative practice or replace it outright. Anyone can benefit from trying different methods to cultivate mindfulness.
WHAT IS MINDFULNESS?
From a Western perspective, it’s easy to think of mindfulness and meditation as New Age buzzwords. But mindfulness practice is much bigger and far older than that.
Amy Leonard’s overview of the history and migrations of mindfulness concepts traces these practices even farther back than the Buddhist teachings that are commonly believed to be their original source. Early Hindu scripture proves that meditation predates Buddhism, but the spiritual practices spreading throughout the West are most likely transmitted to us by way of the Zen tradition within Buddhism. Take the concept of sati:
Sati is a Pali word that means the “moment to moment awareness of present events” but also “remembering to be aware of something,” which comes directly from Buddhist theory. The closest equivalent we have in English is mindfulness. Sati is not just an aspect of Buddhism but a core faculty that forms an essential part of the entire religion; it is the first of seven steps towards enlightenment. [Read more]
Like it or not, the value of cultivating a mindful lifestyle is by now well enshrined in the annals of Western culture’s appropriated beliefs. Learning for yourself what it really means to live mindfully, you can see why this concept is just too helpful for any border to contain it.
Today, mindfulness is largely regarded as a skill that anyone can cultivate to become more adaptable to environmental changes and emotional stimuli. It seems that anyone can become more mindful by exercising control over their attention and creating space between the circumstances and ideas they encounter and the way they choose to respond.
HOW CAN MEDITATIVE JOURNALING HELP?
Although meditation may fall in line with the traditional practice of sati and enjoy an unrivaled primacy among mindfulness techniques, it may not be for everyone. As with most skills, there may be many other ways to skin the cat. If you struggle with meditation, one alternative you might try is developing a practice of journaling for mindfulness.
In her resource on “empowerment journaling,” Cultural Studies researcher Shelly Harrell claims that “journaling allows you to process your experiences, thoughts, and feelings so that you can emerge strengthened with increased clarity and positive feelings about yourself and your purpose.”
That clarity and that purpose come from the reflectiveness of journaling. By stringing our thoughts together with words and binding them to the journal page, we turn the unidentified thoughts we would otherwise act out into something visible and inter-active.
To some, journaling may seem just as dull as meditation, or else a form of navel-gazing best suited to the overly romantic diary confessions of young girls. But is it possible those girls are on to something? The disclosure of the private recesses of the emotional mind within the sealed confessions of a journal is empowering indeed.
In technical terms, emotional disclosure is a psychotherapeutic concept that has often been linked with improvements in physical health and alleviation of stress symptoms. It is this disclosure that makes writing such a powerful therapeutic tool. For decades, researchers have been documenting the transformative effects of structured uses of writing—termed expressive writing or therapeutic writing.
If you’ve ever struggled with anxiety or depression, or have ever felt the relief of being unburdened by confession, you can probably understand how the concealment of emotions or thoughts could lead to stress. Considering that all matters of stress are matters of physical health, it’s almost strange that the power of writing therapy hasn’t penetrated the mainstream of our discourse on how we care for our bodies.
So, can we harness this cathartic potential of writing to build mindfulness? Yes, we can! What’s more, those of us who have trouble meditating might find some precious joy in letting the stream of consciousness guide us to our goal instead of fighting it the whole way there. That’s not to say that meditation isn’t an effective technique, or that it might not be a useful tool for you. Rather, I think we can greatly benefit from a model that values journaling as a form of meditation in its own right.
Expressive writing builds mindfulness over time by converting our thoughts into a form we can recognize as external to our essential selves. Reflecting on our words, we grow to see our thoughts as something we must consciously choose to hold. Something in service of which we are using our bodies.
According to John Teasdale and Michael Chaskalson’s investigation of mindfulness and suffering, the cognitive benefits of mindfulness can be understood in terms of the Interactive Cognitive Subsystems (ICS) perspective, which explains how we process meaning in our lives by shifting between two cognitive modes. These modes are propositional meaning—“the kind of straightforward explicit, factual, conceptual, or literal meaning conveyed by a single sentence”—and implicational meaning. The latter cannot be directly articulated, so instead we understand these meanings by recognizing patterns and categorizing them with associated themes and sensory details.
Teasdale and Chaskalson’s model explains how mindfulness reduces suffering by strengthening the objective propositional mode to cope with bodily experiences of negative emotion. The more subjective implicational mode, on the other hand, tries to tie those same in-the-moment sensations back to the patterned, generalized concepts which represent our problems in our mind. This turns our experience of dissatisfaction or of suffering into a timeless, pervasive force we can only understand in vague terms.
Meditation and journaling both facilitate a shift from feeling to being (albeit in very different forms). Meditative practice works more through directing attention to the bodily sensations that can replace implicational rumination, while journaling uses thought recording to create a space where implicational meanings can be revisited more impartially. Consistent practice of either can instill mindfulness by forcing the interrogation of thoughts, feelings, and recognized patterns as a crucial part of how we interact with thought in general.
HEALTH BENEFITS OF JOURNALING
The beauty of journaling is not just theoretical. One thing is clear: the health benefits of this therapeutic practice are wide in range. Expressive writing and journaling have been shown to dramatically improve attitudes and impact depression and anxiety symptoms, but perhaps more surprising is a trend in the research suggesting that these effects can extend to physical symptoms—even in cancer patients!
