Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Journaling Series Finale

Tags

Benefits, C.S. Lewis, Daily reflection, Dreams, Exercise Journal, Gratitude, journaling, Nutrition Journal

“But what am I to do? I must have some drug, and reading isn’t a strong enough drug now.” —C.S. Lewis, writing about journaling after his wife died in A Grief Observed

Dear reader,

I was looking through my blog this morning and discovered that I forgot to wrap up my Journaling series. If there was one piece of advice I could pass on to others, it would be this: Start journaling. Journaling allows us to communicate with ourselves. It allows us to air out our problems and be totally open without having to pretend or act a different way. You get to talk to yourself as yourself.

As I mentioned in my Journaling series, there are plenty of journals, even ones that I did not address. I only wanted to address the journaling that I do, not cover types of journals that I do not have experience with.

As promised, I also wanted to provide you with the ritual I associate with my personal journaling. My ritual for journaling involves two time periods. The morning is for my dream journal and gratitude journal. I enjoy recording my dreams. I have found that the more time I put into my dream journal the more memorable my dreams are. They are not like this all the time, but the detail and my recall have improved over time. My gratitude journal is used just for that—to record all the things I am grateful for.

I use the evening to reflect on my day. I call this my daily reflection. My daily reflection is more like a diary. I record the events of the day. I also have conversations with myself about things that are troubling me, things that I’m thinking about, and even the problems I’m trying to work through.

I also log my food into an app called My Fitness Pal and my exercises into another app called Body Space. The app I use for my gratitude, dream, and daily reflection journals is called Diaro (www.diaro.com).

Look around the web and for “benefits of journaling” and you’ll find an endless list of good things that come to those of us that journal. The benefits that I derive from journaling is the ability to get things out of my head. Sometimes when I’m writing in my journals I get impressions or ideas. These ideas help me solve a problem or provide an answer to a question. Sometimes these impressions point me in a direction to learn something or give me a nudge to act in some way.

One question I’ve wondered about. Should a journal be handwritten or typed? I’ve been torn between the two but settled on typed. I cannot read my own handwriting. This is the reason. I like to go back through my journaling and dreams and read them. It is amazing how much transpires in our lives that we forget about a few months later. It is also a great way to remember great things that happened during the day. I always discuss things that have happened as a sort of record of my life. I think it would be nice to pass down to my relatives once I’m gone.

A journal is your own biography. It tells a story about your feelings, your dreams, the people you’ve loved, your fears, and your happy times. It is your history.

Journaling has been one of the best decisions I have ever made and committed to. Honestly, there are some days I just don’t want to have anything to do with journaling and those days the entries are pretty short, but there are other days when I have a lot to talk about and fill a few pages.

In some respects, even this blog is a journal. The content I contribute to this community is from me. It is mine, but it is tempered. There are things I would never put on my blog. Those things are reserved for my journal.

I used C.S Lewis’ quote because he used his journal to get through the death of his wife. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. A journal can be that “ear” when you need one. It can be a very healing process. I have used my journal during some tough times and it helps—it really does.

Well, this is the end of my journaling series. I hope you had a chance to read through my other entries. I also hope that this series influences you to begin your own journaling practice. You won’t be disappointed.

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Journal Series – The Nutrition or Eating Journal

Tags

Diet, journaling, nutrition, Nutrition apps

The Nutrition or Eating Journal

This journal is a great one if you are using it in conjunction with an exercise journal. Why? Because most of us are exercising to trim our waste lines and feel better. If you are into bodybuilding, you’ll probably want to be tracking your macros. Macros are literally composed of three items: protein, carbohydrates, and healthy fats. If you are not tracking macros, you may only be tracking calories. Either way, you’ll record what you ate, and the macros or calories in the food you just ate.

This is a tough discipline. Writing down every single thing you eat takes a bit of practice because we are not used to it. It is really important though, particularly if you have a specific goal you want to achieve. When you know what you are putting into your body it follows that you can adjust what you are eating to either continue moving in the direction you are striving for or change up your food intake to curb a disturbing trend.

