Journaling Inward

Haiku Journaling

A haiku is a traditional Japanese poem consisting of three lines containing 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively. It also contains a kigo, a word indicating the season in which the haiku is set. But don't worry, haiku journaling is much more flexible and fun.

When writing haiku as a journaling practice, the main thing to focus on is short  and true. For this purpose, a haiku can be one to four lines of any syllable length that captures:

• a moment in time (what you see, what's happening)
• a feeling
• a realization
• a personal or universal truth

Use your haiku to boil life down to its essence.

Writing a haiku is an awareness practice. It asks you to be fully present to whatever is in your experience. Because of this, anything can be included in haiku journaling. Nothing is off-limits. All you need do is ask yourself, what is arising for me in this moment? What do I see, hear, feel, think, know?

To practice haiku journaling, simply stop and notice what’s going on both within and around you.

• Where are you?
• What do you see?
• What do you hear?
• What do you smell?
• What does your sense of touch tell you?
• What are you doing?
• What are you thinking?
• What are you feeling?
• What do you know?

In this moment, what stands out? What grabs your attention?

• Is it the gentle mechanical hum of your laptop computer, the woodpecker pounding out morse code on the avacado tree in your backyard, or the ratty old pair of white sneakers thrown willy-nilly onto the pristine landscape of your pale blue living room carpet?

• Is it the joyful rush you feel as your smiling daughter, without a word, unexpectedly leaps into your arms and hugs you tight.

• Is it your gittery stomach, or the sharp jerkiness of your movements as you look at your watch for the three-hundreth time, knowing that he’ll be there any second?

• Is it the horror and heartbreak you feel as you look into the wounded eyes of a man, confused and in shock, telling a CNN reporter how his wife was literally ripped out of his hands by the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina. Her last words, “take care of the children.”

In as few words as possible, using a kind of poetic shorthand, how would you describe the essence of this moment?  What stands out? What grabs your attention?

• Write a freeform two to four line haiku

Carry a small notebook or digital recording device with you, so that you can record your haiku throughout the day. If you stop to find the haiku hiding within a moment, and realize that you haven’t got anything to record your words with, create the haiku anyway, and give it as a thank you gift to that moment.

A haiku that captures a moment:

a breeze                     
lifts the willow skyward                        
only the wind knows why                

A haiku that captures a realization:

why do I fear the unknown
when every joy
that has ever graced my heart
was born there

A haiku that captures a spiritual truth:

Go With The Flow

Awareness is like a kaleidoscope in which thoughts and feelings, memories and imagination, sights and sounds, matter and mystery, all dance together with playful abandon.  There’s no rhyme or reason to the dance, it just is.

To make sense of this dance, I tell myself a story about this moment, I am writing an exercise for my journaling ebook, and this story instructs my awareness what to focus on: writing this exercise, and what to ignore: everything else. But in this moment, this magical  moment, I am aware of so much more than just thinking and typing.

I hear a car start, someone’s probably going to work. I am so blessed to be able to work at home. A cool breeze from the air conditioner is stroking my face. I hear the beep, beep, beep of a truck backing up. I picture an older man driving, he’s wearing a faded blue denim jacket and a grease-smudged yellow cloth cap. I wonder what made me think of him? I hear the steady whir of the air-conditioner, but it’s resting in the midst of the most delicious silence.  Ahh… I can actually feel the stillness. Damn! A car motor. The silence is broken. It made me feel so safe.

This journaling exercise is about being completely present in the moment, rather than trying to control it, or make sense of it. It’s about becoming comfortable with the chaos. There’s nothing wrong with focusing on the task at hand. But if our conscious awareness becomes so task-oriented that we’re habitually filtering out the small, seemingly inconsequential details of our daily lives, then we miss life’s subtle beauty: the fragrance of a flower, a tender welcoming smile, the innocence in a child’s laughter, a moment of deep connection between friends.

• You can write for 10 minutes, write three pages, or just write. Whichever you choose, simply follow the flow of life as it dances through your awareness. A thought, a memory, a physical sensation—write down what you are aware of in this moment. And in this moment. And in this moment. 

Do this as a grounding exercise,  to bring you firmly into the present moment before doing any creative writing or deep journaling.