It may sound magical, but it goes to show the impact that emotions and stress can have in exacerbating bodily afflictions. Of course, journaling is never going to replace medical or psychotherapeutic treatment, but individuals who practice journaling to build mindfulness can increase their health holistically.
8 TIPS FOR STARTING A JOURNAL FOR MINDFULNESS
The best thing you can do to make journaling a habit you enjoy as well as benefit from is to get creative finding a structure that works for you. Don’t be afraid to experiment, spend some time hunting down the perfect tools, and/or completely redefine what “journaling” looks like. Remember that your mind works in a way that’s unique to you, which makes you the expert on your own process. If you can think of a way you might introduce a more natural connection between your mind and the page, it’s probably worth a shot.
1. START WITH AN INTENTION
There’s no freedom like that of a blank page, but there’s also few things as intimidating. Deciding for yourself what kind of exploration or perspective you’d like to get out of a journaling session can free you to experiment with shifting your attention.
Once your mind is flowing out to the page there’s no telling where it will take you, but a set intention makes it easy to pause any time you find yourself on an unhelpful tangent. Returning to your intention, you can easily reevaluate and approach the issue again from a different angle if needed.
2. FOLLOW THE STREAM
Leaning into spontaneity and recording your thought process in all its unedited glory may not yield the best writing you’ve ever seen, but it’s a powerful tool for revealing the connections and assumptions you didn’t realize were shaping your thinking.
It might be helpful to think of writing through the lens of talking. Think of your journal pages as the world’s best listener: eager to understand and absolutely unwilling to judge. Then, simply open up and let the flow of “conversation” take over.
3. MIND MAPPING
Tony Buzan’s concept of the mind map is an amazing tool to help you think more freely. This great post from art-is-fun.com gives a really simple run-down of the mind-mapping process and its potential for self-development, as well as how creative you can get with it.
4. THOUGHT CAPSULE
Let’s be honest. Most of the time we don’t enjoy seeing ourselves as we really are. It’s not fun, but that’s certainly no reason to avoid it. A sealed private diary can be used like a time capsule where you can dump your thoughts, comfortable in the knowledge that no one else will see them and you won’t have to reflect on them until you’re good and ready. Sometimes, processing a thought requires you first to allow it to reach its end.
5. MAKE IT A VISUAL JOURNAL
Although studies have shown the use of therapeutic writing to be more transformational than other forms of journaling, it’s not the only way to journal. In this Yale study, Judith Pizarro found that “individuals who lack the skills to communicate through writing, or are uncomfortable about verbal expression, may be encouraged to disclose by first engaging in an art project about their stressful or traumatic experience.”
Pizarro concludes that pairing visual journaling with “the organization of thought provided by writing” is necessary to fully process and benefit from these confrontations. An unlined journal or a sketchbook allows you complete freedom to use both visual and verbal expression in whatever combination feels most natural to you.
6. RECORD ABSTRACT THOUGHTS WITH MANDALA MEDITATION
A structure that can help you to incorporate visual expression into your journal is that of the mandala, another cultural import that can help with mindfulness. Psychotherapeutic researcher Kathleen Quinn explains that the Sanskrit word mandala describes a circle representing universal wholeness.
Quinn’s study of mandala art details a method of thought recording that uses meditative art and the circle’s radial structure to find centrality in unconsciously associated imagery as a basis for reflection.
7. GROUND AND WRITE IT DOWN
It’s important to remember that writing and ideas are powerful, but in and of themselves are not usually enough to change behavior. Rather, the goal of productive journaling should be to teach your body how to better harmonize with your mind. You can better acquaint your thinking self and your acting self by training your attention.
Try supplementing your journal work with somatic grounding practices like breath meditation, chakra alignment, or self-massage. Switch whenever it feels right to do so, alternating your focus between body and mind, then back again when you’re ready. Check out this free resource from Carmelle LeMaistre for a wealth of somatic grounding examples.
8. GET OFF THE RAILS
If your thoughts are especially disorganized, you may find you get more out of trying to subvert them than following them. Challenge yourself to tackle thoughts your mind isn’t used to, or use journal prompts to direct your thoughts somewhere you wouldn’t otherwise go.
You’ll find no shortage of these kinds of journaling tools, either on the web or on the shelves at your local bookstore. Check out these links for some compelling prompts that can get you started:
TAP INTO YOUR POWER
In my own life, journaling has repeatedly provided an easy and creative process to guide me from periods of “stuckness” or inhibitingly vague feeling to honest self-reflection and the implementation of new, more productively energizing perspectives. I credit this outlet for a great deal of the progress I’ve made overcoming the negative behavioral patterns caused by my depression and anxiety, and for giving me a sense of power over my own life I once thought I would never have.
Remember, a truly liberating journaling practice isn’t about filling the page or meeting requirements. It’s about cultivating mindfulness. It’s a research-backed concept with the potential to guide you through reducing the power that thoughts, feelings, and circumstances hold over you. So, ask yourself: when these tools are available at the low cost of a pen and some paper, can you afford not to try?
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