This has become such a popular idea that there are numerous apps and websites that support this type of activity. The list is too long to give here, but if you search the Google, Apple, Amazon, or Windows app stores you are sure to find one that works well for your lifestyle and needs at a minimal expense. These apps all have calorie and macro counting capability built in, so it makes it much easier than manually looking up all of the foods you are eating each time you are putting it into your journal.

Once you know what you’re allowed to eat, simply add food items to your journal as you go through your day, and then monitor how close you are to your daily goals. If you fail to achieve the results you want, you merely adjust. If you are using a specific diet, you’ll no doubt have access to troubleshooting, which will be provided by the plan’s book, website, or app.

You can also write down things that you are feeling with your diet. Things like, “Boy, I’m hungry” or “that was an awesome meal”. Any of these things will be excellent later on as you review your progress and remember those days you were really hungry and stuck with your diet anyway or fell off the wagon. The key is to find your own specific pulse. Once you know where your weaknesses are, you’ll be likely to avoid those times you are particularly weak with friends who love to eat. You’ll also develop some strategies to curb those cravings or compensate for them.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. I’m not a dieting expert but can point you in the right direction if you need some help.

Until next week…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Journal Series – The Planning Journal

Tags

journaling, Planning, Productivity

The Planning Journal

This week’s posting will discuss the planning journal. You’re probably asking yourself, what is that? Well, Davis (2007) describes the planning journal as a place to brainstorm, to outline, to list out, or any process or tool you use to figure out how you are going to accomplish something or capture ideas about what you are going to do in the upcoming week, month, or year.

I don’t keep a planning journal but do go through these steps when I am looking at tackling a project. The steps I use are what David Allen (2015) calls the “Natural Planning Model” (p.60). Here’s what it looks like:

1. Defining purpose and principles
2. Outcome visioning
3. Brainstorming
4. Organizing
5. Identifying next actions

Defining purpose and principles is about deciding what you want to do and why you are doing it. Outcome visioning is what you see as the “product” of your efforts. Brainstorming is when you list out as many ideas about how you will accomplish something without judging them. Organizing is when we go through all our ideas, group them together, and get rid of the things we brainstormed that won’t work. Once we’re organized and all the tasks we have in our project are put into a defined order of items to accomplish we can identify what to start with first or what is called the next action.

It’s hard to brainstorm, organize, and put all of this together without having something to write in or on. I like using an app called Toodledo, which has a list and outline function. You can use pen and paper in your journal. In the list section, I brainstorm. I literally try to capture anything and everything I will need to do to get something done. This is important for research papers, complicated projects, and writing books, articles, or blog posts. I try to capture anything and everything I will need to do and just list it out in whatever order the ideas come to me. Once I’m done with that, I organize by putting them in an outline, putting these ideas into an order of execution. Then you can take your outline with your ordered tasks and put them on your to-do list or your productivity tool.

You can also write down the things you want or need to do. Maybe you must get a birthday gift for someone. You can brainstorm and research what items you think they need and start getting prices and stores that have these items. Maybe you are looking to begin going to the gym. You can flesh out your ideas on how to get started. Maybe you want to take a vacation or trip or maybe begin working on establishing a new habit you believe will be beneficial.

Anything can go in your planning journal that has to do with ideas, upcoming tasks, projects to accomplish, big projects, anything. Have fun with this idea. One other thing. A planning journal can track your process of idea generation, brainstorming, and ideas of what you’d like to do. It is a great place just to put all of those random ideas that pop into your head about what you might want to do like to do or need to do. It is a great tool to look back at and see where you were and where you have come.

One other best-practice I’d like to introduce you to is the idea of time stamping everything you put into a journal. This way it’s easier to see your growth in action. You can see what you were thinking about in a given period. I’ll pass on all my best-practices in my final article in this journaling series.

I hope this was helpful. Feel free to pass along any ideas you have here if you’d like.

