In May, 2008, I launch my Meditation Portal three month course. I’m asking those taking the course, and other readers of the blog, to begin journaling about your experience and if you like, to post any comments here that you would like to share with others. You can begin simply by keeping some private notes to yourself about your meditation experiences.

In your journal, you can write about how you’ve incorporated what you learn while you practice meditation and listen to the meditation MP3s. Write about how different you may feel, about your practice, your life. Journal about how different things might be had you not even begun the course and started developing your practice or deepening it.

Even if you aren’t able to journal every day, the fact that you are meditating and learning something new each week can be noted in some way to give you sign posts, to help you measure how far you feel you’ve come, or how much the scenery has changed even if you feel you have gone only a few steps forward. Only you can know this.

I will tell you this: when you begin this journey of the contemplative life, you get insights that, if you don’t capture them, can be gone forever. Spirit talks, you listen. Find a way to preserve what may prove valuable on your spiritual journey.

You may experience some inner changes and your outer life may even begin to change, subtly or in more noticeable ways. This is all natural, part of your personal growth. It is also why I suggest keeping a journal; it could be helpful to note the changes and spiritual experiences you may experience on your journey. Keep these to yourself to remind you of the insights you receive.

I hope by now you’ve realized the benefit of regular spiritual journaling. Even if it’s simply keeping a log with the date, just jotting down the meditation practices you’re engaging in that day gives you a place to go back and add whatever comes to you. Sometimes you jump-start your practice with a simple list of things you’re grateful for, then add anything that comes to mind. It doesn’t even need to be more than simple changes in your perspective about life.

Your inner realizations, and communicating them to yourself by journaling them, can really reinforce what you acknowledge about the inner beauty your meditative life brings you. You may always have had a sense of this. It may be that your re-dedication to your spiritual practice intensifies your recognition of these deep inner things.

In any case, do cherish the “now”, and then later in future moments of reverie look “back” at your life through these journal entries. You may begin to relish how special even the most ordinary time can be in your life–in light of your new meditative practice.

If you are in the course, you are not be required to turn these notes in to me or anyone, they are for you. But here on this blog you, those taking my 3-month Meditation Portal course or meditating with my retreats or other classes, or those meditating on your own or elsewhere, can equally share here. Let us know whatever you care to share about your experience either with meditation or your journaling experience.

For instance, in the audio album Lifelines: How Personal Writing Can Save Your Life, Christina Baldwin speaks about a journaling technique she calls “Godalogues”, which is a powerful way to speak to and receive guidance from the divine. I have used and teach a similar method in some of my live meditation teleconference classes.

Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., also speaks about journaling among other techniques, including poetry, ritual, waking dream, and meditation, on her album, A Woman’s Spiritual Retreat. I recommend both albums for those serious about developing this line of communication with the divine.

You may have similar experiences or techniques that you discover in using journaling to capture the guidance you receive in meditation. I’d love to hear about them!