For the past few years, I’ve kept what I would call a minimum viable journal practice. Each day, I devote the first and last minutes of my day to observe my life and check in with different layers of myself.
It goes something like this…
Morning
When I wake up, I resist the urge to do anything and simply notice the first thing that comes to mind. If I can catch some thread from my dreams the night before, I will gently attend to it, and often I begin remembering the general narrative, or lack thereof. If anything noteworthy comes to mind, I might jot down a couple bullet points on that.
…Apparently I frame questions as statements when I first wake up.
Next, I capture some of my intentions and aspirations for the day or for my life as a whole. These can be concrete or quite vague. I usually frame these as if they already happened and now I’m practicing gratitude for them ahead of the actual experience.
Evening
Right before I go to bed, I write down “3 amazing things” that happened that day. These aren’t always “amazing” in the hyperbolic sense, but it’s a practice of finding awe or gratitude in things that I may have otherwise overlooked.
Then I write down one bullet point on how the day could have been better. This used to be the section where I would beat myself up. Now it’s where I coach myself with something reasonable so I can be 1% better tomorrow.
Next I write a few bullet points about small wins from the day that I’m proud of. I look for moments when I didn’t want to do something, but did it anyway. This exercise has helped me realize that the fruits of my labor are far less meaningful than the labor itself. This has also been a powerful way to renew my commitment to being the type of person I want to be.
For the past couple weeks, I’ve been adding one additional step, which is to set an intention for my dreams. I usually think about a feeling I want to feel or a question that I want to submit to my subconscious. So far, it’s had two surprising outcomes. One, I seem to remember my dreams better. And two, my dreams, which are usually exhilarating and cortisol-driven from beginning to end are now punctuated with calmness, friendship, and laughter.
Altogether, it looks like this:
Overall, this practice has helped me reinforce habits and attitudes I want to keep in my life. The prompts also serve to bookend my day with intuition instead of analysis, which I spend enough time with each day.
One of the keys to making this work has been to keep my mind engaged, instead of absent-mindedly going through the motions. I try to actually feel each bullet point at least a little bit and allow it to have an impact on me. This is another reason why I like to keep it short.
If nothing else, these few minutes are the difference between recognizing life each day and life passing me by.
Love the piece about intention setting for dreams!