Until next time…

Dave

References

Allen, D. (2015). Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Davis, K. (2007). 15 types of journals to keep. Retrieved from https://www.darktea.co.uk/blog/15-different-types-of-journals-to-keep

 

Weekly Ramblings – Journal Series – Exercise Journal

Tags

Exercise Journal, journaling, Setting Goals, tracking progress

The Exercise Journal

Hello, readers!

This week we’ll discuss the exercise journal. The exercise journal is nothing more than tracking what you do when you work out. This is an important facet of any exercise program, because it is crucial that you track what you are doing in the gym. It is equally important to set goals to strive for, so your body continues to improve.

What to track

If you are lifting weights you’ll want to track the exercise, the weight you are lifting, and the number of repetitions you accomplish for each set. The nomenclature for this is simple. It looks like this:

Bench Press 20 x 100lbs; 15 x 120lbs; 10 x 150lbs; 7 x 200lbs

If you are doing cardio, you could track your progress like this:

Treadmill 25 minutes, Hill Program, Level 3

What about goals?

Let’s say you’ve been lifting weights and doing cardio for a few weeks. Now you want to set some goals—something to work towards. So, you look at your bench press and your treadmill work and decide you want to be able to lift 220lbs in 4 months. You also decide that you’d like to do cardio for 30 minutes using the Hill program at level 5.

Now you have some goals. Now it’s nothing more than tracking your progress toward these goals as you fill out your exercise journal.

Digital Versions

Personally, I like to track my workouts using MS One Note. It’s in the cloud, so I can access it on my phone, my laptop, and my desktop. You can use commercial exercise trackers, but I’ve discovered there’s always a glitch or some other issue to deal with. You can also use pen and paper. I chose to go digital with mine because I carry my phone anyways for the music I like to listen to. This is solely up to you.

Next week, we’ll discuss the food journal.

Hope this has been informative.

See you next week!

Dave

Weekly Ramblings – Journal Series – The Gratitude Journal

Tags

Achieving Calm, Benefits, Gratitude Jouraling, habits, reducing stress

The Gratitude Journal

Gratitude journals are a great way to remain content, pick yourself up, and learn to appreciate the important things in life. Some of these things could be a relationship, your pet, some of the things you enjoy doing, a great restaurant, or literally anything that makes you feel good.

There are a whole host of benefits associated with gratitude journaling. Writing about things that you are grateful for will reduce stress, help you focus on the important things, and feel calm at night (Jessen, 2015). Focusing on what we are grateful for, minimizes our focus on what we do not like and cheers us up naturally by focusing on the good in our lives.

Jessen (2015) suggests writing in your gratitude journal at night for about 10-15 minutes, but I have found writing down what I’m grateful for in the morning is also a great way to start the day. I call these my grateful 3. In the morning I write down three things I am grateful for and I do the same thing in the evening. I came up with the number three after I purchased the 5-minute journal from intelligent change (www.intelligentchange.com). The 5-minute journal is where I started my gratitude journaling.

I highly recommend the journal if you really don’t know where to start. They give you an introduction to gratitude journaling in the front of the book and explain the benefits of this type of journaling. Each day you have three entries in the evening, three entries in the morning, a daily affirmation section (more on this in a later journal series article), and what you could do to even have a better day tomorrow.

I stopped using the book form of the 5-minute journal for a while and went to their iPhone version, but found it lacking. I like writing with pen and ink because I feel more connected to the words. Subsequently, I decided to create my own journal. I will discuss building your own journal at the end of my journal series.

Gratitude journaling is a great way to start and end your day because it causes you to find those things that you are grateful for each day. Some weeks you’ll use the same items over and over, but from time-to-time, you’ll be surprised at what you find yourself smiling about. For me a good cup of coffee at the local Starbucks, a good workout at my gym, or a serendipitous meeting with someone that was a joy to meet are all examples of what I find myself expressing gratitude for.