The 11 Qualities of Deep Journaling

Diving deeply into yourself through the journaling process takes more than simply applying memory to the page, it takes courage and curiosity, honesty and compassion. Your journal can take you on a journey of self-discovery if you’re willing to look beyond “the same old story,” if you’re willing to see from a new perspective.

Facilitating this new way of seeing requires more than just paper and pen (or a file on your computer), it requires qualities of Being that you can call on for help, not only to summon to the surface the meaningful  moments of your life, but to reveal their deeper significance.

1) Intention

When you sit down to write are you hoping that some good might come of it, or is that your intention? The depth of your desire for truth, healing, and freedom will guide your writing session, so be sure that your intention is clear. Before beginning a journaling session, form a specific intention. You might even write down your intention statement. Make it positive and in the present.

Your intention might be to create a healing atmosphere:

In this writing session, I intend to examine my life with courage and compassion. I am willing to see whatever is inside me, both the light and the darkness, in order to free myself of all that is holding me back from happiness.

Or your intention might be to look at a specific event, situation, or relationship

In this writing session, I intend to explore all the habitual thoughts, feelings, and memories that get in the way of my being close with my brother, so that I can form a new relationship with him based on who we both are now. 

2) Communion With the Sacred

Whether you are reaching out to something larger than yourself, or reaching in to what is most essentially you, connecting with the Sacred  before a journaling session can deepen the experience, take you in a direction you might not otherwise have explored, and bring amazing powers of healing to bear. 

There are many ways to connect with the Sacred. Do whatever feels right for you:

• ritual
• prayer
• invocation
• meditation
• movement
• silence

Or you could make your writing space feel sacred, or special, by placing sacred or meaningful objects, symbols, or photographs on your desk, or in the area when you write most often. (I have some crystals, a statue of Kwan Yin, and an Andy Lakey print that says "Art, Angels, and Miracles" where I write.)

3) Willingness

For self-examination to reveal anything worthwhile, there has to be a deep sense of willingness—to be open, to be vulnerable, to see beyond the familiar, to change.

4) Courage

It takes courage to put down the tools of self-protection, step beyond your comfort zone, and truly face yourself. That’s why it helps to have a clear intention that inspires you.

5) Curiosity

Change begins with curiosity, with a desire to see beyond the same old story. The unknown has gotten such a bad rap. It’s nothing to be afraid of. The unknown isn’t dangerous, it’s magical. It’s the place where anything is possible. If you embrace life’s mystery with curiosity and delight, your journaling will not only be an adventure, it will be a doorway to deep change.

6) Creativity

Along with being able to see beyond the same old story, you want to stop doing things the same old way. Invite imagination and inspiration to come with you on this journey. Try something new: Dance before journaling. Ask crazy questions: What would my fear look like sideways? Use your creativity to break the bonds of habit and conditioning that keep our lives locked in place.

7) Awareness

During this time of exploration, stay as awake and aware as you can. During your journaling , and throughout your day, pay close attention to your thoughts and feelings, to what’s happening in your body, to the many subtle layers of meaning and connection that are being revealed, and to the presence of the sacred  in this process and in your life. Many of these journaling questions simply serve as a bridge, as a means of bringing  your subconscious habits of thought, feeling, and being to your conscious awareness. Greater awareness not only gives you insight, but choice.

8) Honesty

You’ve probably heard the words the truth will set you free a thousand times, but have you ever experienced their power? I have. On several occasions, painful life-long habits of grief and fear have completely disappeared in a moment of clear-seeing—of  finally being able to see past all my defenses and conditioning to the truth.

Telling the truth about yourself—to yourself—is the key to self-transformation.

A wonderful teacher once told me that if something I’m working on hasn’t shifted or released, then I haven’t told the truth about it. This didn’t sit well with me, at the time, because I felt I was telling the truth. And I was, to the best of my ability. But sometimes it takes a while to sift through our habits of self-protection, the stories we tell ourselves, and the many layers of emotion that we have around an issue, before we uncover that kernel, that deeper truth, which is the key that unlocks that particular issue.

How deep does your truth-telling go?

9) Compassion

Be especially kind and gentle with yourself as you go through the process of deep journaling. Remember that whatever comes up is here for your healing.