If you are not currently journaling, you may want to try starting a gratitude journal. It is easy to do, not too time intensive, and really does provide the benefits Jessen (2015) explains. It does provide a lot of benefits. I love journaling, now that I’ve been doing it for over a year. I want this journaling series to help others find the benefits of journaling like I have. It truly is a great gift and one that will help you clarify, refine, and enjoy the experiences you may have taken for granted.

I hope you have a great week ahead!

Until next time…

Dave

Reference

Jessen, L. (2015). The benefits of a gratitude journal and how to maintain one. The Blog. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/lauren-jessen/gratitude-journal_b_7745854.html

Weekly Ramblings – Journal Series – Your Dream Journal

Tags

Dream Journal, Dreams, Insights, journaling, Past lives

Journaling Series

For this week’s rambling, I wanted to start a series of articles about journaling. This article will discuss what I call a dream journal. Follow on articles will deal with gratitude journals, diaries, journals for reflection, and so on. I hope this helps you decide what journals will serve you best.

I have tried a great deal of the commercial journals on the market and have found that each has its benefits and disadvantages. I’ll give you a review of each of these journals at the end of the series to save you some time or at least some foresight before you spend your money on them.

Enjoy!

The Dream Journal

Like other journals, the dream journal should be something that you use daily. Obviously, you’ll have some nights where you can’t sleep. These nights you won’t dream. On other nights you’ll have no recollection of your dreams whatsoever. These are both ok.

The purpose of the dream journal is to give our inner experiences reverence. The dream worlds we explore are just as real as our daily reality is, if we give them the respect we give our daily existence. When you have a dream, write it down as soon as you can. They tend to leave us quickly when we awake and become reoriented to our present reality.

I use the recorder on my iPhone sometimes. Other times, I will have such a strong impression when I awake that I can write it down as soon as I’m up and about. You’ll be the best judge of that as you move along with your journaling.

At other times you will awake with an impression. An impression is a feeling, nothing more. This feeling, however, does give us some clue as to what we may have experienced inwardly.

There are all types of dreams. Some are affected by what we did that day. Others are random and confusing. Still, others are with people we seem to know and others involving our family, friends, coworkers, etc. If you believe in past lives and reincarnation, some of your dreams could be a glimpse of the future or even some recall of a past life.

How to Start

Simply get yourself a writing pad or journal (you can buy them on Amazon for about $6). Write down the date and write down what the dream was or the impression you had when you awoke. Initially, you won’t have any clue about what your dream means. That’s ok. You’ll start to get an intuition about them over time. You’ll also discover that your dreams become more detailed. You’ll remember more about these inner experiences the more importance you place on them. By writing them down, this part will be taken care of.

Once you’ve gone a few months, go back and review your dream journal. I tend to look at my dreams at the end of the month. This review will help you identify different objects, colors, sounds, and other specifics to your dream world that are unique to you. If you see specific objects come up over and over, you may want to jot these down in another part of your journal we’ll call your dream dictionary. Simply write down the object, color, sound, or other description. Then write down what you think this “symbol” means.

You can also look up this “dream symbol” online to see if there is any particular relation to what you believe the symbol means. Go with your gut. Over time you’ll refine their meaning or even change it.

Why a Dream Journal?

What benefit is a dream journal? The dream journal will unlock a special part of you. Dreams have been recorded by many people throughout history. Some people give their dreams specific importance, particularly when they are making big life decisions. You can too, if you believe there is some guidance you are receiving.

We spend a good portion of our lives sleeping, why not record some of your adventures? You’ll find that recording your dreams in your journal will help you learn more about yourself. You’ll also find that the attention you pay to your inner worlds, the more focused and attentive you’ll be in the waking state. The reverse is also true.

Let’s say you are having trouble with details in your dreams. You can do a quick exercise everyday to help out in this arena. Pick a room or place and simply record all of the things you see. Pay particular attention to colors, things that appear out of place, or even the smells, sounds, and colors. You’ll find this little exercise will pay off in your dream worlds.

Dreams Provide Answers

Have you ever read an article that proposes the act of asking or contemplating a question you have before going to sleep? It works! Now, whether you believe your subconscious mind is working on these answers while you sleep, or the answers come to you from a higher power is best left to you. I believe we receive answers to our questions or hints how to live a better life from a higher power, but that’s my belief. If it works or if it could work, why not try it out.

Past Lives

Again, another sticky area if you do not believe in reincarnation. I believe reincarnation is real. This article was not designed to convince you one way or another. Some believe that are dreams contain pieces of our past, sometimes our present, and sometimes our future. Look through history at any number of people that journaled or wrote about their dreams and you’ll see the importance these historical icons gave to their sleeping hours.

Again, believe this if you want or don’t. I have come to know that past lives are real, through some of the inner experiences I have had throughout my life. I had one dream during my attendance at the U.S. Army’s Ranger School. The dream was literally a depiction of me graduating from the school. From that day forth I had no doubt I would graduate. I did. This is just one example of dreams and their relevance to our waking lives.

I hope this helps you discover your inner worlds.

Until next time…

Dave

 

Weekly Ramblings – Journaling

Tags

5-minute journal, Best Journal, Daily reflection

This week was a weird week for weather in Michigan. We initially had a lot of snow, but then the temperatures warmed, and it has been raining for two days. Some call it the “Lake effect”, but I think it’s just plain crazy.

So, this was another week of in-home exercise. For those of you who have already fallen “off the wagon” for exercise, since New Year’s, you may want to try this. Take anything you really enjoy. For me it’s playing video games, particularly Call of Duty. In between sessions, I work out. You could do the same. Let’s say you’re into Netflix, Amazon Video, or Hulu. Watch an episode and then do some exercises. Watch another episode and do some more exercises.

Typically, my in-home full body workout looks like this:

Kettlebell curls, triceps kickbacks or triceps extensions, kettlebell front raises, lateral raises and shoulder presses. For chest, I do pushups (wide, close, and elevated), for back I do kettlebell rows. For legs I do standing calf presses, wall sits and bodyweight squats. You could also do lunges, but due to some nerve damage in my left leg, they are a little too difficult for me.

This week I wanted to talk about journaling. I’ve discussed this before in previous articles but wanted to emphasize how terrific the practice is. I use the Best Journal for my planning and goal setting, the 5-minute planner (digital version), a dream journal, and a daily diary that I fill out at night. This may seem a little over the top, but it works for me.

Journaling allows me to “brain dump” and examine my upcoming week. It also forces me to make choices. What are my goals for the next 90 days? The Best Journal has you set up three goals with intermittent steps every 90 days. It really works for me. The 5-minute journal allows me to write down some daily affirmations, express gratitude and has a great little quote and weekly challenge that I find fun. My daily reflections are in a plain white paper journal from Amazon for about 6 bucks. I date each page and write about anything that happened for the day. I developed this habit after going through my late grandmother’s journals. She listed down everything in her journal, from poetry she wrote herself to some of the bad things that happened to her and how she dealt with it.

I also do what is called a 15x exercise where I write down all the things I want to focus on. You could say I want to be: Healthy, wealthy, grateful, loved, and content. This could be your list. I use different ones, but the key is writing down each thing you want to become down 15 times. I have just started this, so I’ll keep you posted on how it works out.

Exercise and journaling are two of my cornerstone habits. They keep my body healthy and my mind clear. I hope each of you is having a terrific 2018. I look forward to hearing from you.

Until next week!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Journal Series

Tags

journal, journaling, New series, types of journals

Hello, Readers!

I’m going to start a new series of postings along my quotes and workout logs, discussing journaling. It’ll take a few days to organize and plan out, but I will get my first posting up in the upcoming week.

Hope this helps some folks who are looking to begin journaling but don’t know where to start, the various types of journals that are out there, or what to track in their lives.

Hope you all enjoy it!